Photograph ©Jean-Louis Fernandez
TOROBAKA
Glorifies dance in its purest form. Infused with outstanding live music this performance is centred on a collaboration of artists that speak of tradition and culture, perhaps of the origins of dance via unique impeccable and extremely fast rhythms.
The substructure for this performance lays the challenges that Akram Khan and Israel Galván feed off of each other. One could see it, as a sequence of catalyst moments; however what I witnessed yesterday was a dialogue between two highly experienced and mature performers, breathing dance and wisdom.
TOROBAKA is a dance performance ramified in outstanding music compositions by the glorious B.C Manjunath. Bobote is a veteran and master of compás inflicting sophisticated rhythms and dance onto the main arena, whereas David Azura is the accomplice of Christine Leboutte, the magnificent raw and visceral singer. One might think that Leboutte is the equidistant trace between dance, music, and rhythm.
Torobaka celebrates rhythm and dance as one might imagine in a different epoch- dancing surrounded by a passionate and participatory audience of individuals in a circle of love with dance.
Israel Galván is a virtuoso dancer – the solos performed involved the audience under Galván’s skin; rhythm and idiosyncratic movement quality, transporting us to a new palate of flamenco.
Torobaka declares itself as collaboration amongst artists that have an acute ability to play and create rhythms, exposing the intricate and complex bonds of dance and music. The duets between Kan and Galván are at times to long particularly when both are inspecting a common landscape of dance material.
The choreography is punctuated with spectacular footwork from Khan intertwined with glorious turns repeating throughout the performance. In parallel Galván dances a spirited performance that goes beyond the frenetic rhythm typical of flamenco, the latter is ingrained with a righteous and worthy performance for Gods – interjected with spiritual determination and unblemished commitment. Galvan dances the inception of dance, underlining a battle of two categorically different dance geniuses. Both perform unadulterated rhythms.
Torobaka is on at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay 16th and 17th of October