Living in Santa Barbara, one can’t help feeling the influence of
the powerful Hispanic aesthetic that surrounds us every day. This broad
international current of creativity continues to activate deep structures of
feeling and makes what happens here part of a story that extends back through
California, Mexico, and Latin America all the way to the ancient Mediterranean.
The most distinctive thread that comes down to us from Spain
begins in Andalusia, where flamenco originated, and where Farruquito, who will
perform at the Arlington on Tuesday, November 5, thanks to UCSB Arts &
Lectures, is from. The distinctive rhythms and spectacular showmanship that
have made flamenco a worldwide sensation derive from creative lineages that are
most often transmitted along family lines, and Farruquito is no exception. He
began performing in public at the age of 4, when he danced alongside his
grandfather on Broadway in Flamenco Puro.
At 11, he appeared in the best-known film about the dance, Carlos Saura’s Flamenco. More recently, Farruquito
stole the show as Carmelo in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2015 production of
Manuel de Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo,
a performance directed by Gustavo Dudamel.
This upcoming event offers the Santa Barbara audience an unusual
opportunity to experience the purest form of flamenco as understood and
performed by its foremost contemporary advocate. In a recent email exchange,
Farruquito answered the Independent’s
questions about his art, his life, and the spiritual legacy of his family.