The ANZA Club will play host to Dances for a Small Stage’s Valentine edition, a series of individual performances, which explore the many aspects of love, Feb. 11 to 14.
One of the performances comes courtesy of flamenco artist Karen Pitkethly who will look at the tragic side of love via Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
“People always think of passion when they think of flamenco,” says Pitkethly. “I think flamenco is the perfect fit for a Valentine’s Day theme. And the piece that I’m choosing is a tragic love story, which lends itself really well to a passionate feel.”
Pitkethly has been active in Vancouver’s flamenco community for 24 years and has seen her own dance studio and company, Karen Flamenco, grow with the rise in popularity of flamenco in Vancouver. She’s also no stranger to Dances for a Small Stage, having performed at the event once before.
Dances for a Small Stage was founded in 2002 to provide an intimate venue with a “ridiculously small stage” to connect established and up-and-coming professional dancers to audiences through interdisciplinary and intercultural works. Every year, the company presents diverse styles of dance, including contemporary, ballet, tap, jazz, swing, burlesque, urban, Chinese and traditional Indian dance forms.
“Julie-anne Saroyan [the co-founder and artistic director of Dances for a Small Stage] decided to bring all of the artists together so that we could meet each other and have a brain storming session. We decided that the theme was going to be love, talking about different types of love, some more unconventional than others,” says Pitkethly.
For her piece, Pitkethly will mix old with new by pairing a traditional flamenco guitarist and singer with a recording of a contemporary song. Pitkethly says the song she’s chosen is also not one normally associated with flamenco. “It’s been one of my favourite pieces — I don’t want to say because I want it to be a surprise for the show. Just working with that brings me back to my years of ballet or contemporary where we always worked with recorded music, and with flamenco I’m always working with live music, so it’s a challenge in that way I suppose.”
Other performers at Dances for a Small Stage 33 include Lesley Telford, Joshua Beamish and Naomi Brand, founder of All Bodies Dance project, an ensemble for dancers with and without disabilities. There will also be a duet about love and vulnerability from movement artist
Jennifer McLeish-Lewis, a solo bhangra work by Hardeep Singh Sahota, a hip-hop performance by Hannah Henney, member of the all female hip-hop group Diamonds in the Rough and a contemporary piece by Surrey-based company DISKORDANSE.
“Valentine’s Day is a beautiful day to celebrate love but it is also a sad day for some people too. Everybody has their own take on Valentine’s and I think everybody is going to touch on different themes,” says Pitkethly.
Dances for a Small Stage 33 Valentine’s Edition runs Feb. 11-14, 8 p.m. at the ANZA Club. Details at smallstage.ca.
@katrinatrask
