ON STAGE
What: Fin de Fiesta Flamenco
Where: Hermann鈥檚 Jazz Club, 753 View St.
When: Wednesday, July 17, 7:30 p.m. (doors at 6 p.m.)
Tickets: $25 from ; $30 at the door
When dancer Lia Grainger performs in front of audiences across the world, she is welcomed by an eagerness to explore. A built-in connection.
That is how life often unfolds for artists who mine flamenco for a living, Grainger said. It鈥檚 an impassioned artform, with a colourful presentation. That speaks volumes in any language.
Her company, Fin de Fiesta Flamenco, has experienced great success in the flamenco field during its seven-year run, and a current tour of Canada has been met with an overwhelming response 鈥� a continuation of Fin de Fiesta Flamenco鈥檚 sold-out, 40-show tour of Canada last year.
That is both a credit to her company and the ongoing allure of the 18th-century art form, which incorporates the folkloric traditions of Spain, including dance and music.
鈥淎ll these little towns, everybody shows up,鈥� Grainger said, during recent tour rehearsals in 91原创. 鈥淲e鈥檙e bringing our show from Spain, so it鈥檚 nice that when people show up we have something that we鈥檙e actually really proud of.鈥�
Grainger, who was raised in 91原创, is currently based in Madrid, not far from several members of the company she created in 2012. It was during her pursuit of dance in 91原创, years earlier, that a flamenco performance set her upon her current course. Her flamenco studies took her from 91原创 to Toronto, where she pursued a career as a freelance journalist before landing in Spain. She has been stationed in Madrid since 2015, where he runs her own studio and oversees Fin de Fiesta Flamenco as its lead choreographer and artistic director.
The six-piece ensemble has a distinct 91原创 flair to it; Grainger is one of many members with 91原创 connections. Flutist Lara Wong (who is based in Madrid) and dancer Deborah Dawson (Bordeaux) were once stationed in 91原创, while guitarist and co-founder Dennis Duffin (Seville) has Toronto roots. French singer Alejandro Mend铆a lives with Dawson in Bordeaux and Cuban cajon player Hanser Santos Gomez is currently based in Montreal.
The company is bringing Sempiterno to Hermann鈥檚 Jazz Club on Wednesday, a new production that tells the story of the group and its multi-city roots. There is a tinge of sadness to any flamenco offering, Grainger said, but Sempiterno (which means 鈥渆ternal鈥� in English) is especially emotional as Duffin is leaving the company at the end of this year. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to keep going, but it is going to be different.鈥�
To send Duffin off in fitting fashion, she wanted the latest project from Fin de Fiesta Flamenco, which took its company name from the jam session that comes at the end of a flamenco show, to mirror the intensity of previous productions such as Salvaje, the Spanish word for savage. The focus this time out is split evenly between dance and music, with dancers Grainger and Dawson playing off the music made by Duffin鈥檚 flamenco guitar, Gomez鈥檚 box drum, Mend铆a鈥檚 vocals and Wong鈥檚 flute.
鈥淔or flamenco, as a performer you have to commit 100 per cent. You can鈥檛 go halfway. It鈥檚 complete joy, and that really connects with people. Flamenco is something where all the performers, from the musicians to the dancers, are communicating. We all have to be totally aware and focused. Anything can happen at any given time, which raises the level of intensity.鈥�
Grainger suggested that the core of Sempiterno has 鈥渘o beginning and no end,鈥� which describes in equal measure the project she started with the departing Duffin and the art form itself.
By moving to Spain and pursuing a craft 鈥渢hat is traditionally very, very Spanish,鈥� she had to prove her worth in short order.
Flamenco is not something to be toyed with in its native country, with outsiders drawing wary eyes. She signed on for an ever-evolving learning curve.
Her passion for the purity of the form eventually won over skeptics. Now she is focused on bringing flamenco back to her home country so the evolution of Fin de Fiesta Flamenco can continue.
鈥淲e鈥檝e come from emulating and imitating the great flamenco artists that we love to coming up with our own way of telling stories 鈥� dancers coming up with our own movements, and musicians writing our own music, as opposed to saying things that already exist.鈥�
