Cafe de Chinitas 2010

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Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre presents

Café de Chinitas

“Viñetas del Mozaico”

Scotiabank Dance Centre, Faris Family Studio

November 12, 13, 14 at 7:30pm

2:00pm matinee on Sunday November 14 only

Design by Gogo Telugo Creatives

Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre and Caravan World Rhythms are proud to present Café de Chinitas, "Viñetas del Mozaico" Dance Collection. This colourful flamenco dance spectacular showcases 18 dancers in a dozen vignettes featuring a mosaic of music settings ranging from pure flamenco, flamenco fusion, classical, and pop to the unique Asian fusion of Vancouver’s internationally renowned Orchid Ensemble.

"Viñetas del Mozaico" is a true mosaic. Each piece is carefully crafted, individually coloured and brilliantly conceived. Each fits perfectly in place to create a larger picture informed by an artistic vision that unifies diversity under an overarching expressive form: flamenco. The result is a dazzling, innovative presentation of an impressive array of cultural, musical and aesthetic influences.

"Lantern Riddles"

Pic by Adam Smith

Kasandra La China, Artistic Director of the Café de Chinitas Project, is recognized as one of Canada’s leading flamenco artists, choreographers and teachers. As a second-generation Chinese Canadian, she deeply values the cultural diversity of her home city, Vancouver. Her choreographies celebrate, honour and express the multicultural richness that defines the Canadian experience.

Kasandra La China

Pic by Yaletown Wedding Gallery

Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre is a dance company with a reputation for challenging cultural and artistic stereotypes in flamenco. First formed in 1972 by acclaimed flamenco maestro, Oscar Nieto, the company was re-established in 2003 as a collaboration between Nieto and Kasandra La China. Since its beginnings, Mozaico Flamenco has tested the boundaries of traditional flamenco by challenging the notion that only Spanish gitanos (gypsies) can achieve purity in this art and by infusing classic forms with unexpected influences such as jazz, pop, and Latin rhythms.

The Café de Chinitas project continues and extends the Mozaico

legacy, pushing the boundaries of flamenco in new, innovative directions, blending Asian music and visual artistry with the rhythms, passion and technical discipline of flamenco dance. The Café de Chinitas project marks the first time this “East meets West” fusion has ever been seen on a Vancouver stage.

“Flamenco has never been expressed with a Chinese element, so this idea is truly original and also extremely relevant for the City of Vancouver,” says Kasandra La China. “Café de Chinitas is an ideal that allows us to express who we are. It is a pure reflection of our Canadian cultural identity.”

Winged Horses of Heaven

Pic by Elvira Yebes

The series was originally inspired by the golden era of the Spanish Café Cantante in the mid-1800s and the legendary flamenco bar – the Café de Chinitas – celebrated in the famous poem of that name by Federico Garcia Lorca. The café, located in the port town of Malaga in Southern Spain, was literally named “Chinese Café”. It was not only a famed flamenco hang-out and performance space but also a place where, because of extensive commerce with Asia, East met West. The clientele included socialites, aficionados, gypsies, toreros and “women of the night”. In the Café de Chinitas, it was rumoured, anything could happen – mischief, drama and intrigue.

Viñetas del Mozaico takes the original inspiration for Café de Chinitas and imagines an even more varied cultural mixture. It is a collection of a dozen unique dance vignettes that expands the Asian/Spanish fusion to include influences from some surprisingly diverse sources. Each piece showcases a new inspiration, a new exploration, and a new Viñetas del Mozaico promises to transport audiences to a magical, imaginative place where, as in the Café de Chinitas, anything can happen.

Cafe de Chinitas

Pic by Elvira Yebes

Here is a sneak peek behind the curtain at some of the pleasures that await:

Traditional flamenco with long ruffled “Bata de Cola” skirts.
Haunting dance solo with the beautifully embroidered fringed shawls called “Manton de Manila” with Chinese pattern.
Unexpected and striking juxtapositions such as red-gold Chinese cheong sams, flamenco dance, and the exotic music of the Orchid Ensemble.
Contemporary ensemble pieces with rapid-fire footwork and sychronized precision.
A dreamlike fantasy inspired by the mythical Chinese Winged Horses of Heaven.
Graceful classical Spanish dance with castanets and a modern look at castanets with Cuban-Flamenco fusion.
A dramatic, bold re-visioning of flamenco danced in bare feet.

This presentation is generously supported by the