(noticia) Flamenco's improvisations focus on feelings vs. telling a story

Flaunting emotion


INTERMISSION

By KARLA CRUISE
Tribune Correspondent

José Porcel is the artistic director and featured performer in the Ballet Flamenco dance company.

Photos provided/CLAUDIO ALVAREZ

Anything could happen when the Ballet Flamenco José Porcel takes center stage at the DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts' Leighton Concert Hall on Friday: skirt-swishing playfulness, downcast introspection, spider-stamping ferocity.

Flamenco acquired its emotional breadth during its 500-year history. The gypsies who wandered into southern Spain (Andalusia) in the 15th century turned their pains and joys into a dance that combined Eastern expressive hands, mobile hips and rapid-fire footwork (zapateado). In this dance now called flamenco, men proudly lift their chests like roosters spoiling for a fight, and ladies arch their backs and trace graceful patterns with their arms.

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