Ted Shawn, the founder of the Jacob’s Pillow and, ultimately, its director until his death in 1972, was well known for bringing dance forms from all over the world to his dance sanctuary nestled in the hinterlands of the Berkshires. Since 1972, each successive director of the Pillow—and current Director Pamela Tatge is no exception—has generally managed to continue with Shawn’s model in this regard: a very nice piece of symmetry. This week, Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca are performing their work “Buscando a Goya” (“Searching for Goya”) in the Ted Shawn Theatre.
As Pillow Scholar-in-Residence Maura Keefe writes in her excellent “Pillow Notes” this week, the exact origins of the flamenco form may be a little unknown. Keefe explains, however, that what seems clear is that the dance originated in the Andalucian region of Spain and that it borrowed, and maybe continues to borrow, from cultural music, dance, and movement traditions from all over Eurasia and the sub-continent; some of the arm and hand gestures can be traced to North India. Noche Flamenca Artistic Director Martin Santangelo (who was born Marty Goldin, the son of a Jewish father and a Spanish mother; so fitting!) has been quoted as saying “If you hear a [Sephardic] cantor from New York, then you hear a flamenco singer, also called a cantor, you’ll think, ‘My God, so similar.
’” This state of affairs is incredibly ironic, because when one watches these dancers, musicians, and singers, one.