Backs Become Bridges

 

"The women swirling, arched backs and chins set, the men clapping out syncopated, percussive rhythms and shouting their encouragement. “¡Anda, anda!” and “¡Ole!” The revelry acquires a momentum too great to be tampered with. It is a gradual crescendo building over and against the established rhythm, a freeform expression without denouement.

For Aurora, the dance is a defiant stance stamping out worry and fear. It is the bold movement of staking out the ground beneath her feet. Each pound of her heel, “We live here!” Every strike of her toe, “I live here!” There is a posture of vindication the entire audience adopts as the music abruptly ends: chin up, chest forward, and shoulders squared. Backs become bridges arched over and beyond this moment here. Arms encompass family, community, city, life itself. Eyes spark defiantly."

Click here, here and here to watch the indomitable and inimitable Carmen Amaya dance.