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Spanish flamenco star Amargo receives accolade
2006-10-06
Spanish flamenco star Rafael Amargo received a special award from the organizers of the renowned Corral de la Moreria tablao in Madrid which this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary. "I'm highly honoured. I realize today that performing at a tablao is the most difficult of things -- dancing, you have to call up every ounce of what lies at the very heart of your being," Amargo, 30, said, as he received the "Estrellas del Flamenco" accolade from the venue's artistic director Blanca del Rey. "I am very happy. This is real recognition from the flamenco world such as is very difficult to obtain," said Amargo, who next year will tour China and Japan. Amargo told AFP he felt there was no contradiction in switching from the more traditional form of the genre in the tablao -- where the dancer, singer and guitarists stand barely a few centimetres (inches) from the crowd -- to the fusion forms of the theatre. "I dance what comes out of me. The tablao is perhaps the pure essence of flamenco but today young people feel different influences. The theatre performance is magical, more eclectic -- you can tell a story. "The tablao is more serious. However, you must always take music forward," said Amargo, who came to Madrid as a teenager. He went on to scoop a host of accolades while he also studied at the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance in New York, where last May he danced at the City Center on Broadway. "In New York they like a range of styles from the contemporary to the old-style," said Amargo, whose "Poet in New York" received rave reviews over the summer. "The New York Times gave me a good write-up," grinned Amargo, who since 1997 has run his own dance company. Lauding Corral de la Moreria, an intimate venue which has welcomed personalities as diverse as Che Guevara, Frank Sinatra, Roland Reagan and Pele to its performances over the years, Amargo said he "hardly knew how to dance" before he was given his chance there. Blanca del Rey paid tribute to the dancer who "shouted out his youth through every pore" on stage but who admitted to initial stage fright as he started out at a venue that the venerated Cante de las Minas Flamenco Festival in August dubbed the best tablao in the world. "As well as talent he has true charisma. He has stood for pure art," she enthused about the bearded star. Muzi.com News
Spanish flamenco star Amargo receives accolade (2006-10-06)1 (11285)
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