LAHORE: It was a magnificent night of music, dance and singing by four superb Spanish flamenco artistes at Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall on Friday. The event was aptly titled, ‘Flamenco’.

Flamenco is about 1,000 old genre of music accompanied by dancing and singing that originated in the region of Andalusia in Spain. The rare performance at jam-packed Alhamra Hall won the hearts of the audience who gave a standing ovation to the artistes. The dancers performing on the occasion laced with clapping and tapping mesmerising the audience with their fabulous skills, featuring the rich traditional culture of Spain. The lights arrangements complemented the performance well and they were romantic and dreamy.

The event was organised by the Embassy of Spain in collaboration with the Lahore Arts Council (LAC). The Choni and Victor Bravo Flamenco Company from the Seville area of Spain featured four artistes, namely Victor Bravo, the male dancer, Asuncion Choni, the female dancer, Juan Manuel Espinosa, the singer, and David Bastida, the guitar player.

Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador of Spain in Pakistan Manuel Duran said Flamenco was reflective of the rich culture of his country. He said the word, Alhamra (Alhambra in Spain) was dear to Spain and it meant red in Arabic.

Elena Gomez, the deputy head of Mission Embassy of Spain in Islamabad, speaking to Dawn, said the four artistes who performed at the night were from Seville, a city in Andalusia and the group had been performing for the last two decades. “They have performed in Japan, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Latin America. They are performing in Lahore for the very first time”.

The group of artistes has performed in Islamabad and Faisalabad and their next performance would be in Karachi.

During the performance, the people kept coming in and going out the hall that disturbed the artistes and also left a bad impression on the foreign guests.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2022