- Mis Hermanas: Thicker than Water, My Sisters and I, presented by Flamenco Rosario, Saturday, April 6 at 8 p.m. at the Vancouver Playhouse. For tickets, $33-$38, visit flamencorosario.org.
EVERY Tuesday, Rosario Ancer's sisters gather over coffee in their native Mexico.
Due to the choices she's made and the path she's taken in pursuit of her passions, she's the sole sister, of eight, not present at the weekly Monterrey gathering.
The tension Ancer experiences within herself is at the heart of her work, Mis Hermanas: Thicker than Water, My Sisters and I.
Autobiographical in nature, the contemporary flamenco production tells Ancer's story, starting with her memories of growing up in Mexico, her decision to move to Spain to become a flamenco dancer and how she came to live in Canada. Each of her sisters is profiled, brought to the stage by a talented crop of international dancers, and their story is told through live music and dance, as well as narration, sound effects, stills and video projections.
Ancer believes Mis Hermanas to be a show that has the potential to touch many lives.
"It is a work that resonates with a lot of people on different levels: because you are an immigrant, because you want to follow your dreams, because you have not followed dreams that you would like to, because you lost your parents when you were little (or) because you have families or siblings that you cannot see as often as you would like to," she says.
Mis Hermanas premiered in Vancouver in 2008. It's currently on tour and is scheduled to make a stop at the Vancouver Playhouse tomorrow night. The show is produced by Ancer and her guitarist husband Victor Kolstee's Vancouver-based dance company, Flamenco Rosario. They founded the now charitable organization in 1989 and Ancer serves as artistic director and Kolstee as musical director. Their mandate is to develop dance, music works and dance artists and they present performances and educational workshops, as well as offer professional training opportunities.
They run a school, Centro Flamenco, and also present the annual Vancouver International Flamenco Festival.
"We also try to push the boundaries of the art form," says Ancer, adding their traditional flamenco-based works often incorporate a contemporary approach.
"Mis Hermanas is a contemporary work in the sense that it ties Mexican, Spanish and Canadian culture and it's based in a true story, which is not something that you generally do in flamenco. So flamenco is our medium to tell a story, to develop an idea, not the main focus of the performance," says Ancer.
Ancer's contemporary take on the genre is the result of her being from Mexico, though moving to Spain for flamenco training and to dance professionally. While there, she met Kolstee, likewise interested in the genre, who was born in Holland, though moved to Vancouver at age 10. The couple currently calls Vancouver home.
"Being removed from that environment (in Spain) and living in Canada, in who I am as an artist, I had to reconcile the art form that I love with who I am and where I live so that's how I started searching for my expression," she says or her creative liberties.
Developing Mis Hermanas proved cathartic, both personally and artistically.
"When I was writing the narrative I think was the hardest part," says Ancer. "There was a part of me that I suppressed in this past because my parents died when we were very young. They were very young and they died in a period of three years and so I think there was a lot of tumultuous emotions in that time and I don't think we dealt properly with that at that time. . . . When I started writing, it was very, very, very hard so I had to stop many times."
Ancer plays herself in the show and despite the number of times she's done so, "every night brings something different," she says, in terms of the emotions she experiences.
The same can be said for the dancers who join her on stage, and "who became my sisters through this process," says Ancer, including Vancouver flamenco dancer Melanie Meyers, 37. She plays Ancer's sister Rebeca, who is very dignified, intelligent and spiritual.
"The story is so compelling, we all get very emotional even just in rehearsals. . . ." says Meyers. "Of course we're all pretty passionate about the dance part too, so a lot of emotions and passion come out in this particular project for sure."
Meyers, who lived on the North Shore off and on growing up and graduated from Carson Graham and also studied at Capilano University prior to attending the University of British Columbia, was first exposed to flamenco at age 13 in Spain, having been living there with her family.
Returning to Canada, Meyers, then in high school, was one of Ancer's first local students and joined the company at age 18. After a hiatus while she was living elsewhere, Meyers has recently rejoined Flamenco Rosario, having returned to the Lower Mainland, and also teaches at Centro Flamenco.
"She is a very experienced and very elegant dancer," says Ancer.
Meyers is pleased to be part of Mis Hermanas this time around as she wasn't living locally when it premiered and she was pregnant when it was remounted to tour Mexico.
"I've wanted to be part of this production since she came out with it," she says.
"It's a really wonderful opportunity for me artistically but also just personally in my connection with Rosario. She's been a mentor for many years for me," she adds.
The current production is a collaboration between Mexican, Spanish and Canadian flamenco artists and musicians.
"I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to dance amongst some other fabulous dancers from across Canada and also other places, like Mexico, and the musicians as well are outstanding," says Meyers.
As part of its current tour, Mis Hermanas: Thicker than Water, My Sisters and I will be presented at The Act in Maple Ridge tonight (April 5), and later this month in Whitehorse, Yukon, April 9; Kelowna, April 11; and Golden, April 13.
