Through the Eyes of a Dancer: Selected Writings

Flamenco Master in Silence: Was Israel Galván Improvising?

| 263 Flamenco Master in Silence: Was Israel Galván Improvising? Blog post, June 18, 2008, dancemagazine.com On a terrace in front of the Hispanic Society of America up in Washington Heights, Israel Galván walked out to dance on a small platform. Dressed in black, he started by clapping his hands in that special flamenco way (palmas ), feeling the rhythm well up inside him.This usually happens when the dancer and musicians are setting up their rhythms together. But Galván was alone. It was quiet. According to the woman from Dia Art Foundation who introduced him, he chose silence so that he could listen to his own body. And he did listen, by pausing every few phrases, but also by making various sounds: foot scraping , heel tapping, palmas, grunts. He even spiraled his ringed fingers in his mouth, playing his teeth like castanets. Every sound was crystal clear. He would freeze in a position, either arched way back or in a perfect Egyptian profile. But then he would come flat front and pierce us with his gaze. He often thrust his pelvis forward, in a wide second, scooping his hands at pelvis level. It looked pretty sexy, but only lasted a few seconds. His flattened hands, when raised, looked like cobra heads, or a periscope. One time a single hand lilted in front of him like a falling leaf. Sometimes his hips pushed forward into an extreme hinge that erupted into a barrage of heel tapping. Twice he stepped off the platform, faced the stone wall behind it, and stuttered his heels so that his knees seemed to vibrate against the wall. Toward the end, he sat down, took off his shoes and socks, and then walked to a square sandbox in front of the black platform. He scooped his feet through it and flicked sand behind him, making a softer version of the scraping sound from before. Then it was over. We all cheered. He had captured our complete attention without music, lights, the magic of a theater, or people around yelling “Olé!” And the thing I most want to know is, Was he improvising, or was it set? The steps and stops looked so definite. And yet he seemed to be following his thoughts of the moment. Maybe “listening to his own body” is just another term for improvising. ...