Online Feature

El Pintor is a dramatic start to
Santa Fe’s summer Flamenco

by Bridgit Lujan

El Pintor, an original dance drama written by Theresa Cardenas, premiered this past July (running July 3–23) in Santa Fe at the Benitez Cabaret.

The emotions of La Chiquita Piconera, or the Little Coal Trader, in Julio Romero de Torres’ final painting of 1930 provided the story line.

The story was told by three female dancers, Adriana Maresma, Maritza Tafur and Elena Osuna, each evoking different emotions of La Chiquita Piconera, including love, pain, tragedy and death.

Elena Osuna was the most effective soloist, presenting the strongest solo dance. She commanded the stage with maturity, executing a variety of difficult steps with emotional drama.

The second half of the performance was made up of group dances. The three women blended well, giving the pieces the cohesion necessary for group dance. These pieces were very effective; as the eye was not drawn to just one dancer but to all of the dancers and the concept as a whole.

The tangos and alegrías, which opened and closed the second half of the show respectively, were the most exciting of the group numbers, while the siguriyas in bare feet beneath a veil was the most creative.

Torres’ paintings were projected behind the dancers throughout the entire production. Yet the storyline as a whole did not progress and was not clear to someone without intimate knowledge of Torres’ paintings. It was also vague which dance and/or dancer represented what emotion. The lighting was too dark at times and often behind the action of the performance, causing it to lose impact overall.

Calvin Hazen’s excellent musical composition that provided a strong base for the drama and was well executed by the four live musicians. As wonderful as the musicians were, their amps were too loud, making it difficult to hear the footwork of the dancers throughout the show.

The choreographer Pablo Rodarte of Denver, who spent most of his artistic career in Spain, is a master of dance-theater. He conveyed his method-acting abilities to the dancers, so their narrative movements jumped out at the audience. It is challenging to interpret this master’s ideas, and the three dancers met the challenge well. Rodarte’s expertise in pantomime movements added to the interpretation, choreography and story line of each dance. His choreography for theater is never lacking in drama, originality or thrill.

--Bridgit Lujan is a contributing editor to albuquerqueARTS.