Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary! – Furia Flamenca at Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival by Ashayla Byrd

Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!

by Ashayla Byrd

Furia Flamenca – Flamenco, Passion and Soul

Atlas Performing Arts Center

Tuesday, February 22, 2025, 8 p.m.

Audio version below

I am only mildly embarrassed to share that my first and most significant frame of reference for flamenco dancing came from Esméralda’s character in Disney’s animated film adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This was based on a book originally published in 1831 by Victor Hugo. At a young age, and for reasons unbeknownst to me, I understood Quasimodo, the titular character, and his enchantment with Esméralda. A French Roma dancer, Esméralda’s dazzling smile, hypnotic movement, tambourine, and ferocious pursuit of justice enamored me. She literally shouts, “Justice!” in the face of Claude Frollo, Hunchback’s vengeful, misguided antagonist. Frollo openly abuses his power as a clergyman to enact devastation on Esméralda’s community. Flash forward about ten years: I realized I was queer, but that’s neither here nor there. Esméralda remains my queen. Frollo can choke. 

My frames of reference for flamenco dancing–an art form so rich in expression, musicality, and history–were few. When given the opportunity to review Furia Flamenca’s work, Flamenco: Passion and Soul, I jumped at the chance! When I entered Atlas Performing Arts Center’s Sprenger Theater, I sat in front of a pair of chatty women–my favorite kind–who were eager for the show to begin. Although they only spoke in Spanish, I could sense their enthusiasm from the way their voices chirped in conversation. Their curious fingers pointed towards the stage. We noticed the semicircle of chairs and tables lining the perimeter of the stage, some draped in multi-colored, patterned scarves and table cloths. When the show began, an eclectic ensemble of femmes entered the performance space, taking their seats around the stage. Clad in form-fitting, ruffled, ornate dresses, tops, and skirts of varying patterns–polka dots, lace, florals, stripes–every color of the rainbow was represented, and no two dresses looked even remotely alike. 

As the femmes settled in and conversed with one another, an overhead voice welcomed them and introduced the musicians and vocalists for the performance. I later discovered that this voice belonged to none other than Furia Flamenca Artistic Director Estela Vélez de Paredez, and she took the stage alongside the musicians and a smaller group of principal dancers for the production. A Spanish courtyard was projected behind them. A show within a show, I leaned forward in anticipation for where an evening of passion and soul might take me. I noted the order of the show, hoping for clues, and found next to none. My done-and-dusted Duolingo bird and the two weeks I spent in Argentina years ago had to be seething:

“FARRUCA 

MUSIC SOLO

TANGOS DE MALAGA

MUSIC SOLO

TANGOS

TANGUILLOS

GUAJIRAS

MUSIC SOLO

ALEGRÍAS

*Subject to Change”

“༏ Esaaaaa!” The women behind me were giddy with excitement, and so was I!

The sweet lilt of the flamenco guitar filled the air, chronicling a journey with each strum of its resonant strings. Maestro Torcuato Zamora plucked each note with care, his head swaying gently. A pair of the principal femme dancers, donning black Cordoban hats, execute unhurried, deliberate motions from their chairs at the corner of the stage. Vélez de Paredez spurred the duo on from her seat, and the two dancers oozed a confidence and intensity that was arresting. They were regal, punctuating their phrase work with declarative claps, punching stomps from their heels, shapely arms that carved the space, and majestic carriage of their heads and upper bodies. 

Quickly shifting gears, the guitar picked up speed, and Vélez de Paredez made her way to the stage for a solo. Her royal blue dress with scarlet and canary trim was accessorized with an also-crimson, multi-tassel scarf that shook and shifted with her every move–and she moved a great deal. A dynamic performer, I appreciated her use of opposites as a means to heighten the dramatic quality of her embodied storytelling. Once downturned eyes, intent on being covered, would suddenly blaze up at the audience, accentuated by an assertive stomp and an arm tossed in the air with an upturned palm. She effortlessly shifted her focus and facings from one end of the room to the other, drawing every inch of the room into her grasp and demanding the audience’s attention. 

“༏ Esaaaaa!” The women behind me were giddy with excitement, and so was I! “༏ Guapa, guapaaaa!” Several of the audience members, enlivened by the energy of the music and dancing, called out to the dancers and musicians as both the duet and Vélez de Paredez performed. They truly erupted as Daniel Paredez, Furia Flamenca’s Assistant Director and the only masc dancer, staked his claim onstage. And he came out with the drama! *insert laugh track* 

Daniel Paredez’s movement reminded me of peacocking, when male peacocks proudly display their feathers to attract the attention of their female suitors. Paredez’s costume was the only other outfit in the ensemble that perfectly matched Vélez de Paredez’s; he wore a white shirt with scarlet polka dots, electric blue pants, a canary scarf, and fire truck red boots. The peacocking must have worked backstage; clearly, they go together. (Note: I learned in the post-show talkback that they are married and have been as such nearly two decades.) 

Oscillating between more enticing, sultry movement and bouts of highly energetic material, Paredez showcased both his versatility and endurance as he danced. Perhaps heightened by his fire truck red boots,  I could see the precision of the placement of his feet throughout his solo, duet, and ensemble dancing. Always slightly turned out, he, too, displayed a sense of elegance and sophistication as he danced. He quite literally dripped with virility and strength, but was never afraid to show off the fluidity of his hips with a slightly furrowed brow and daring smirk. 

“Muy cariño,” my backseat besties swooned. Careful ladies, he’s taken! 

Everyone became a part of the experience; everyone had the opportunity to commune with the rhythm, the music, the dancing, the joy.

The central vocalist, Alma Rodriguez Cespedes, in partnership with flamenco guitarists Paul Villmoare and Juan L. Romero (also a vocalist), delivered a passionate musical landscape for the dancers to inhabit. At a certain point, I thought, “I wish I knew what she was singing about, but that’s a-okay. She’s taking me on a journey!” I cannot even imagine the amount of dexterity required to play the guitar at the speed with which they did, but such is the magic of musical mastery! 

The biggest semi-surprise for me came when the “audience”, a.k.a. Furia Flamenca’s corps dancers joined the principal dancers “onstage” and gave their own performance. Remember–it’s a show within a show, hence the quotes. Given the glorious energy and excellence that the corps displayed, part of me wished that I had gotten to see them much sooner and more often. There are not many combinations that one could create from a group of four principal dancers beyond solos, duets, and trios. My eyes sometimes wandered to the corps when a solo came after a duet that came after a trio that came after a solo preceded by another duet…

The corps’ sections were so joyous; it was infectious. They incorporated large fans and scarves into their performances. Because of the sheer volume of the cast, it became a bit busy for the eye. If I were to rework the use of the corps, I would simplify the full cast’s color scheme and patterns, redistribute the corps performances more evenly throughout the arc of the evening’s dancing, and give the audience more time to appreciate the rich, stunning movement offered by the principal dancers. It would certainly build the anticipation for when the principal dancers come in with so much heat. 

My favorite moment came when the corps and principal dancers compressed the semi-circle of seats at the perimeter of the stage, shifting their chairs closer to the ticketed audience members. They broke the fourth wall on their stage, so they decided to do the same with ours. Everyone became a part of the experience; everyone had the opportunity to commune with the rhythm, the music, the dancing, the joy. While flaunting their complex foot and body percussion, their eyes invited us to join them in their merriment. “༏ Ole! *clap clap*” I knew that one!

Considering the turbulence of the present day, for me and multitudes of people worldwide, I, too, find solace, stability, and relief within my community. 

After the show ended and the audience erupted with applause, I was eager to learn more about flamenco dancing and its history. I appreciate the fact that after every Atlas Intersections performance I’ve attended, the presenting company returns to the stage to share how their work intersects with the real world, an idea that is central to the ethos of the Atlas Intersections Festival. 

“The history of flamenco dancing takes us back to trying times [for] three groups of people: Gypsies, Moors, and Jews,” Furia Flamenca Artistic Director Estela Vélez de Paredez explains. “It was born from the need to express everyday feelings and emotions as they were hiding and trying to escape persecution at that point.” 

Mmm, so I was right about Esmeralda. 

“Flamenco brings back to life everyday events, everyday feelings, from the deepest of sorrows to the happiest of moments. Romantic, too, like what you saw. I call it a different version of a blog,” Vélez de Paredez continued. When asked about her simultaneously marital and professional relationship with Daniel Paredez filtering into her work with Furia Flamenca, she said, “It’s hard to say that we throw anything away or anything behind us when we come to the stage, because the reality is that for you to do flamenco well, you have to live life. And, I always say, ‘Footwork and all of that is an exercise…It is the emotion that you are able to inject in the dance that actually brings it together.” 

I recall being so touched by the diversity of the cast; so many ethnicities coalesced to create the full ensemble. Vélez de Paredez is of Puerto Rican and Spanish descent; Daniel Paredez’s family hails from Mexico by way of Texas. “Alma is also from Spain, Paul es Americano, American, from Maryland, actually. Don Luis is also from Puerto Rico…From the dancers, we have Puerto Ricans, Bolivians, Venezualans, Americans…you name it. [One dancer] is half-Puerto Rican and half-Middle Eastern.” Vélez de Paredez likened flamenco dance to a kitchen sink because it draws a wealth of cultures and ethnicities together from around the world to tell their stories through dance. Flamenco unites them, no matter the hardship, heartbreak, or moment of adversity. Considering the turbulence of the present day, for me and multitudes of people worldwide, I, too, find solace, stability, and relief within my community. 

At the height of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, protagonist Quasimodo climbs to the highest point of the cathedral that doubled as his prison. A rebellion had broken out in the streets of Paris; Frollo ordered soldiers to attack the Romani people, destroying their places of work, their homes and their lives. With blazing fires and revolting people below him, he raises his fist in the air, shouting, “Sanctuary! Sanctuary! Sanctuary!” The crowds below him cheer vigorously, and their rebellion continues. The connection might be far-fetched to some, but I’d wager that flamenco dance served as their sanctuary all of those centuries ago. Esmeralda might not have seemed nearly as cool to me without it. Clearly, Disney knew it, and Victor Hugo knew it, too. 

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