If you thought the weather was getting hot lately, prepare for the temperature to rise even further this week when Abu Dhabi welcomes award winning Flamenco dancer, Leonor Leal. Winner of the 2011 Sensational Dance Award at the Festival de Jerez, Leonor will be accompanied by her musical ensemble which includes award winning vocalist Rocio Márquez, guitar talent José Manuel Léon and percussionist (wielding that curious flamenco box drum) Raúl Dominguez Soto. The talented troop is here for two nights only, as part of their 2012 World Tour. And those are two nights that you will not want to miss. We spoke to Quentin Curtis, who is bringing the event to the capital.
We all know what flamenco is, but we’d like to hear about it from a man who has spent the past four years trying to get Leonor over to the UAE.
Flamenco comes in many forms and most of us are quite aware of it in a very choreographed presentational style from Benidorm, where you get a very dumbed down version of flamenco… not that I have anything against flamenco from Benidrome, in fact I like it very much. Flamenco is an incredibly passionate dance and music form which was developed in an area of Spain called Andalucía. It’s of gypsy origin, where you’d get everyone dancing to guitar by the camp fire, that sort of thing.
There’s a hypothesis that in its early form it arrived in Spain with the Indian gypsy migrants. Do you think that theory holds any weight?
Actually that could be, but also from the time when the moors were ruling Spain, because they certainly caught a lot of Arabic rhythms in the music. It’s a wonderfully passionate experience combining dance, rhythm, music. It’s quite intense.
Tell us about Leonor.
I first ran into Leonor in 2006/2007 when I was trying to track down what’s called the ‘real flamenco’ in Spain. I eventually found Leonor as one of the leading performers and a well respected teacher of flamenco. In fact, she does a once-a-month master class session in Seville for which, wherever she is in the world, she’ll always fly back to do. So we got into an email dialogue. And then she said, ‘Ok, come and see me. I’m performing in Alicante.’ So I flew out to Spain and saw her perform. She’s quite young – she’s in her early 30s – and she’s been dancing all her life since she was a child. So then I met her after the show and said, ‘Look, it’d be great to get you out in the Middle East.’ And since then it’s taken four years for us to get her into the programme here, simply because her schedule is so booked. I’m very excited that she’s coming.
And what is it about her style that sets her apart from other flamenco dancers?
Leonor does a lot of her own choreography – and her style is such that the traditional, conventional flamenco has got a contemporary twist to it, which is quite charming. The flamenco world has taken her into its heart.
And finally, have you any tips for those uninitiated to flamenco?
Enjoy the evening and open your heart and soul to the rhythms and experience that these performers will create on the stage. Basically, prepare to be moved.
Ele Ele Flamenco is at the Emirates Palace Auditorium on May 18-19, from 8pm. Tickets are Dhs249 and are available from timeouttickets.com. Emirates Palace, Ras Al Akhdar (02 690 9000).
