DREAM
Jesus Muñoz question and statement of 'Dream" shares the vibrancy of Flamenco, which at its core is a celebration of life. Despite everything going on with the world-people remember art, and use art as a channel for expressing feelings that we can't always get out with words. We value cave drawings, communication by native tribes centuries ago, subtleties of Rembrandt's lighting, Van Gogh's brush strokes, the re-defining Picasso. We hold dear the bold vibrating violets from our own Georgia O'Keefe and reflect on poems from Garcia Lorca and the voice of Camaron. What is the statement of story behind their messages? What were they thinking, feeling? How did they represent the times they lived in?
Meanwhile, sometimes we find a way to communicate and collaborate with each other and this concert is meant to be inclusive, rather than exclusive. With all the heat on immigration, rights for women and working class citizens-Jesus Muñoz Flamenco is asking New Mexico youth a question as part of a NM statewide writing and drawing competition. "What does it mean to be American to you?" The idea is to bring this question to life with a concert influenced by the answers of the children and youth. There is no right or wrong-only reflection. Sometimes we forget, they will often teach us much more than we will teach them. How do they see the world?
Muñoz says, "I decided to reflect on a famous Nina Simone statement," An artist's duty as far as I am concerned, is to reflect the time." ... "So, I look around me, I read the paper, I see what's online, in the media and how we've come so far-but at the same time-we're moving backwards in social accountability and relationships. In a time where I feel that there is a lot of toxic narrative and a huge dump on the foundation of solidarity, we breathe love with this concert and express the fact that yes, we have emotions and-- We are also pissed off! It's OK to embrace negative emotion as well as the positive, because that is life. It's not all a ray of sunshine. The 99% are watching day after day, the war on love and incessant pouring of gasoline to blaze the fire of cruelty, it's not OK. Dance and live events is one of those places where you still need to BE present. Flamenco dance is living and dying art in a real time representation a feeling of now. It's urgent. So we act today.
