PORT TOWNSEND — If flamenco dance, song and guitar are siblings, their grandparents are Gypsies, Jews, Arabs, Spanish Andalusians and Africans. They were travelers, people determined to practice their art.
Savannah Fuentes, a performer who celebrates all of the above, will bring flamenco to the Chameleon Theater, 800 Park Ave., this Monday and Tuesday. With guitarist Pedro Cortes and singer-percussionist Jose Moreno — internationally known artists — Fuentes will shape the full flamenco experience at 8 p.m. both nights.
Seats in the intimate theater range from $25 for general admission, $15 for students and $8 for children to $37 for reserved VIP tickets.
The second performance Tuesday has just been added; if any tickets are left at show time on either night, they will be sold at the door. To purchase and find out more, visit https://www.brownpapertickets.com.
An American dancer of Puerto Rican and Irish descent, Fuentes has just embarked on a tour of the West Coast — from Bellingham to Hermosa Beach, Calif. — that has her dancing nearly every night for three weeks straight.
“I feel strong, and in shape,” said Fuentes, who has studied flamenco for 18 years and performed it for a decade.
She’s as ardent as ever about spreading the word, through musical and body language, about the centuries-old art form.
Flamenco fans on the North Olympic Peninsula know Fuentes from previous tours that included stops at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse and Olympic Theatre Arts in Sequim. This is her first visit to Port Townsend, however, since 2011. Her home base is Seattle, while she also performs and studies in New York City and Spain.
This trip’s title: “Pasajera (“passenger”): An Evening of Flamenco.
The name comes, Fuentes said, from how she’s feeling these days. Having recently sent her daughter off to college, she’s letting herself be carried away by her art: a passenger, riding a musical force that lifts her up and then sets her feet down on the dance floor.
“I’ve been traveling nonstop,” she said. “It’s a wonderful thing,” this privilege of dancing the length of the West Coast.
This tour is different. Fuentes has more input now when it comes to the music her compañeros play. She senses that she’s dancing her best now.
At the same time, the dancer is filled with admiration for Moreno and Cortes, who she said have exquisitely challenging roles. In flamenco, the singing, the cante, comes first, said Fuentes, who is a student of the song as well as the baile, the dance.
Moreno, born into a family of famous artists including singer Pepe de Málaga and dancer Estrella Morena, has been touring since he was a teenager; he debuted at the Tablao Costa Vasca in Miami, and has since performed at the Panama Jazz Festival and at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
Cortes’ forebears are Spanish Gypsy musicians; he’s a third-generation flamenco guitarist. He has composed for the Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Company, performed with artists including the prima flamenca dancers La Tati and Merche Esmeralda, and created music for the Coen Brothers film “Paris, Je T’aime.”
When she, Cortes and Moreno synchronize, “it feels super good,” Fuentes said.
“I’m in a zone … I can hear the audience with me.”
This is not a time to stay silent in your seat. Feel free to clap and use your voice.
“I like to get yelled at for sure,” said the dancer.
For her formation as an artist, she bows to her “most significant mentor,” Maestra Sara de Luis.
And then there are those costumes. They are not insignificant. Fuentes recently acquired a new red dress, a new white and a new black dress. She’s also adding an outfit with pants to her stage wardrobe.
The new ensembles are made by Val Mayse, lead costumer at the University of Washington’s School of Drama.
“She is an angel,” Fuentes said.
The artist seeks to innovate, honoring flamenco’s roots while adding modern nuance. This form, she said, comes from people who were persecuted, refugees who migrated across Europe and their art is strong and resilient as spider silk.
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Diane Urbani de la Paz, a former features editor for the Peninsula Daily News, is a freelance writer living in Port Townsend.
