Carmel Dance Festival invites local dancers and dance-lovers for another iteration of its fascinating programming.
This time Lillian Barbeito, the creator of the festival and of Ballare Carmel, the festival’s resident professional dance company, learned that a Spanish contemporary dance group, HURyCAN, which she saw perform and admired in 2017 in Algeria, is coming to Southern California. Should they stop by?
“Yes, exclamation point,” Barbeito says about her reaction to the news. “I like Spanish dance because of its passion,” she adds. “Inflective passion. But also its musicality and the rhythm. It’s not conceptual, not logical.”
The Madrid-based group will recreate the award-winning duet “Te odiero” (Translation: “I hate you”), which they’ve been showing around the world for close to a decade now. The two performing dancers are Candelaria Antelo and Arthur Bernard-Bazin.
“It’s easier to travel with a duet,” Barbeito says. Also, it’s representative of their body of work, which explores the personal and emotional dimensions of movement. “It was a clump of dancers, balling like a human tornado,” she says about her first experience watching HURyCAN. She later participated in a dance workshop with Antelo in Los Angeles, and admired the quality of instruction.
The contemporary duet will be preceded by flamenco dancer Fanny Ara, originally from the French Basque region and now based in San Francisco. Barbeito saw Ara, a driving force behind the modern evolution of flamenco, perform during the Carmel Bach Festival in 2021. “She will be the bridge between flamenco and contemporary Spanish dance,” Barbeito explains. Christopher Mallett, an American classical guitarist and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is also involved – he will play during HURyCAN’s performance.
Then, on Sunday, Nov. 19, there will be a community workshop for all abilities and ages (HURyCAN will lead the warmup), followed by a panel discussion between the Spanish guests, local artists and the audience, hosted by the California Arts & Sciences Institute.
HURyCAN 4:30pm and 7pm Saturday, Nov. 18. Estéban Restaurant, 700 Munras Ave., Monterey. $125. Community Workshop 10am-noon Sunday, Nov 19. Wave Street Studios, 774 Wave St., Monterey. Free. California Arts & Sciences discussion ($30) follows at 3pm. Visit carmeldancefestival.org for tickets.