Flamenco Rosario dancers bid an artistic "adios" to devoted guitarist with To Victor With Love...
Three new pieces by Spanish choreographers embrace the range the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival cofounder loved
Flamenco Rosario dancer Meghan Asher. Photo by James O’Mara
Victor Kolstee. Photo by Tim Matheson
Vancouver International Flamenco Festival presents To Victor With Love… on September 25 at the Waterfront Theatre. Tickets are still available for streaming.
FOR ANYONE who used to visit Victor Kolstee and Rosario Ancer’s Centro Flamenco, the subterranean space with the warm wood floors conjured a welcoming bit of Andalusia and its storied tablaos—even on the rainiest West Coast day.
It was here that Flamenco Rosario dancer Meghan Asher recalls Kolstee, strumming on his ever-present guitar, greeting the students as they entered the studio.
“He was such a big part of our lives in the dance studio, encouraging us and giving us pieces of advice,” recalls Asher. “He literally gave us the melody and rhythm to dance with. When I was young, I had no idea how lucky I was to have stumbled upon such a great instrumentalist and guide.”
Asher will be part of a troupe who will pay tribute to Kolstee, who died at 75 in June, at the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival this week.
Kolstee had helped found the fest with his wife, Rosario Ancer, the Mexican-born dancer he met in the flamenco hotbed of Madrid, eventually bringing her back to his hometown of Vancouver. In 1990, when they held the first fest, it was a one-night affair at the Cultch; the event grew in subsequent years to bring in some of the world’s hottest names in flamenco.
Called To Victor With Love…, the show at this year’s fest paying tribute to Ancer’s late husband and musical director will feature an adventurous range of pieces—three from Spanish choreographers, and several by Ancer. Asher says the mix befits Kolstee’s approach to flamenco.
“Victor always excelled at traditional flamenco music—he was a master at that—but he also wanted to push the boundaries,” Asher explains.
“He loved rock, he loved jazz, and he loved using different music and art forms. So that definitely was part of our inspiration for one of the pieces, Solace,” she says referring to a work by Ancer. “The original iteration was one that Victor played and performed with, and so he's in it, even though he's not with us to play it anymore .”
The Spanish pieces also explore a range of expression that would have thrilled Kolstee, Asher says. Pilar Ogalla’s De Extremadura a Granada is more traditional flamenco puro, while La Sombra, by Albert Hernandez, is a fusion of classical flamenco with modern dance moves. Cristina Hall’s Simbiosis is a highly experimental piece—a conversation between two dancers, Asher says.
With fellow dancers Katia Flores, Yurie Kaneko, and Charo (Chien-Ai Tsai), Asher was able to learn each of the pieces directly from the Spanish choreographers over Zoom.
“One of the silver linings of COVID is that people are available and willing to choreograph long-distance classes,” the artist explains. “It was an incredible opportunity for us. Before COVID, we’d have to fly people in.”
Those dance works will be bookended by two pieces by Ancer that pay direct tribute to her late husband: Remember? opens the program, while Letters to Victor closes it. The excerpts are the beginning of a full new work inspired by Kolstee that will premiere in 2022.
Joining the performers on stage will be guitarist and longtime collaborator Caroline Planté, singer José “El Chele” Lumbreras from Montreal, and percussionist Davide Sampaolo from Vancouver.
Preparing the meaningful program has dancer Asher reflecting on the remarkable passion for flamenco that Kolstee and Ancer brought to the city—and to her own life. Growing up in southern Alberta, she was first struck at 15 by a flamenco scene in the movie Strictly Ballroom, and her mother searched hard to find her classes in the form. When Asher moved here in 2003, she entered Centro Flamenco, eventually taking a role in its professional training via Flamenco Rosario in 2007.
She says she never really fully appreciated the deep connections Kolstee and Ancer had forged across the world until she followed them to the famed Jerez Festival in 2018, where Ancer was an adjudicator and the pair met up with friends from around the Spanish scene.
Flamenco Rosario. Photo by James O’Mara
“The Flamenco Rosario studio became like a second home to me,” she says of the space they built back here. “Some of my best friends are from there. And it was the way that Rosario is so good at conveying her art; her choreography is not only complex but expressive.”
That connection to the city’s little piece of Spain makes it all the more painful to have lost a man so integral to creating the music behind the dance.
“Victor was always encouraging us and challenging us and wanting the best for us,” Asher reflects. “It’s a huge loss for the family and the whole flamenco community.”
But if ever there was a way to work through pain and loss, it’s this deeply felt art form. “The passion, the emotion that gets evoked: it transcends all cultural boundaries,” Asher says. “For people who love flamenco, you’re gonna feel it.”
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