Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre proudly presents a new flamenco performance spectacular, Café de Chinitas, on May 3-4 at the Norman Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver. Mozaico Flamenco forms a six-dancer troupe with two of Madrid’s cutting edge flamenco dancers from the most contemporary companies today, Ricardo Lopez and Emilio Ochando.
Inspired by the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, Café de Chinitas spins the tale of a jealous rivalry between two matador brothers. “Paquiro”, played by Lopez (Compañia Rafaela Carrasco) is the arrogant instigator while “Frasquelo”, played by Ochando (Nuevo Ballet Español) is his younger sensitive brother. From the introduction to the finale, Café de Chinitas explores the power and variety of human emotions surrounding love: jealousy, sorrow, confusion, pain, anger and joy.
Vancouver’s Kasandra “La China” plays the leading role of “Maria”, a woman tormented by making a choice between the two men. winner and the composer for ten international flamenco productions, Rodriguez is recognized as one of Spain’s most expressive and innovative artists. Flamenco aficionados will recognize him as the musical director of Nuevo Ballet Español.
In Café de Chinitas, east meets west as flamenco music is interlaced with the haunting Asian melodies of Vancouver’s celebrated Orchid Ensemble. World music lovers will be inspired by an impressive array of instrumentation including two flamenco guitarists, traditional flamenco singers, cello, erhu (‘ar-hoo’, a Chinese violin), zheng (‘jung’, a Chinese zither), marimba and percussion. This surprising mix creates a distinct musical flavour expressive of Canada’s West Coast.
ARTIST WEBSITES: WWW.MOZAICOFLAMENCO.COM