"Flamenco Takes a Surreal Leap: Chicago dancer-choreographer Wendy Clinard cuts a path through the opposing worlds of life and death in her latest flamenco-based performance, Jondo Portraits. In the process, she probes the surreal manifestations of grief, especially in times of war... Jondo Portraits is not a depressing dirge. It can take on the tragically whimsical qualities of a Pedro Almodovar film. And it places the intricate presentational aspects of flamenco in a vital contemporary context."
- Lucia Mauro, Chicago Tribune

A work of interdisciplinary dance theatre rooted in the art of flamenco incorporating painting, sculpture, and dance.

Featuring:

Legendary Flamenco guitarist Pedro Cortes
Composer Kinan Abou-afach
The work of painter Thomas Masters
Sculptress Susan Clinard


Photo by Thierry Emonet

 

Photo by John Boehm

 

   
Flamenco, cello, guitar, spiraling surfaces, flesh and wood, multiple frames, swirling fabric, live sculpture, painting, and video projection integrate to create Clinard Dance Theatres new work, JONDO PORTRAITS. In Clinards quest for new ways of communicating personal and global events she has chosen the Jondo (Spanish translation of deep song) branch of Flamenco music and dance as the springboard for JONDO PORTRAITS. The traditional boundaries of flamenco are stretched, culminating into this contemporary dance theatre work.

JONDO PORTRAITSis structured as three vignettes surrounding the themes of madness, loss, and longing. It aims at creating still and moving portraits that recharge our astonishment, our questioning, our grief, and our compassion in our contemporary climate of war. Historically, through their song and dance, the Jondo forms transcended human sufferings by communion with the unknown. It was art intended for the community that encompassed not only the human but the divine.

In the creation of this powerful and moving work, Clinard has sought the artistic collaboration of legendary flamenco guitarist and composer Pedro Cortez, Syrian-born cellist and composer Kinan Abou-afach, world-recognized sculptress and sister Susan Clinard, and renowned painter Thomas Masters.

 

A glimpse of Jondo Portraits: