MANTAS DE LUZ "Blankets of Light"

Arte y Pasión’s MANTAS DE LUZ “Blankets of Light”

THE EQUINOX GALLERY

Doors open 2:00 pm

Performance begins at 3:00 pm;

duration of Performance: Approximately 1.5 hours

Reception before and after performance with opportunity to meet the artists.

MANTAS DE LUZ is a project dedicated to those who have to endure life in detention centers, something that is currently happening in our backyard, much like the concentration camps of 1942 Germany. The project refers symbolically to the silver aluminum foil blankets: what purports as a symbol of protection becomes instead a symbol of exposure.

Flamenco is the national treasure of Spain and has become a cherished expression here in the American Southwest. While it is difficult to trace the roots of flamenco past 300 years, inscribed only recently by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the origins of flamenco are said to have started at the time of the reconquest of Spain, after seven centuries of peace between Christians, Jews, and Moors, when the Gypsies migrated through Spain. At the time of the Inquisition, the Gypsies, Moors and Jews found themselves in a place of terrible persecution. Those who weren’t killed fled to the hills of Andalucia where they could not be found. It was in these caves that the first strains of flamenco could be heard. They would sing of their joys, pain, sorrows and hope. Flamencologists trace the word flamenco back to the colloquial Arabic felag mangu, meaning “fugitive peasant” and derived from a root meaning “to flee.” The art of flamenco has found its way to the American Southwest over the past century.

Arte y Pasión, led by dancer and artistic director, Tamara Adira, is a company known for pushing the boundaries of flamenco and Spanish dance. Each performance is a visually stunning theatrical event comprised of independent artists, each highly accomplished, who come together to form one of the most contemporary Spanish dance companies in the country.

Arte y Pasión’s mission is to share and promote the authentic art of flamenco, while exploring evolution and specific subject matter. While the company is comprised of flamenco dance, guitar and flamenco singing, Arte y Pasión is known for having woven into its artistic vocabulary disciplines such as modern dance, violin, cello, opera, spoken word, fine and performance art to generate juxtapositions and contrasts that elevate the purity of flamenco to an electrifying theatrical event.

Special thanks to Alejandro Sifuentes and the family at the Equinox Gallery for hosting this event and for all you do to build up and support our artistic community.

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