Last year marked the 20th anniversary of flamenco dance company Tablado Dance, a noteworthy milestone for any arts organization. But as Tablado co-founder Solange Gomes talks about it, 2021 just wasn't the right time for a big birthday bash.
"With the pandemic, everything was a little weird," Gomes says. "There was no space for celebration."
There is plenty to celebrate in what Gomes and her company—launched in 2001 with Jim Moreno—have been able to accomplish in those two decades. Just last year, Gomes received a Performing Arts Fellowship from the Utah Department of Arts & Museums, in recognition of those accomplishments. "That was the cherry on the sundae," she says with a laugh. "It was really nice to get that recognition. People in Utah had never heard about flamenco; now they come to shows, and to the classes."
She recalls that out the outset, "I started with a tiny company. We changed a bunch, because people moved. Then I started doing some live music, which at the beginning was difficult—to find musicians who play flamenco is difficult, especially in Utah. ... We were always improving, getting better, and the group started growing."
Of course, the past two years of that time has been a particular challenge. There was a lot of frustration involved in a planned performance for the Pilar Pobil Foundation being postponed three times—March 2020, November 2020 and April 2021—before it finally took place in November of last year. Gomes, however, was able to continue preparing with Tablado dancers and musicians in her home studio, as well as conducting some of her flamenco classes virtually. And she came to the realization that online classes were not a way she wanted to teach flamenco if she had any choice.
"If you are my student, and you are doing footwork, I need to see that," Gomes says. "I pay attention to all of my students, and I need to hear what they are doing. With virtual, there is delay [in the sound]. That didn't work for me. I could send some steps, so I'd videotape myself and send for them to practice. ... It was okay, but it's not my thing. I need the reaction."
Teaching is a huge part of Gomes' life, from the mere existence of Tablado as a way to introduce audiences to an art form they might otherwise not be familiar with, to the classes she teaches for Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT). It makes Gomes and Tablado a perfect fit for RDT's Ring Around the Rose series, with kid-friendly matinee performances that offer education along with the entertainment. While the March 12 Ring Around the Rose performance by Tablado will still not be able to incorporate as many interactive components, due to ongoing adjustments for COVID safety, Gomes still believes it's a wonderful unique opportunity to get kids involved in the world of flamenco.
"I love that performance; it's something that I'm always waiting for Stephanie [Shiozaki of RDT] to call me to do," Gomes says. "Outreach in schools is different; it's super nice to have them on the stage with lights and stage music. This time, we're still not able to bring the on stage, but we're planning to bring them into it in their seats: teach palmas [hand-claps], maybe some very basic steps, the hand work with flamenco. I hope next year, we can go back to the traditional way."
Gomes' way of teaching draws greatly from her additional training as a musician, which she says feeds into the inherent musicality of flamenco, in which the dancers are practically instruments themselves, in communication with the live musicians on stage. "Everything in flamenco is rhythm, it's music," Gomes says. "When I teach students who have a music background, the learning curve is faster. I teach music while I'm teaching dance."
Looking forward, Gomes hopes that Tablado might be able to return to traveling throughout the state, bringing flamenco to smaller communities where it might otherwise never be seen and heard. She also has a program of new choreography planned, with a tentative performance date in September. Yet despite the sense of accomplishment that comes from passing that 20-year anniversary, Gomes takes a more pragmatic approach to the company's next steps rather than having it turn her attention to grand long-range plans.
"It's so funny, I don't have this vision, 'oh, in the future...,'" she says. "I have ideas, and I just put them to work."