Flamenco Rosario brings the fierce and intimate flamenco retrospective Fast-Forward Rewind, September 26, 2015 at 8pm to the Waterfront Theatre in celebration of the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival's 25th anniversary. Performing excerpts from four poetic works, the pioneers and founders of the local flamenco movement will take audiences on a spellbinding journey through Flamenco Rosario's creative legacy, while showcasing the evolution of the art form with the presentation of each work.
"In honour of the monumental 25th anniversary celebration of both the Flamenco Festival and Flamenco Rosario, we invite the community to engage in a scintillating historical reflection examining how the Spanish roots of flamenco have evolved throughout the decades into a unique contemporary art form now thriving locally," says Rosario Ancer, Artistic Director & Founder, Vancouver International Flamenco Festival and Flamenco Rosario. "In Fast-Forward Rewind, I have synthesized four works into one narrative as a testament to the road we have traveled with our audiences, students and collaborative partners in Vancouver, across Canada, and internationally over the past quarter century."
Hailed as the local matriarch of flamenco, Rosario Ancer enjoyed a successful career in Spain before moving to Canada in 1989 with her husband Victor Kolstee, a gifted and agile guitarist from Vancouver. Together, Ancer and Kolstee co-founded the Centro Flamenco, the Rosario Ancer Flamenco Arts Society (Flamenco Rosario), and the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival. Ancer, a revered flamenco instructor, choreographer and fervent dancer known to "set the stage on fire" (The Georgia Straight) has been recognized for her exceptional contribution to Vancouver's artistic community, most notably with the Scotiabank Dance Centre's Isadora Award in 2009 and the Mayor's Arts Award in 2012.
With accompaniment by Kolstee who studied with such esteemed artists as Diego and Paco del Gastor, Justo de Badajoz and Victor Monje 'Serranito', Ancer will be joined by the sultry Spanish vocalist Angelita 'La del Lito', as well as seven spirited and diverse dancers in the invigorating choreographic adventure, Fast-Forward Rewind.
The program will open with the fresh-as-ever 1997 company breakthrough Raices (Flamenco Roots), where the virtuosic dancer found her footing and began exploring the complex hybrid origins of the art form with a special focus on Sephardic and East Indian traditions. The work will then flow into the award-winning Mis Hermanas: Thicker Than Water My Sisters & I (2008), transporting audiences through time to Ancer's childhood. Swooping their elegant skirts, and intricately tapping their heals in time, the dancers will portray Ancer's sisters and evoke the pivotal moment when her passion for flamenco was sparked. The sensuous performers will then launch into a contemporary narrative from 2013's La Monarca (The Monarch and the Butterfly Effect), a multilayered metaphor for life, art, flamenco and commentary on the delicate balance between chaos and order. Excerpts from La Monarca depict the elegant flamenco master's break from tradition, spreading her artistic 'wings' and incorporating innovative new dance forms and multimedia into her storytelling. The program will close with the personal 2015 work Quadrilogue Affective (You and I) offering a glimpse into Ancer and Kolstee's powerful artistic and deeply personal partnership.
In essence, Fast-Forward Rewind is Flamenco Rosario's question and answer to flamenco - "a beat to the heart, a beat for the earth, the many beats of flamenco," which will undoubtedly be celebrated throughout the festival's magnificent 25th anniversary.
