SARA DE LUIS.

SARA DE LUIS LEO K THEATER, SEATTLE CENTER SEATTLE, WASHINGTON SEPTEMBER 22-25, 1999 REVIEWED BY GIGI BERARDI

Sara de Luis's farewell performance, "Sara y sus Amantes," was an evening of great drama, from the emotional narrative de Luis delivered, to the colorful music and dance interpretations and the ever-present portraits of the five classical Spanish composers she honored as her metaphorical lovers.

The performance was not a farewell to performing for de Luis, but to producing and directing her company, Homenaje. It was a farewell as exciting as any debut, a celebration by a mature artist who has achieved all that she set out to do.

De Luis made inspired choices for the choreography, costumes, music, and musicians for the performance. Guitarist and vocalist Marija Temo, violinist Yuriy Mikhlin, and pianist Denice Dameron played with singular clarity. They consistently delivered exquisite interpretations, including the demanding piano solo "El Albaicin," from Isaac ALbeniz's Iberia, and the challenging violin sections of Pablo de Sarasate's "Zapateado."

De Luis's costumes were imaginative--black for the beginning of the performance, as if to absorb some of the heat and passion of the music and dance; bold, hot colors for the Joaquin Turina, Albeniz, and Manuel de Falla pieces; and a cooler peach-colored ensemble, with a long bata de cola that she used as a prop, for the Sarasate.

All but two of the dances were new. In each dance, de Luis displayed an emotional range and technical skill that ran the gamut from utter abandon to complete control. To the soulful music of Enrique Granados, she waltzed around the stage, playing castanets so that their sounds accented the articulation of her expressive arms and upper body.

For the Turina pieces, she emphasized diagonals to the exclusion of any en face movements. For the music of Albeniz and Sarasate, she used high leg circles, wild jetes, and altitude kicks to converse with the musicians.

A highlight of the program was the concluding piece, in which de Luis danced the "Ritual of Fire" section of Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo suite. Whereas other pieces seemed more improvisational, in this piece de Luis's every movement seemed deliberate. Set to Falla's explosive music and performed to Temo's brilliant vocals, even the flinging of her arms seemed predetermined. The piece ended in a flurry of high-energy flamenco danced to the audience's thunderous applause.

This ambitious, cohesive program was indeed a celebration--the celebration of a lifelong commitment to dance and a passionate, urgent, skillful response to the inspiring music of five great Spanish composers. It was de Luis's "party," as she had mentioned early in the performance--a party for one who has worked hard, accomplished much in numerous facets of dance in this country and elsewhere, and touched many lives. Some of her proteges have gone on to establish their own performing careers, and this is now a direction that her own production company members must consider.