New Video: Maria Bermudez “Comes Home” to ‘Forever Flamenco at the Ford’

Flamenco artist Maria Bermudez  describes her longtime friendship with Fountain Producing Artistic Director Deborah Lawlor, her ongoing artistic relationship with the Fountain Theatre and Forever Flamenco, and her warm affinity for the beautiful outdoor Ford Theatre.

Forever Flamenco at the Ford is a Special Gala Event of World-Class Flamenco Artists on June 15th at the Ford Theatre. An All-Star lineup of Flamenco artists from Spain, from across the United States and Los Angeles come together on stage for the first time to celebrate 20 years of Forever  Flamenco and to honor its founder, Deborah Lawlor. Artist line-up include dancers Fanny Ara, Maria Bermudez, Alejandro Granados (from Spain), Manuel Gutierrrez, Timo Nuñez, Linda Vega and Yaelisa; singer/dancer Roberto Amaral; singers José Cortez, Ana de los Reyes (from Spain) singer/composer Pele de los Reyes (from Spain) of the GRAMMY-nominated group “Navajita Platea”; guitarists Adam del Monte, Jason McGuire, Jose Tanaka, Antonio Triana and Ben Woods; and percussionist Joey Heredia.

Forever Flamenco at the Ford  Sat June 15 (323) 461-3673

Why Dance? Healing Through Movement

Rochelle (Pamela Dunlap) takes her first flamenco class in ‘Heart Song’.

In the aftermath of the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon or the horrific tornado disaster in Oklahoma, our minds and bodies are left reeling in emotional pain, anxiety, fear, confusion and questioning.  Even those of us who are not direct victims or physically present at these events, collectively, are still affected by watching these traumas unfold on TV or online.  Our bodies take in these experiences and absorb the tension and suffering of such events.  Trauma exists in many forms.

According to the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder “a traumatic event is something life-threatening or very scary that you see or that happens to you…. Trauma also includes witnessing someone being killed or injured.“  News broadcasts showing footage over and over of traumatic events such as the Boston Marathon bombing or the Oklahoma disaster victims become not only mental images but also become body memories that for some, can be extremely difficult to process and make sense of.

These experiences need to be processed through the body. Research advances have emphasized the importance of including the body in treatment of any type of trauma. According to dance/movement therapist Claire Moore, ‘‘the sensations and actions that have become stuck in and after a traumatic event need to be integrated in the treatment process, so that the person can regain a sense of familiarity and efficacy in the body.”

This knowledge broadens the options for how people can receive support in order to move forward from common patterns of immobilization that often is experienced by victims of or witnesses to traumatic events.   This means, rather than turning inward or self-soothing via means that disengage ourselves from our bodies (drinking, drugs, excessive eating, zoning out in front of the TV), our body can be an expressive vehicle utilized as an active resource to processing feelings.

Studies have shown that dance, in particular, can decrease anxiety and boost mood more than other physical outlets. In a study at the University of London, researchers assigned patients with anxiety disorders to spend time in one of four settings: a modern-dance class, an exercise class, a music class, or a math class.  Only the dance class significantly reduced anxiety.

Why Do You Dance?

Why dance, in particular?  Why should you dance?  Why would dance be a vehicle to cope with daily stress or even horrific tragedies such as the Oklahoma tornado, the Boston Marathon explosions, or the Newtown School shootings? Perhaps this is based on the specific distinction that dance in itself is innately an expressive art form, not just a physical release of body tension alone.

Dance/movement therapists have long known the expressive nature of dance dating back to the effects of post traumatic stress victims from World War II.  Dance/movement therapy pioneer, Marian Chace, discovered back in the 1940s that her patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder were able to use dance therapy as a form of communication that assisted in the decrease of tension held in the body and minimized isolation.  Dance/movement therapy, according to the American Dance Therapy Association, is based on the core belief that there is a fundamental interconnection between mind and body and what happens to the body can effectively influence the mind and vice versa. Dance/movement therapists are trained clinicians specializing in the interconnection between mind and body.  The core premise lies within the therapeutic relationship where movement is the primary mode of connection, assessment and intervention.

In a Korean study at Wonkwang University with adolescents engaging in dance/movement therapy for 12 weeks, results suggested that participation in dance/movement therapy may stabilize the sympathetic nervous system and improve psychological distress in adolescents with depression.

Rochelle (Pamela Dunlap) finds release through dance in ‘Heart Song’.

In Heart Song, our current production at the Fountain Theatre, the main character Rochelle is battling a life crisis. Grieving the loss of her mother, she is lost and emotionally paralyzed. Her friend Tina, declaring “the mind, body and spirit are all connected”,  drags Rochelle to a flamenco class. It is there, through the powerful dance movement and self-expression of flamenco, that Rochelle begins to open up and release some of the long suppressed trauma of her barren relationship with her mother. Dance is the vehicle through which Rochelle finds freedom and release.

Do you dance?  Why? How does dance move you?

Heart Song May 25 – July 14  (323) 663-1525  MORE

The Fountain’s ‘Heart Song’ gives voice to flamenco’s depths

Maria Bermudez in ‘Heart Song’.

Choreographed by Maria Bermudez, Stephen Sachs’ dance-theater hybrid explores the deep well of emotions that the art form can stir up.

By Susan Josephs

Two years ago Stephen Sachs began working on a play about the philosophy and practice of flamenco. He figured he had all the material he needed, having spent years in close proximity to flamenco dancers as the co-artistic director of the Fountain Theatre, home of the long-running performance series “Forever Flamenco!” But after further research, he realized that the Spanish art form intertwined deeply with certain existential preoccupations that also inhabited his writer’s mind.

Stephen Sachs

“The older I get, the more aware I have become of the loss of loved ones, the time in front of me and how I’m spending it. You start to wrestle more with these things,” observes the 53-year-old playwright and director.

Sachs wound up writing “Heart Song,” a uniquely theatrical hybrid that premieres May 25 at the Fountain and pays tribute to flamenco through the lens of one Jewish woman’s midlife crisis. Directed by Los Angeles theater veteran Shirley Jo Finney and choreographed by the flamenco artist Maria Bermudez, it stars Pamela Dunlap as Rochelle, a fiftysomething New York City denizen who struggles over her mother’s recent death and gets dragged to a flamenco class for nonprofessional dancers by her Japanese American masseuse Tina (Tamlyn Tomita).

Convinced that “Jews don’t do flamenco,” Rochelle receives encouragement from fellow class-taker Daloris (Juanita Jennings), an African American cancer survivor, and reluctantly encounters Katarina de la Fuente, the fierce, Gypsy flamenco teacher played by Bermudez. (Denise Blasor will take over the role after June 15.) Katarina teaches her students how to stomp their feet, flick their wrists and fully express themselves so they can experience the heightened spiritual state known as duende. She also waxes poetic about flamenco’s origins, the shared history of persecution between Gypsies and Jews and the cante jondo, the “deep song” born from suffering and oppression.

Eventually, Katarina’s teachings infiltrate Rochelle’s psyche so that she can grieve and confront the truth of her mother’s legacy.

“What interested me in this whole subject was how art, like religion or any spiritual faith, has the power to transform and heal,” says Sachs, who recently lost his mother and still “wrestles with that loss. I wanted to explore how flamenco can give voice to what is beyond the spoken word, to that deep inner well of sorrow and pain and also joy.”

Deborah Lawlor

Sachs’ treatment of flamenco, filled with historical and literary references, also feels distinctly educational. This should come as no surprise when considering that the Fountain’s co-artistic director Deborah Lawlor has produced the city’s preeminent flamenco series for some 20 years. “Heart Song,” however, takes the Fountain’s outreach efforts one step further with its potential to simultaneously attract the theater’s two main audiences: traditional playgoers and flamenco fans.

“I don’t think any production has yet explained flamenco as well as ‘Heart Song’ does,” says Lawlor, who served as the play’s dramaturgical consultant and will be honored on June 15 in a “Forever Flamenco!” gala performance at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood. “The play really shows the range of flamenco and its tragic dimensions, which you don’t find in other dance forms.”

Bermudez, who lives in southern Spain and travels all over the world to perform flamenco, agrees that the Fountain’s production “is very unique. In Spain, there have been mountings of flamenco story ballets, but no one has created a drama about flamenco in this way with actors,” she says.

As the show’s choreographer, Bermudez faced the challenge of crafting movement that everyone in the eight-member cast could perform while accurately reflecting flamenco’s essence. For her, casting definitely proved critical.

Maria Bermudez

“One of the mistakes I’ve seen with dance-theater is to have the dancers act or have the actors dance. This is totally detrimental to both genres,” says the 51-year-old flamenco artist. “So I said, ‘Let’s get actors with movement experience and I will create a choreography for them that’s accessible, so they can be these middle-aged people who are there to connect with something interior rather than with an exterior aesthetic.”

At a recent rehearsal, Bermudez’s choreography seemed to function almost as another character in the play, especially during the scene in which Rochelle first visits the flamenco class. As Katarina, Bermudez conducts a class warm-up, instructing her students to lift their arms, “touch the stars” and twirl their wrists, a motion that becomes an effective unison phrase.

Both as choreographer and performer, Bermudez has the task of conveying the flamenco class as a sacred space where women of all backgrounds can unleash their demons as a means of liberating their spirits. “For me, flamenco is about this universal cry, whether you are Jewish or African American, it is the same,” she says in a phone conversation after the rehearsal. “Pain has no color or creed.”

Shirley Jo Finney

The notion of flamenco’s universal accessibility has always resonated with Finney, who collaborated with Bermudez a decade ago on developing a still unproduced, flamenco-based play called “Cry,” which sought parallels between flamenco and the blues. “What I love about ‘Heart Song’ is that it shows how interconnected we all are. Often women’s plays are very ethnic-specific, but in this piece, you see these different tribes and how they become a collective,” she says.

Rochelle (Pamela Dunlap) takes her first flamenco class.

For Finney and her cast, the process of practicing flamenco combined with excavating the life and death themes in Sachs’ script has made for an intensely emotional experience. “In the cast we have cancer survivors, we have people who just lost their mothers,” observes Finney. “We rehearse some of these scenes and I have to say, ‘OK ladies, we got our cry. Now we have to stop and work on the script.’ Mothers and daughters, survivors and life, these have been our discussions.”

Dunlap, for example, can fully relate to Rochelle’s reckoning with her mother’s death. “The relationship with her mother was barren and the relationship I had with my mother was difficult,” says the actress, who can also be seen on “Mad Men” as Betty Draper’s formidable mother-in-law. “It is not infrequent for a play to strike a personal chord with its actors, but in this play … we are blown away by material which touches our personal lives.”

Ultimately, Sachs hopes his play and its many layers of meaning will find a “crossover audience. It would be wonderful if all our audiences came together for a shared experience,” he says. “Hopefully, it will open people’s eyes to what flamenco really is and maybe they will want to take a class themselves.”

Susan Josephs writes for the Los Angeles Times.

Heart Song May 25 – July 14 (323) 663-1525  MORE

Audience Member Slapped for Grabbing Cell Phone from Abuser and Tossing It Across Theatre

by John Del Signore

Don’t you hate it when someone’s cell phone goes off in the middle of a performance? And they actually answer it? Or they’re sitting right next to you texting away, fingers flying, cell phone screen glowing?  Wouldn’t you love to just grab it from their hand and hurl it away, across the auditorium?

Last night, someone did.

We can’t count the number of times we’ve wanted to enact vengeance on some inconsiderate audience member whose cell phone goes off during a performance. But, like most people, we just bottle that fury up deep down inside and take it out on the break room vending machine later. Not Kevin Williamson. Last night the National Review writer was in attendance at the marvelous new musical Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 when one theatergoer’s incessant cell phone use finally drove him over the edge… into vigilantism.

‘Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812′

The stellar production—a swinging cabaret-type musical adaptation loosely adapted from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace—takes place inside a luxuriant carnival tent nestled next to the Standard High Line. The audience is closely clustered at small tables throughout the room, and while there is food and beverage service before the show and during intermission, the performance itself takes place with zero table service interruptions, and the atmosphere is as quiet and attentive as any other conventional stage play. At least it’s supposed to be.

Although each table is explicitly told that photography and cell phone use is strictly prohibited during the performance, the people seated around Williamson were, he says, unbearable. “They were carrying on a steady conversation throughout entire show,” Williamson, who also writes a theater column for New Criterion, tells us. “They had been quite loud and obnoxious the entire time. There were two groups, one to the left and one to the right who were being loud and disruptive.”

During intermission, Williamson’s date complained to the theater’s management, but he says he didn’t personally witness the theater managers admonish the disruptive audience members. And once the performance resumed, the woman sitting to Williamson’s right on his bench would not, he says, stop using her cell phone. “It looked like she was Googling or something,” Williamson tells us. “So I leaned over and told her it was distracting and told her to put it away. She responded, ‘So don’t look.’ “

Blood boiling, Williamson says he then asked her, sarcastically, “whether there had been a special exemption for her about not using her phone during the play. She told me to mind my own business, and so I took the phone out of her hands. I meant to throw it out the side door, but it hit some curtains instead. I guess my aim’s not as good as it should be.” Asked if the phone was damaged, Williamson says, “It had to be; I threw it a pretty good distance.”

Kevin Williamson

According to Williamson, the woman then slapped him in the face and, after failing to find her phone, stormed out. Soon the show’s security director asked to “have a word” with Williamson, and they stepped out into the lobby. “I told him I would be happy to leave,” Williamson recalls. “They tried to keep me there. He said the lady was talking about filing charges. So I waited around for a bit, but it seemed to be taking a while. He did try to physically keep me in, and was standing in the door blocking me, telling me I couldn’t leave. I inquired as to whether he was a police officer and I was under arrest, and since I wasn’t, I left.”

A publicist for the production did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But if the cell phone user decides to press charges, Williamson says he’s willing to face her in court. “I doubt that will happen, but if it does, that’ll be fun. If I have to spend a night in jail, I’ll spend a night in jail. I don’t want to suggest I’m Henry David Thoreau protesting the Mexican-American War, but I’ll do a day in jail if I have to.”

Kevin Williamson, you are indeed our Thoreau. And if you need help raising bail money, we’ll totally start a Kickstarter for you, just like Emerson did.

John Del Signore writes for The Gothamist

 

PHOTOS: Set and Lights Go Up for ‘Heart Song’ at the Fountain

A sneak peek as we prepare for Tech Weekend for the world premiere of our upcoming comedy/drama Heart Song by Stephen Sachs at the Fountain, directed by Shirley Jo Finney. It stars Pamela Dunlap, Juanita Jennings and Tamlyn Tomita. Previews begin May 18. It opens May 25th and runs to July 14th.

Heart Song is a funny and touching new play about a middle-aged Jewish woman in New York City whose life is changed when she takes a flamenco class. Set design is by Tom Buderwitz, lighting design by Ken Booth. Take a look at some snapshots as we build the set and hang lights, getting ready for Tech Weekend.

Heart Song May 25 – July 14  (323) 663-1525  MORE

Diversity is a Noun, Not a Verb

by Carla Stillwell

Carla Stillwell

Let me  get transparent with you.  I cannot stand the word “diversity.” It makes me uncomfortable because I know what it has become code for.

For the first thirty minutes or so of a plenary [at a TCG Conference in Chicago three years ago], there were several accomplished men and women of color sharing some of their experiences with diversity, or the lack thereof, in the theater community. The conversation from the panel quickly became a call to action to the executive and artistic directors in the room to make the American theater landscape match the general population in cultural and gender representations. Then it happened. A middle-aged white man from a theater company in Minnesota stood to speak. He said that he would love to put more “…blacks on stage” but he knows that that would mean that he would lose his audience base because they wouldn’t be able to “…identify with those types of stories.”  Hmmm…in that moment it became painfully clear to me that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to add cultural and gender specificity to America’s theatrical landscape. People are bandying about the word “diversity” without having a real understanding of what the word means. Without a true understanding of the word, we certainly cannot move to a place of honest dialogue, and without honest dialogue we will not achieve real change.

So let’s start with defining the word “diversity.” Dictionary.com offers the following:

di·ver·si·ty [dih-vur-si-tee, dahy-]  noun, plural di·ver·si·ties.

1. The state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness:diversity of opinion.

2. Variety; multiformity.

3. A point of difference.

I find a few things notable in this definition. The first is that diversity is defined as a noun and not a verb. This means that it is a state of being and not something you do. Hence one cannot perform diversity. This definition suggests that to simply do things that we think seem diverse (i.e., color blind casting) isn’t enough. The definition suggests that to achieve diversity, you have to accept difference as the rule and not the exception. Diversity has become code for throwing cultural and gender difference at a white wall and hoping that the differences stick, but being OK when some or all of them simply slide to the floor.

Per the aforementioned definition, diversity at its core means that there are a variety of things that make up a whole that have different shapes, forms, and kinds. So I think it is safe to say that a state of being diverse can only be achieved if there is variety. We have attempted to achieve diversity by keeping most things in American theater culturally homogenous and adding a dash of difference. But the definition of the word diversity lets us know that this type of thinking is topsy-turvy.

Then there is this third part of the definition, “a point of difference.” A “point” is defined in its second definition as, “a projecting part of anything.” From this one can infer that diversity is the center, the focal point, from which difference and variety project. We have attempted to introduce diversity into the American theater landscape without diversifying the centers of artistic decision-making (producers, artistic directors, board of directors, etc.) in our theatrical institutions. How can we project difference into the entire theatrical experience when the points are culturally homogenous?

I have been at the center of many of these conversations about diversity. But I believe that none of these conversations will bear the fruit of change until we all embrace the state of being diverse and stop acting out diversity.

Carla Stillwell is a theatre director, playwright and performer. She is the Managing Producer for MPAACT as well as a Playwright-In-Residence and Resident Director with the company. Additionally, Ms. Stillwell is a teaching artist for MPAACT and The Steppenwolf Theatre.

‘Forever Flamenco at the Ford’ to Shine as Once-in-a-Lifetime Flamenco Gala Event on June 15

Maria Bermudez

The Fountain Theatre presents an all-star line-up of local, national and international flamenco artists to celebrate Forever Flamenco!  founder Deborah Lawlor’s 20-year dedication to producing, nurturing and broadening the art form in Los Angeles. Forever Flamenco! at the Ford, under the artistic direction of internationally renowned flamenco dancer Maria Bermudez, takes place on Saturday, June 15 at 8:30 pm at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood.

We have saved the BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE for you! Our Fountain VIP patrons! Click here for more info! See details below!

Since 1990, the dancers, musicians and singers ofForever Flamenco! have been delighting Fountain Theatre audiences with the intensity, precision and exhilaration for which flamenco is known. NowForever Flamenco! returns to the outdoor stage at the Ford Theatres with this passionate expression of Spanish culture in a tribute to Lawlor.

Fanny Ara

“Forever Flamenco! was born out of Deborah’s love and total immersion into flamenco,” says Bermudez. “Young dancers, up-and-coming dancers, seasoned professionals and international dancers – all of us have all come through Forever Flamenco! at the Fountain. I took my first baby steps there.”

Forever Flamenco! at the Ford will be a once-in-a-lifetime gala event gathering some of flamenco’s finest artists together on stage for the first time, including dancers Fanny Ara, Lakshmi Basile, Maria Bermudez, Alejandro Granados (from Spain), Manuel Gutierrrez, Timo Nuñez,Linda Vega and Yaelisa; singer/dancer Roberto Amaral; singers José Cortez, Ana de los Reyes (from Spain) and Jesus Montoya; singer/composer Pele de los Reyes (from Spain) of the Grammy®-nominated group Navajita Platea; guitarists Adam del Monte, Jason Maguire, Antonio Triana and Ben Woods; and percussionist Joey Heredia. Watch for more surprise artists, as well as a few guests from Bermudez’ flamenco puro company Sonidos Gitanos, which has been presented at the Ford by Lawlor and the Fountain eight times since 1995.

Timo Nunez

Deborah Lawlor

Deborah Lawlor’s Forever Flamenco! series plays monthly to enthusiastic crowds at the Fountain Theatre. She and the Fountain have presented Bermudez and her Sonidos Gitanos/Gypsy Flamenco Company from Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, for eight summer engagements at the Ford – including, in 2010, its new off-shoot, The Chicana Gypsy Project – and in 2007 at the Japan American Theatre. The 2009 Ford season included Forever Flamenco!: LA Olé featuring an all-star cast assembled fromForever Flamenco! at the Fountain. Lawlor began her career as a dancer, choreographer and actor in New York’s “downtown” scene. After living in South India for five years, where she was involved in the initial development of the international township of Auroville, she created two full-length outdoor dance/theater pieces celebrating the community. She spent the next 10 years in Australia and France studying ancient cultures of India and Egypt and translating several books in these fields from French into English. Returning to the U.S. in 1986, she became deeply involved in the intimate theater scene and, in 1990, she and Stephen Sachs co-founded the Fountain Theatre, which is now in its 23rd season of theatrical and dance events. Lawlor is responsible for the Fountain’s extensive dance involvement. The 1995 season included The Women of Guernica, Lawlor’s flamenco-based adaptation of Euripides’ The Trojan Women, which she also directed. She directed two one-act plays by Tennessee Williams and created and directed three full-evening dance-theater pieces for the Fountain:Declarations: Love Letters of the Great Romantics; The Path of Love, which she also directed in South India; and the dance opera, The Song of Songs, with music by Al Carmines. Actors Equity Association honored Lawlor with its Diversity Award, for her dedication to presenting work at the Fountain that is culturally diverse.

Maria Bermudez

Considered to be one of the foremost international flamenco artists in the world today, Bermudez resides in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, the “birthplace” of flamenco. There, she has worked with renowned artists such as Juana del Pipa, Andres Peña, Antonio El Pipa, Alejandro Granados, Navajita Platea, El Capullo and many others. She was honored by the artists of the city for her relentless dedication in exposing the artistry of this region. Bermudez’ outstanding and critically acclaimed performances include the Hollywood Bowl, Ford Amphitheatre, Fountain Theater and the Music Center in Los Angeles; Central Park, Lincoln Center and the Joyce Theater in New York City; the Teatro Palácio das Artes in Brazil; Peña Cernicalos, Los Gallos and Teatro Lope de Vega and Festival de Jerez in Spain; guest appearances with the Santa Cecilia California; and numerous venues throughout the world. Most recently she formed Chicana Gypsy Project which draws on her Mexican-American heritage and her immersion into Adulucian Gypsy culture. Her life and career have inspired the award-winning documentary film, Streets of Flamenco.

Forever Flamenco! at the Ford takes place on Saturday, June 15. Doors open for picnicking at 6:30 pm and the show starts at 8:30 pm. Reserved seating is $50 and $75.Purchase tickets on or before June 8 and save $5. Tickets are available at www.FordTheatres.org or 323 461-3673 (for non-visual media 323 GO 1-FORD). 

We are holding 100 of the BEST SEATS – center section, down front, up close and personal  — and are offering them only to you, our private Fountain VIP patrons.  These prime seats are not available to the public. With these VIP tickets you get:

• The best seats in the house: down front, up close, center section
• Exclusive VIP pass to the private pre-show catered party with the artists
• Festive hand-crafted gift bag with free flamenco swag

These prime VIP TICKETS are only available through the Fountain Theatre!    Order Now!  Or call the Fountain box office (323) 663-1525.