>>PREVIEW
FLAMENCO FORMS
Saturday, February 4
La Cité des Rocheuses Theatre
"It’s a pure flamenco show," says Rosanna Terracciano, dancer and co-producer of Flamenco Forms. The show features both the traditional dance and the traditional music of flamenco, with dancers Rosanna and Graziella Terracciano, and Francesca Canalizo, as well as guitarist David Matyas and percussionist Robin Tufts.
Rosanna Terracciano has given me a quote from Spanish poet Federico García Lorca on the duende that is associated with the art of flamenco: "The duende is a momentary burst of inspiration, the blush of all that is truly alive, all that the performer is creating at a certain moment… it requires the trembling of the moment and then a long silence."
The duende is about energy and being alive, and Terracciano agrees that it is at the heart of flamenco.
Terracciano first started exploring flamenco while she was at the University of Calgary studying for an engineering degree. "I started taking contemporary and flamenco dance six or seven years ago. Flamenco I had been wanting to do for years," she says. "I grew up in a house where there was a presence of flamenco – I have Italian parents with a fascination for Spanish culture and flamenco."
Hers was a creative household, she adds, and she attributes her love of art to her travels in Italy when she was younger. "That’s always affected me. I was always surrounded by beautiful images. I have the European blood in me."
Nonetheless, when she went into university straight out of high school, she was forced to sacrifice art to science. "Being in engineering, I wasn’t allowed to have a minor in dance. It wasn’t an option for me."
Terracciano now balances her dancing with working part-time as an engineer, and she says the link between the two isn’t farfetched.
"My opinion of engineers I respect is that I think of them as artists. They’re very creative people," she says.
Learning flamenco drew her to study the dance in its land of origin. Terracciano keeps returning to Spain, where she continuously refines her craft.
"Before I went to Spain, I didn’t know what was going on with flamenco," she says. "Now I have a better understanding of what’s behind it."
Terracciano is also a contemporary dancer. Rather than mix the two dance forms together, she explores them as unique dances unto themselves. "I am very inspired by contemporary," she says. "I think the struggle for me is that I’m completely enthralled by flamenco, but… my roots aren’t the same as the roots of flamenco.
"I don’t like to use the word fusion," she adds. "That’s not what I do – I put (contemporary and flamenco) side by side on the stage together."
Growing up in Calgary, Terracciano admits her flamenco practice doesn’t stem directly from where she lives or from her ancestral background.
"I think it’s important to be careful," she says. "I don’t by any means want to step on the feet of someone who does traditional flamenco, because I have a great respect for it. I recognize it’s a traditional form from Spain, but as an artist you have to evolve…. It has become a vehicle of expression for me beyond the tradition of flamenco, but something that I can relate to." |
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