The Bay Area’s first flamenco dance company, Theatre Flamenco presents their 53rd home season performance, premiering the original work Soul y Alma, a collaboration between the dance company and the gospel chorus of Glide Memorial. The single performance will be held on Saturday, February 1, 2020 at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco.
Soul y Alma will mark a new “first” for the company: drawing inspiration from the deep canon of African American gospel music. Theatre Flamenco Artistic Director Carola Zertuche has long admired Glide’s choir, while recognizing an opportunity for collaboration, given the many similarities between the gospel and flamenco arts: the deep emotion, vocal keening, stomping and clapping, audience interplay, and an oral tradition. The themes of both traditions deal with using spirituality and artistic expression to overcome adversity and persecution, albeit in the vastly different historical contexts of African Americans in the United States and Roma gypsies in Spain.
Glide Church and Theatre Flamenco were both founded during the 1960’s in San Francisco to serve their respective communities during a time of civil rights battles, cultural pride, and artistic ferment. As our city continues to change in ways that pose an existential threat to arts organizations, Zertuche would like to unite these two institutions - which have not only survived but remain relevant forces in the city’s culture - to produce a genre-bending new show.
Featured artists in the performance are Carola Zertuche (Artistic Director, choreographer, dancer), Juani de la Isla (Musical Director, composer, guitarist), Amparo Heredia (flamenco singer), Diego Alvarez (percussionist), The Glide Ensemble (choir), and two visiting artists who excel at pushing flamenco in unexpected directions: Cristina Hall (guest flamenco dancer, originally from San Francisco, now residing in Spain), and Eduardo Guerrero (guest flamenco dancer).