Flamenco veteran heats up Chinese dance

Clara Ramona finds a liberating spirit for women in flamenco, but says the most famous artists in Spain are men. Zhang Wei / China Daily

As the blare from speakers rises to a crescendo, six Chinese dancers twist and turn, stomping their feet and flourishing their arms in an equally feverish manner. On the other side of the room, their teacher Clara Ramona watches closely, occasionally shouting as beats are missed.

We are in one of her flamenco classes in Beijing, where students become passionate dancers and show a side of themselves rarely seen in their daily lives.

Ramona, who comes from Hong Kong, is herself an accomplished flamenco dancer, choreographer and producer with more than 35 years' experience in the United States and Spain.

The 56-year-old says the dance is gaining traction among Chinese women because of its stress on independence, following its popularity in Japan.

She had no idea that she would be teaching flamenco in Beijing, when she performed her elaborate work Carmen on the mainland more than a decade ago.

"The awareness has changed very much. There is strong potential here and the market is growing," Ramona says.

She started with five or six students one year ago and works with 15 to 20 in the capital now. They come from "all walks of life", including working women, housewives and professional dancers.

"For women, it's very liberating to do flamenco. It's very powerful and really develops independence. You don't need a partner, so you can excel on your own. There is no age or physical limit to flamenco. It all depends on how much time you can dedicate to it," Ramona says.

The students get the message.

"This is a dance for independent people. Most of us here are single," laughs Qu Yan, an MBA student who has been following Ramona for more than a year and is now helping organize the Beijing workshop.

The dance also opens a window to Spanish culture and its people.

"I studied Spanish in college and I have always been interested in flamenco," says Yao Tianhui, a recent college graduate.

The amateur dancers gather at least three times a week to practice. Once every two or three months, Ramona gives them two-week-long tutoring.

Dancing since the age of 5 in her native Philippines, Ramona was trained in ballet, modern dance, jazz, Spanish classical dance and flamenco in the Boston Conservatory of Dance. She later focused on flamenco and became the lead dancer and choreographer in the Ramon de los Reyes Spanish Dance Theater.

Her productions took her from the North Shore Music Theater, Massachusetts, to Spain in 1992, where she decided to establish herself in Madrid and created her own company, the Ballet Espanol de Clara Ramona.

At the end of 2001, she toured the major cities of China with Carmen, and the "overwhelming response" has kept her tied to China.

Awareness of flamenco has tended to focus on its relation to Carmen, with many Chinese audiences - like many around the world - seeing the dance as a woman's art.

"They might think it's a feminine dance. But it's actually not. In Spain, the famous dancers tend to be more men than women. Flamenco is a very masculine and powerful dance," she says.

"As a choreographer, I see in front of me an ocean of possibilities. As a performer, my age might limit that, then again I might find another form. As a teacher, I will teach until the day I die and pass on this art to my students.

"Flamenco is like wine. It just gets better as you get older. Being technically and physically strong is not the focus anymore, it's the expression and interpretation that count."

sunyuanqing@chinadaily.com.cn