Rhythm divine

The highly expressive  art form with its roots in Indian, Arabic and Spanish culture, Flamenco dance allows the artist to express all the emotions that a human being is bound to have. Hailing from Spain, Flamenco involves a lot of sweeping arm movements and rhythmic feet stomping.

Not many know that the dance form is performed in India by the Flamenco dance ambassador and the only flamenco dancer Shehzeen Cassum, who retains the authenticity and the bold expression. Through the platform of her academy — SCFA — Shehzeen invites international artists and maestros of this art form to come down to India and inspire, elevate and grow the Flamenco community here. “I aim to share the art with the Indian audience in its original form to enrich the student community and show people how it is actually performed,” says Shehzeen, who is the founding director of SCFA.

Talking about her initial encounter with the dance form she recalls that it happened by chance at the age of 16 when she got to interact with a Flamenco dancer. “When I met the artist I just decided to learn this art and delve more into it,” she recalls. That’s when Shehzeen decided to spend at least four months in Spain with flamenco artistes and bring her newly learnt skill to the city’s future Flamenco dancers through her academy. “Being an ambassador of this dance, it’s kind of a responsibility to perform it with authenticity so that the Indian audience can have a correct reference for this dance form,” smiles the artiste.

Shehzeen and Rosana

Just like any classical dance form, flamenco too requires a highly articulated training with never-ending hours of riyaas and a professional trainer to be able to perform. For their upcoming show, Shehzeen and her three performers will be presenting ‘Cuadro Flamenco – a combination of Cante (Singing), Baile (dance) and Coque (guitar)’. “If you have these three elements you can do a Flamenco show,” explains the dancer. To ensure that the performance connects to the traditional India, Shehzeen and her artistes will speak on the stage for a few minutes in between the performance and also plans to select a small and intimate space for her shows. “I want to relate it to the Indian culture and break down the barrier between the performer and the audience,” says the dancer. Insisting that initial setting of traditional dance performances in India are very intimate and familiar, she says, “I want audience to have the same kind of experience.”

While the other Indian classical dance forms include mudras and stories in songs at times, Flamenco has all the expression with music. It doesn’t follow any story but the changing music has a different style and beat. “Each style has a different taal and that comes from different parts of Spain,” she explains. She also adds that the singing part of the performance talks about Flamenco’s origin and history of the style, “Flamenco is a lot more complex and each style has a mood change and that is why it is expressive.”