Flamenco dance

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 8

Flamenco dance

Flamenco Guitar and Dance: Phil Bates, Darcy Lange and Miriama Lange at the Great Hall, The Arts Centre, September 7, at 1.10 p.m. Reviewed by Sherril Cooper. Originating with the Islamic Moors who drifted to Spain from 1100 onwards, the combined dance, music and song which comprises Flamenco has transformed the folk culture of exiles and rebels into an elaborate art form. Its essential romanticism is typified by the intense manner of performance in which the joys and sorrows of life are expressed through fiercely heroic body shapes, a complexity of rhythms and rippling, semi-tonic cadences of melody. Miriama Lange as vocalist and dancer along with Darcy Lange and Phil Bates as guitarists have all studied Flamenco over an extended period in its native Southern Spain and in this performance created an enveloping texture of sound whose harmony and variety held a wellfilled auditorium captivated. Through a generous hour of mainly traditional pieces accompanied by dance, hand-dhpping and foot-beat these three performers established a gently seductive mood which proved perfect for their music.

Miriama Darcy achieves the bright vibrant singing which gives the total performance its edge, her head. and chest tones strengthening in Tientos and softening to a smokey warmth in Tango. In Raga a nervous fidgeting with her hands distracted from a marvellous rolling acceleration of campas by the guitarists, but in the yearning Danza Mora those hands snaked and snapped in apt accompaniment to some exquisite and stunning guitar playing from Phil Bates and Darcy Lange. Miriama's dances had a considered air somewhat at odds with the tradition of spontaneity and improvisation that is associated with this form. Her slight selfconsciousness would no doubt be overcome within a laTger ensemble which is

the natural ambience for Flamenco. She missed the constrained energy which fires the heel beats and arches the spine and arms.

At her best with the brooding melodies of the songs, she demonstrated throughout the fascinating range of the palmos, from the lightest smack of flattened fingers on palm to the woodblock strike of palm on hollowed palm. In Sevillanas she displayed in her spirited dance an admirable and much applauded dexterity with castanets and delivered a fiery Fandango near the conclusion of the programme. Darcy Lange and Phil Bates, most often playing in tandem, demonstrated with wonderful facility the sculptural intricacies of the Flamenco cante. In the hands of these accomplished musicians the solos and combined pieces revealed a delicacy and limpid refinement which in combination with the drumming heel beats of the dancer are an intoxicating mix.

In the Seguira and in the solo which opened the second half, Darcy’s fingering was at once fluid and stiletto sharp with a masterful control of pace and rhythmic changes, producing at times a sweet, singing tone referred to by the poet Lorca as “the wail of the guitar.” Phil Bates, well known in Christchurch for some fine past performances, teamed so intuitively with Darcy that often they seemed to play as one, improvisation blending seamlessly with the set structures of the campas and cycles. • Perhaps the most endearing item was their own composition Andalucia inspired by a film about the home province of Flamenco. More tantalising because of its brevity, it took the form of a love song, steeped in the longing for a place loved and left behind and punctuated by Miriama's soft “Oles,” the last syllable given a mellow dying fall, echoing faintly of the late afternoon warmth of a gyfrjjy encampment.;