Out of Africa

   Pairing Middle Eastern dance and flamenco is a natural fit, given the gypsy influence in both dance styles, not to mention the fact that Moorish rule held sway in the southern part of Spain (Al-Andalus) for about six hundred years. But North Africa was not the only part of the continent to claim kinship to the dances of Spain. West Africa, through the slave trade to the New World, manifested its traditions in the Hispanic diaspora’s Afro-Caribbean and Brazilian styles.  And that was the theme of Sol y Sombra’s (a Long Island-based flamenco company) Out of Africa concert presented on October 21, 2012 at Suffolk County College’s Van Nostrand Theatre in Brentwood Long Island. The Mosaic Company was Special Guest Artist, representing the North African contingent, and performed a selection of dances from Tunisia, Morocco, and Egypt.  Anecdotally, since it really is such a small world after all, there were many familiar flamenco faces backstage – a reminder of the happy memories of the much-missed Fazil’s dance studios, the home of many Middle Eastern and flamenco dancers, teachers and students.