Flamenco's annual festival offers passion and variety

'Every year I look forward to the festival. It's the highlight of my winter," says Carol Basilio, local dancer and Web keeper for www.phillyflamenco.com. She's referring to the Super Bowl of flamenco - the New York Flamenco Festival, the ninth edition of which begins tomorrow and runs through Feb. 22.

Anna Rubio, director of Philly's Flamenco del Encuentro troupe, agrees: "All the local teachers have been taking time out of class to encourage their students to attend this festival."

For longtime fans and novices alike, the festival is an all-too-rare chance to see and hear some of the best, most swoonworthy dancers, singers and instrumentalists Spain has to offer, known for winning prestigious awards and performing to sold-out houses all over the world. It's also a whole lot cheaper than flying to Spain.

To be clear, we're not talking about anything like the glitzed-out, half-naked paso doble sequences shown on television's Dancing With the Stars. Rather, this is a 10-day celebration of the famously passionate art form identified with the Gypsies of southern Spain. Like the blues, flamenco is the product of a marginalized people. As such, it expresses great pain, tremendous dignity - and a healthy sense of humor.

Think flamenco and you think rapid-fire stamping, tortured facial expressions and acres of polka dots. It is all that, yes, but much more, and this year's festival showcases the full spectrum, from traditional (flamenco puro) to experimental (nuevo flamenco).

Elba Hevia y Vaca, dancer, teacher and artistic director of the Philadelphia group Pasion y Arte, calls it a once-a-year chance for "Philadelphians to see new work from Spain. Usually, we just get to see the commercial flamenco shows, but this is what's really happening in the art form."

Robert Browning - artistic director of the World Music Institute, which cosponsors the event with Miguel Marin's Flamenco Festival Inc. - recalls that the festival began in relatively small theaters but soon proved so popular that it moved to spaces like City Center and Carnegie Hall, where it continues to sell out. In fact, scaled-down versions also sell out in other U.S. cities - this year Washington, Boston, Miami and Los Angeles.

For reasons best known to local arts presenters, the festival has never visited the City That Loves You Back - which is why Philadelphia flamencophiles will be heading north to immerse themselves in as many of the five programs being presented as possible.

Browning points out that "those who know flamenco will tell you it's the cante [singing] that came first, and then guitar, with dance a later addition." This year's festival highlights two of the hottest young flamenco singers working today: Arcángel and Estrella Morente.

Arcángel (like most flamenco artists, he uses a nickname) won his first prize at age 10. By 16, he was performing with major Spanish touring companies. His first album, released in 2001, won regional and national prizes.

He will be paired with an equally impressive young flamenco guitarist-turned-pianist known as Dorantes, who creates compositions that combine flamenco sounds with elements of jazz, plus traditional Celtic, Brazilian and Bulgarian music. (Such "fusion" has become as popular in flamenco as it is in other types of music.)

Estrella Morente, 28, is a true superstar of the genre, daughter of famed singer Enrique Morente and dancer Aurora Carbonell. Long famous in her native Spain, in recent years she has become better known in the United States as a Latin Grammy nominee and the singing voice of Penelope Cruz in the 2006 film Volver.

Despite what Browning says about cante, for U.S. audiences flamenco is synonymous with dance, and the festival offers an opportunity to see three very different groups of dancers.

Traditionally, flamenco dance is abstract - it tells no stories, and its gestures don't symbolize anything specific (as they do, for example, in ballet mime or in the mudras of classical Indian dance). But in recent decades, some of the greatest flamenco choreographers have experimented with narrative projects.

One of the most famous of these is Carmen, based on the content and some of the music of the Bizet opera, as interpreted by Antonio Gades. In 1983 Gades worked with famed Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura to create a film version, whose great success led to a stage production, also starring Gades, with his longtime dance partner, Cristina Hoyos, in the title role. Gades died in 2004 and Hoyos has gone on to establish her own flamenco troupe, but to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their Carmen a restaged version, starring noted dancers Stella Arauzo and Adrian Galia, is touring the world and will be part of the festival.

Festival audiences also can see the award-winning production La Puerta Abierta (The Open Door), with the Isabel Bayón Company and guest vocalist Terremoto - another second-generation star - as they explore a series of distinct moods.

Finally, for those who prefer traditional flamenco shows that highlight performers of various ages and physical types, augmented by astounding (and very modern) technique, U.S. audiences will have their first chance in a long while to see a famous flamenco dynasty: Los Farruco - the Farruco family.

The Farrucos are Gypsies from Seville who have produced four generations of flamenco artists, taking their collective stage name from their legendary patriarch, El Farruco, who died in 1997. Both his daughters and two of his grandsons will dance, in a program conceived and directed by yet another grandson.

If you see only one festival event, make it this one. The family embodies the history, and the savage beauty, of traditional flamenco, and its commitment shows no sign of slowing down. For proof, see the 2006 concert DVD Farruquito y familia, in which El Farruco's youngest grandson, then 8 years old, does a very dignified and accomplished solo dance - and brings down the house.

Ticket prices range from $24 to $80, depending on venue and event. There are also special $200 tickets for the Feb. 19 gala, which includes a reception. For tickets and information, see www.worldmusicinstitute.org or call 212-545-7536.

The festival is offering flamenco dance classes tomorrow and Feb. 19-22, 90 minutes before curtain, free, for ticket holders only. No reservations are required, but space is limited.

Noche de Sevilla:

Arcángel & Dorantes with dancer Rosario Toledo

8 p.m. tomorrow

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Place at Washington Square South.

Isabel Bayón Company with guest vocalist Terremoto

8 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Sunday

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.

Antonio Gades Company in "Carmen"

7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 (gala); 8 p.m. Feb. 20

New York City Center, West 55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues.

Los Farruco

8 p.m. Feb. 21; 3 p.m. Feb. 22

New York City Center.

Estrella Morente

8 p.m. Feb. 21

Carnegie Hall, 57th Street and Seventh Avenue.

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