Backstage@Amor de Dios

This famous dance studio has been offering intimate and intermittent shows, called “Backstage.” On Saturday, November 1st, I saw and heard Pablo Ruben Maldonado (piano), with Eva Duran (cantaora), and Joachim Ruiz (dancer). All three are excellent artists. Their show was good not great.

Each of them seems to work with-in a quite limited vocabulary: flamenco, of course, but neither deeply soulful nor hiply modern. They did an Argentine tango-fused farruca that wasn’t tangoistic because they don’t know the tango vocabulary. Ruiz is a dancer whom I like very much, but couldn’t he have studied some tango moves? A dancer of his caliber would shred that stuff! Sin duda!

Duran sang “Nostalgias,” one of my favorite tangos. She injected flamenquismo to the extent that this gorgeous melody was all but lost. And with loads of dramatics. Sorry. Listen to Rocio Durcal on youtube and hear that Madrilenya interpret Nostalgias. Do your homework!

I liked Maldonado’s piano playing a lot. I really did. But, again, a little knowledge of tango (maybe of jazz, too!) would have lifted everything considerably. Still and all, I had a great time.