21 March 2011
Review
BEIRUT: Al-Andalus is both an historical and a mythical place. Historically, it refers to the Iberian Peninsula between the Muslim conquest and the Castilian “Reconquista.”
Mythically, Al-Andalus was a cosmopolitan place where, at a time when the rest of Europe had plunged into the ignorance of the Middle Ages, Spain’s population of Muslims, Christians and Jews projected the peninsula to the forefront of civilization. As such, Al-Andalus has become a metaphor for cultural hybrity.
The diversity and hybridism of “Mudejar,” the dance performance by the Miguel Angel Berna Dance Company at UNESCO Palace Saturday evening, harkened back to Andalusia’s heritage of mixite.
“Mudejar” actually refers to a specific period of Spanish architecture. Between the 12th and 16th centuries, it developed as a mixture of Christian Spanish and Moorish architectural elements, a handy metaphor for cross-cultural communication.
This style of architecture “has always been present in the Saragossa region of Spain,” remarked Juan Carlos Gafo, Spain’s ambassador to Lebanon, in his introduction to the performance. “That’s what makes it a [local] phenomenon.”
Led by Miguel Angel Berna himself, Miguel Angel Berna Dance Company’s show was equally “local” – a patchwork of different styles of dance, all linked to one another, as press materials announced, by “a sole and wonderful element: the castanets.”
Combining castanets-accompanied flamenco, jota (a courtship dance), and facets of ballet, “Mudejar” addresses the multiplicity of human communication. The performance was accompanied by a score that mingles Spanish and Arabic music, played by an orchestra comprised of a mix of Spanish and Middle Eastern instruments.
As the show opened, Berna intrigued his spectators by his stillness.
Any questions that may have been on audience members’ minds were brushed aside when Berna began to play the castanets, his hands appearing to move as fast as a hummingbird.
The effect was accentuated by the stage lighting, which shone on his hands in such a way as to suggest they were controlling his body and not the other way round. The dancer himself embodied a sort of hybridity as he seemed to be torn between the inertia of stillness and ecstatic movement.
Joined by Lucia Padilla, Francisco Morgado and the other dancers of the troupe, Berna stunned their spectators with the elaborateness of their synchronization. The dancers stomped and twirled, whirled and castanet-ed with such harmony as though they were different organs in the same body, or different personalities in one person.
More than mere accompaniment, the oud-player, percussionists and guitarists were integral to the on-stage pageantry. No single member of the ensemble, however, was allowed to overshadow the star of the show – the castanets.
One of the great surprises of the evening’s entertainment was how such a physically diminutive instrument could have so much power to aurally amplify the on-stage presence of Berna and his company.
During his several solo performances, Berna was like a living orchestra, holding his silent audience hypnotized. Gracefully moving his castanets and rhythmically stomping his feet, Berna appeared like a beautiful black stallion trying to free himself.
During Berna’s solo pieces, a voice, in Spanish, said, “I am Mudejar, the name that goes from the earth to the sun. The one who is free. The one who is determined to persist. I am Mudejar, the one who survives.”
Berna’s performance, opined one spectator, “represented the Mediterranean culture, a culture that is strong and yet moving. I have never seen a combination of dances like this one.”
The power of Berna & Co.’s performance was underlined in the seconds following the final footfall. The auditorium was flooded with a deafening silence, followed by a tumultuous standing ovation.
Copyright The Daily Star 2011.
