Dansa a Valencia.

Various sites, Valencia, Spain February 2-5, 1995

For the past eight years the city of Valencia has played host to a programmers' showcase that provides a whirlwind view of Spain's contemporary dance scene. This year an intense schedule crammed fifteen performances into four days.

Two performances of the nine that I viewed stood out at the time and continue to make a strong impression in retrospect. In Eco de Silenci ("Echo of Silence"), part of a double bill by Lanonima Imperial, choreographer Juan Carlos Garcia creates a powerful encounter, or rather non-encounter, between two men and two women, as individuals, couples, and a group, to the haunting first movement of Henryk Gorecki's Third Symphony. Lit by four overhanging lamps, each set in a corner of a central square space with cords that permit the dancers to turn them off or on at will, it is an emotionally gripping portrait of potential communication that fails to materialize.

Catalina Vilana, Bebeto Cidra, Viviana Calvitti, and Emilio Gutierrez give beautifully understated performances that permit the subtleties of the choreography to come through. Movement, performers, music, and lighting have found an unusually well-balanced relationship in this twenty-six-minute work.