Company

Carmen Amaya is one of the legends of our dance. It comes as no surprise that José Antonio chose to give his choreography this title that pays tribute to a woman who was a turning point in flamenco. She was born in Barcelona on 2 November 1918 and died in Bagur (Girona) on 19 November 1963. Her dance, according to those who saw her dancing and from the few images that remain, was powerful, temperamental: the lightning and thunder of a storm in a tiny body that was barely 1.5 metres tall. Dance came from the guts of a woman that often had to overcome physical pain and whose personality led her to tour the world with her flamenco company. With La leyenda, José Antonio wanted to pay tribute to La Capitana –the nickname the Somorrostro gypsy was known by–. The Soleá presented in this programme, performed by three dancers, is a fragment of this choreography that reflects the telluric force of a bailaora who is as iconic as unique.

"Of the artists and audiences who frequent today´s theatres, very few actually saw Carmen Amaya in a live performace. Those who did have that privilege define the experience with a single word: ´strength´. Her dancing was, in fact, strong, intense, fast and stern. And all of this comes across in the pictures that have gradually forged this myth of Flamenco art, this universal symbol of Spanish temperament: Carmen on stage, arms back and head forward, as if ready to charge; Carmen dressed like a man; Carmen in typical flounced costume, flaunting her bare, incredibly muscular arms; Carmen kicking the train of her dress to heaven on high...

Those who like José Antonio knew her personally outside the clamour of the stage, however, can also attest to the fragility and humanity of this high-strung woman who was barely five feet tall. La Leyenda (The Legend) springs from those memories in a modest personal tribute; a piece created by José Antonio with affection and admiration. The work professes no biographic or mimetic intention - Carmen was so utterly unique that any attemp at imitation would be futile - but simply attemps to portray an allegory of certain moments of her life and art, her strength and fragility, her grandeur and solitude, a dichotomy of which she and only she could be the antithesis. 

In this awareness, the choreographer has had to resort to duality, germination, to splitting the woman into two personalities, both opposite and complementary. Carmen, the woman in flesh and blood and Carmen, the immortal artist who ventures from Barcelona´s ´tablaos´to the fame of the America stage, only to suddenly and unexpectedly depart leaving behing the afterglow of her endless train for us to embrace, forever."

Rosalía Gómez 

[From the premiere programme]