Audiences are still tapping their toes after a Flamenco performance on campus.
The rhythmic music, colorful dresses and Spanish-inspired entertainment Feb. 5 and 6 at Old Main was a collaborative effort between Steve Mullins, Pablo Rodarte, four female dancers, a lead guitarist and a male vocalist.
Kim Fox, a 20-year-old sophomore architecture major, said she went to the show for a class.
“I’m in music appreciation with Steve Mullins and he asked us to come and watch the show,” Fox said. “I don’t listen to Flamenco music normally.”
Sandy Ho, an 18-year-old freshman sociology major, took in the show for similar reasons.
“I have an assignment to listen to the music and study the beat and the rhythm,” Ho said. “[Flamenco] seems really interesting.”
Mullins, who said he met Rodarte through “Flamenco connections,” sang Rodarte’s praises before the show’s opening, describing how he grew up in Denver but spent about 20 years in Spain.
“He’s a rare dancer,” Mullins said. “He’s one of the only non-Spaniards to be featured in an ongoing documentary film series about Flamenco in Spain. We’ve worked together since he’s been back in Colorado which has been a few years now.”
The show proved to display Flamenco’s three primary components, as described by Mullins: dancing, singing and guitar. The brightly colored attire and snappy beats kept the audience actively watching the action on-stage; even slow, Spanish ballads seemed to morph into up-beat, knee-slapping, hand-clapping tunes by the end.
Mullins played selections from his recent performance in “Blood Wedding” at the Loft Theatre located within the University Theatre building which he called, “an intense drama.” The show also displayed three of Mullins’ CDs in the lobby (Ojaleo, Aire and Aqua Y Sombra) as well as candelabra lanterns that Rodarte had made out of stained glass.
Susan Nemcek, Mullins’ wife, added that the artist, choreographer, singer and dancer is truly a “renaissance man.”
“[Rodarte] is a world-class choreographer,” Nemcek said. “He has worked in Spain and Mexico. He has been in the Flamenco world since he was a young boy.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Jenna Fredrickson at Jenna.fredrickson@colorado.edu.
