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FRIDAY • NOVEMBER 28, 2014
TELLING THE TRUTH FOR OVER 10 YEARS!
VOLUME 10 • NUMBER 24
A Flamenco is Not a Bird
By Bonnie Corwin
Local resident Linda Andrade, known as “La Matadora” among her peers and students, brings the fiery art of the Flamenco dance to the North East Valley. Last Sunday afternoon, Laura Tohome and I were fortunate to attend a flamenco dance presentation at the Hideaway Bar and Grill in Sylmar, a hidden treasure in our local area. When you drive into the parking lot, it really is not a place one would believe hosting a flamenco event. Gypsy families in the south of Spain keep this form of dance alive and we shared the exhilaration at a quaint country-western establishment. We were right on time, learning a bit about the history of this dance from the hostess
Linda Andrade, the Artistic Director of Sakai Flamenco, a performing ensemble composed of some of the finest traditional dancers and musicians in the U.S. She took a moment to explain about some of the movements. We learned that when one raises their arm in a particular move, the dancer is actually showing the audience how a matador might move his body when a bull charges and he works his cape, making sure the bull’s horn does not pierce his ribs. As the music begins, the dancers start the rhythm with their feet, breaking out into improvisation – yet staying within the traditional dance form itself. The emotional expressions on their faces show passion, anger and love. Trying to express in this article how the stomping feet and the
fiery, yet graceful hand movements and facial expressions does not really do justice to the artist and only brushes the surface of firey flamenco dance. In watching the performers, one can imagine sitting around a campfire with millions of brilliant stars above on a cool crisp evening while a friend plays guitar and sings, and dancers get up and express the lyrics through their fluid body motions. Although we personally did not see men and women dancing at this particular event, the two together might heat up a dance floor, causing one to almost swoon. Andrade lives in Tujunga and her little dance studio is quietly tucked away in a small canyon, right off of Foothill Blvd., near the center of
La Matadora sets the beat! Tujunga. If you had not been work. It is La Matadora giving told of it, you might never one of her dance classes in know it exists. But, If you take “The Gatehouse Studio” which walks in the early evenings was built with river rock in or on Saturday mornings, you the early 1920’s. Hidden with might hear the strumming of our bustling community, it a Spanish guitar, passionate is a rustic, hillside retreat gypsy singing, or the driving where one can learn the art of see Flamenco, page 10 rhythms of Flamenco heel
INSIDE:
A Christmas Carol at ANW ................
4
Billy Oskins Update ................
7
Flea Market! ............
12
DEPARTMENTS What Folks Are Doing........... 2 View from the Rock.............. 3 Letters and Perspectives........ 3 Chef Randy........................... 5 S-T Crime Stats..................... 6 Pet Page.............................. 8 Take My Card..................... 11
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