Desencuentros and Rio del Tiempo created and performed by Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company as part of the Fall for Dance North Festival at the Sony Centre (1 Front East), September 30 and October 1, 7:30 pm. $10. ffdnorth.com.
Esmeralda Enrique has a busy fall.
The doyenne of Spanish dance and flamenco in Toronto will launch her hectic fall season with two shows featuring Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company performers and several guest artists at the inaugural Fall For Dance North Festival (FFDN).
The fledgling festival, modelled after its wildly successful New York City counterpart, is presenting mix ’n’ match programs, with Canadian and international companies dancing everything from classical ballet to indigenous hoop dance at the cavernous 3,000-seat Sony Centre.
Every seat to every show costs $10. Will the price point lead to sell-out houses?
Enrique, taking a break from teaching at her 34-year-old epony-mous flamenco school downtown, believes so. And she is wisely poised to take full advantage.
“My hope is that a whole new audience will get a taste of what we do,” she says. “Then, when our regular season comes up later in the spring, those people will want to come and see a full evening of the company’s work.”
It’s a reasonable hope, but Enrique is also encouraging her passionately loyal hometown audience to come along and witness the remount of two favourite pieces at the Sony.
On a program that includes Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, DanceBrazil and modern dancer Peggy Baker accompanied by Sarah Neufeld of Arcade Fire, Enrique and company will present stripped-down versions of Rio Del Tiempo, performed in a more traditional romance style, and Desencuentros, a contemporary take on the hustle and bustle of urban life and the way it disconnects us.
Both will feature musicians and singers onstage – including acclaimed Spanish vocalist Manuel Soto and guitarist Caroline Planté – and the entire company of dancers. Also performing is Enrique herself, still dancing with “duende” (spirit) after almost 50 years in the business.
Her ubiquity on the cultural landscape is testament to her lifelong commitment to the form, but also to the surging popularity of Spanish dance and flamenco culture in Toronto.
EESDC will follow up FFDN by hosting master classes with Spanish stars Patricia Ibáñez and Abel Harana in conjunction with the mini-festival Focus On Flamenco, running October 2 to 4 at the Aga Khan Museum, and will make an appearance at the Art of Time Ensemble’s evening-length exploration of Romani culture, Tzigane, on October 16 and 17.
Enrique believes the reason people fall for flamenco, with its complex yet relatable movement vocabulary and inclusive spirit, is quite basic.
“I think it really helps us to reconnect with our humanity,” she says. “Yes, we’re all human in the day-to-day, but we sometimes brush away our really deep-down feelings because we just don’t have time. When we reconnect with them, we discover our similarities, how we are all one. That is what the discovery of flamenco really helps people to find.”
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