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La Demajagua Newspaper

Legacy of Great Flamenco Dancer Antonio Gades Enjoyed in Cuba PDF Print E-mail
Written by ACN   
Wednesday, 09 November 2011 08:22
HAVANA, Cuba.-The 14th edition of Havana's Theater Festival wound up on Sunday with the legacy of late flamenco artist Antonio Gades, in creative and faithful hands.
The Antonio Gades Company, now on a tour of the island, performed at the Garcia Lorca Hall of the capital's Grand Theater. The group was created seven years after the death of its Maestro and now visits Cuba for the first time, when the 75th anniversary of Gades's birth is celebrated.
Opening the program was "Bodas de sangre", inspired in a homonymous work by Federico Garcia
Lorca, which was followed by "Suite Flamenca". Many members of the audience tried to follow
rhythms with their hands and feet, in the hope of joining what was happening on stage, in a
collective celebration for Gades -an innovator of Spanish dances-, his art and his people.
Undoubtedly, Maria Stella Arauzo, in artistic direction, and the professionals that worked
together very closely with Gades for many years, managed to pass on his spirit to the youngest
members of the group.
Shining among the group's treasures were flamenco singers Gabriel Mateo Cortes Cortes,
Francisco Jonathan Fernandez Cortes, Enrique Pantoja Monje and Alfredo Tejada Zurita, and
their skillful guitarists Andres Carmona Silva and Juan Antonio Zafra Moreno.
Participating in the Theater Festival were some 80 companies from 17 nations, a real fiesta
of encounters between professors and disciples, different aesthetic concepts -Cuban and
foreign-, new and acclaimed artists, and the public. The event's presentations were enjoyed by
over 60,000 theater lovers in 25 locations in this capital, aside from those held at parks,
schools and hospitals.
The Antonio Gades Company also delighted the public gathered at Havana's Grand Theater on
Monday night, while on Wednesday its followers will be able to enjoy its performances at the
Heredia Theater, in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba.