gala hispanic theatre: Celebs Rumors

Fall Preview issue, opportunities abound this season to catch some of the world’s foremost flamenco dancers and musicians in and around D.C., including this month at GALA Hispanic Theatre’s 19th Fuego Flamenco Festival.Among the international artists on the festival bill — in addition to local favorites, the Flamenco Aparicio Dance Company — dancer-choreographer Rafael Ramírez, of Málaga, Spain, will make his GALA debut performing the solo work Lo Preciso.Accompanied in the show by singers Rosa Linero and Fabiola Santiago, guitarist Isaac Muñoz, and percussionist Alex Otero, Ramírez sparks a dialogue through movement exploring the quest for perfection — in art, work, or interpersonal relationships.“That is why in the show there are dance numbers that are more geared towards finding that artistic perfection,” Ramírez says over a Zoom call from Madrid. “But there are also numbers focusing on listening to each other, interacting with each other, and trying to find that connection.”Dramatically intense and imposing onstage, Ramírez comes off strikingly sweet and friendly discussing the show and sharing his expert opinion (via translation by GALA’s Dubraska Vale) on flamenco’s remarkable popularity with U.S.

Bathing in Moonlight (★★★☆☆), takes the road of least controversy to depict a relatively tame love that dare not speak its name between a devout pianist and her priest.Under Cruz’s bold direction of GALA Hispanic Theatre’s Spanish-language D.C. premiere, Hannia Guillén, as dutiful daughter and mom Marcela, and Raúl Méndez, as passionate Padre Monroe, still generate the heat of two bodies burning to be together but fighting their urges.The padre even delivers a sermon about laying down barriers to love, before embarking on his perilous path of questioning why those barriers exist in the first place.Cruz fuses elements of poetry, history, theology, and surreal dream imagery to serve the well-acted romantic melodrama, which often turns on a mere glance or lingering touch.

English with an Accent.Making its world premiere, with a one-night-only engagement at GALA Hispanic Theatre on Friday, April 1, in advance of a scheduled November run at Lincoln Center, the show builds a poignant immigration story around original songs composed by Anggelo and frequent collaborator Jaime Lozano. The immigrant in question happens to be an innocent caterpillar “fleeing the crime and noxious dictatorship of Venezuela.”Anggelo chose the caterpillar/butterfly metaphor not only for the narrative of metamorphosis but for its natural link to immigration.“The monarch butterfly, they fly in from Mexico to here, or from here to Mexico. So it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s an immigration story!’ When they journey, human immigration is parallel to the immigration for the monarch butterflies.