Esmeralda Enrique'S -

Portales

Esmeralda Enrique's unfailing ability to consistently explore new gender horizons within traditional forms was well represented in a superb evening of Spanish dance at the Fleck Dance Theatre last week. Costuming, lighting, and powerful voices that engaged in harmonic, good natured 'duels' with the dancers gave audiences an exhilarating two hours of intense power and sensuality. 

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Opening with the full company, the initial offering featured the precision and seamless syncopation Enrique's choreography is always sharply attuned to. The following sequence, featuring the company's musical ensemble, subtly highlighted the vocal work of a lone female musician, in tandem with one of her male colleagues, as they wandered among the dancers revealing their physical and musical agility at every turn - elegantly and robustly sculpting a kind of physical and vocal call and response path across the entire stage. Their beautifully self-possessed virtuosity of both voice and movement matched the power of the women's dancing ensemble as well as a featured solo by the lithe, mesmerizing, loose limbed, gender diverse presence of El Junco.

Enrique brilliantly brings a large company of artists together in ways that create a collage of male and female power that moves in and out of gorgeous gender reflection as masculine and feminine bodies match each other with precise and physically intense execution. Juan Ogalla and El Junco gave spectators the opportunity to watch two very contrasting male bodies as they embodied elements of strict, tight masculinity and limber, fleet-footed movement. Enrique herself delivered beautiful solos that gave the evening a complex inter-generational quality, enlivening the overall program with a refreshing physical diversity.

PORTALES RAN AT THE FLECK DANCE THEATRE FROM APRIL 25TH  UNTIL APRIL 27TH