Of ice and flames

Imperial ice stars, the UK-based company of award-winning Russian ice skaters, has four productions in their repertoire, and thanks to Bangkok’s International Festival of Dance and Music, which books the troupe anytime they pass through the region, last Sunday afternoon’s performance of “Sleeping Beauty on Ice” means that local audiences have now seen them all.

Knowing the story by heart and familiar with Tchaikovsky’s music, the audience of this last in four Bangkok shows came for the thrills of ice skating moves as well as theatrical tricks like flying on blades and pyrotechnics. They were not disappointed. With keen direction, the performers also managed to retell the story, and Yahor Maistrou’s arresting characterisation of the villain Carrabosse and Volodymyr Khodakivskyy’s comedic portrayal of the King were particularly memorable.

Not only the best programme in this year’s festival by far, but also the best flamenco performance ever staged in Thailand, “Images – 20 Years” by Ballet Flamenca de Andalucia figuratively set the stage on fire on Monday. 

The five works, presented in the chronological order of their premieres, were not simply the keenly selected five in the history of this 21-year-old company but new interpretations of them by artistic director Rafaela Carrasco, who started her long and successful career with the company two decades ago as a student dancer and only returned to head it in 2013,

The first, “Del Maestro” (“The Teacher”), delivered a strong punch as an homage to her teacher Mario Maya who created this work 21 years ago, with Carrasco herself leading her strong ensemble of dancers. The mood significantly shifted and the image, with the video of a cloud passing in front of a full moon on a half screen and dancers flicking the floor lanterns on and off, wasn’t quite as familiar in the second piece “En la oscuridad de la luz” (“In the darkness of light”), inspired by Maria Pages’ “El Perro Andaluz”, but the emotional impact was every bit as powerful. 

Next, Jose Antonio’s “La leyenda” (“The Legend”) was dedicated to another flamenco icon Carmen Amaya, the photo of whose feet was shown and later replaced by the video projection of red lines on the white bata de cola (long-trained dress) which added to the ferocious movements. 

My favourite piece “Mirando al sur” (“Looking South”) by Cristina Hoyos was next and here the performers carried suitcases and the video images, now on split screens, made the piece look like a travelogue, a reminder that flamenco is part of Spanish life and can be seen and enjoyed anywhere. The final piece “Las cautro esquinas” (“The Four Corners”) looked at first downright traditional as all dancers, singers and musicians regrouped but the clever manipulation of the manton (“shawl”) by two skilled members of the troupe one after the other so that it looked as though it was bring worn by another dancer made this a fitting finale. 

More meticulously staged than any flamenco performances we’ve seen here, “Images – 20 Years” also demonstrated that a good stage performance takes more than skill and practice. It also needs a good director who knows how to put dancers, singers and musicians on stage and how to work with set, costume, lighting, sound and video designers as well. And that collaboration, or lack thereof, is what usually sets our own stage performances back.

Now that we’ve seen how flamenco is being performed by different companies throughout almost two decades of the festival – as well as that traditional performing arts do not need to be frozen in time the way our National Theatre believes – perhaps the festival can raise the stakes a little higher by showing us how Spain’s national treasure is interacting with other genres of performing arts. That, after all, is what other festivals are showing their audiences.

 

CLASSICAL BALLET