Flamenco with a K-pop flavour

LOS VIVANCOS’S “Aeternum: Extreme Flamenco Fusion” advertised as a fusion of “flamenco, ballet, contemporary dance, folklore, martial arts, acrobatics, magic, circus, tap dance, elaborate staging, wardrobe design, large scenic structures and a killer soundtrack” at Bangkok’s 16th International Festival of Dance and Music last Sunday was much like some of disastrous fusion dishes that appear on restaurant menus.
A food analogy would be somewhere along the lines of a paella mixed with American ketchup, French mustard, Parma ham, seafood tom yum paste and pak choi, frozen and then nicely wrapped in an eye-catching plastic box labelled “Fusion Paella” and available for export and at local convenience stores. Each ingredient was of good quality and thus delectable on its own, but when cooked would either delight or, more likely, have the consumer running to the bathroom.
For me, watching “Aeternum: Extreme Flamenco Fusion” was rather like sitting glued to a K-pop music video and realising that I’m way too old to be a K-pop fan. It’s a work that prioritises looks over skills and the visual over the spiritual.
Of course, the seven Vivancos brothers were at the top of their form, the entertainment value was high and 90 minutes passed by without me glancing at my watch. In the first hour, though, when the killer soundtrack really killed their footsteps and the beautiful sounds of their castanets and palmas, the two ladies sitting next to me looked bored and half asleep. They became more attentive when three of the siblings performed individual solos on their music instruments and the killer soundtrack stopped killing. Five seats away, in the build-up to the finale, another woman raised her opera glass for a closer look at the seven brothers’ bare chests.
They should also have removed the terms “elaborate staging” and “large scenic structures” from the blurb – their ready-for-tour set design couldn’t fill the vast frame of the Thailand Cultural Centre. The hardest working artists in this production were the lighting designer and the lighting technicians each of whom deserved a six pack of Red Bull at the very least.
In the end, Los Vivancos’s “Aeternum” failed by trying to do too much in a limited performance time. If you watch one dance performance a year, then this might be near the top of your report card because you get to see a little bit of something in one show, including Chinese martial arts.
I watch more than 50, and so “Aeternum” is at the bottom and doesn’t belong in the same festival as Ballet Preljocaj seen only four days before.
The seven dancers were all highly skilful and charismatic but the director and choreographer misused them and even asked them to act and to look cool, and that’s an absolute “no” in any cool theory.
And if the festival wants to show a blend of traditional Flamenco with contemporary dance, then “Dunas”, a duet between Maria Pages and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, is a much more substantial work.
After the show, many female audience members queued up to buy their DVDs and posters so the seven hunks could sign them. I happened to be wearing the same jeans and shoes as the brothers and was about to take off my shirt in the foyer, but my theatregoing companion objected.
I now have to erase the evening from memory and instead get ready to upload Mario Frangoulis and George Perris, Danish Dance Theatre, Zubin Mehta and Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and Stuttgart Ballet in the next few weeks at the festival.

Bangkok’s 16th International Festival of Dance is supported by Bangkok Bank, Crown Property Bureau, BMW, B Grimm, Bangkok Hospital, Dusit Thani Bangkok, Indorama Ventures, Nation Multimedia, Beiersdorf, PTT, Singha Corporation, Thai Airways, Tourism Authority of Thailand and Ministry of Culture. “Aeternum” was also supported by the Embassy of Spain.
 TWO MORE
CONCERTS
- Bangkok’s 16th International Festival of Music and Dance continues on Saturday with tenors Mario Frangoulis and George Perris.
- On Monday, the Zurcher Kammer Orchestra performs under the baton of Sir Roger Norrington.
- Shows are at 7.30pm at the Thailand Cultural Centre.
- Tickets are from Bt800 to Bt3,000 at ThaiTicketMajor.
- For details, visit www.BangkokFestivals.com.