MuDanzasBoleras is a spectacular show that serves as an overview of Spanish Dance over a period of two turbulent centuries. It also focuses upon the Escuela Boleras, (Bolero school of dance) a classical form of dance which originated in Cadiz. This Spanish city was at the height of the Spanish struggle against the French occupation of Spain, when the famous Liberal Constitution was drawn up in 1812. Sharon created the show purposely to coincide with this great landmark in Spanish history.
It very well received, premiering in Malaga, and performed in the Jerez Festival, in Granada, and in the Biennale of Seville. It was to be Sharon’s last major creation and she was in the process of bringing it to Teatru Manoel when she passed away. Her parents have continued what she initiated.
“Spain has already honoured Sharon by staging two shows specifically dedicated to her, one in Seville and another in Madrid,” her parents explained.
“The one in Seville was a tribute that her performing colleagues staged for her, on 18 September. The Homenaje as they know it, was presented at the renowned Teatro Central and the performance was entitled Larachi de Sharon. Also, MuDanzasBoleras 1812 – 2012 was staged in Madrid as part of the Madrid en Danza international festival, on 16 November. We were lucky enough to attend both these performances and we are proud to say that both shows were sold out.”
Tell us a little bit about Sharon’s career in Spain, and what it meant to you as her parents
Sharon always had a passion and love for dance and always wanted to expand her knowledge about it. Once she got involved with Spanish music and dance, at the age of 17, she asked us about going to study in Spain, we knew that there was no stopping her.
At the time I (her father) was working overseas, so Edwige had to go with her alone to fine the most suitable Flamenco Academy. It was the year of the Expo 92. On the advice of a friend who was later to become her mentor, Prof. Jose De Udaeta, Seville was selected and after visiting several academies and a meeting with the famous dancer Matilde Coral, Sharon made her choice and was accepted.
As parents we were sad not to have our little girl at home, but we were very happy that she was in Seville, which is still like a typical Maltese town, but larger, where everybody knows everybody and where life is mostly conducted in the streets, even more than in our own towns. People are out on the street for breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as a drink in the evening. The climate is very much like ours. While Sharon was studying she attended various training institutions, the main ones being: two years at ‘Fondacion de Cristina Herren’ and another two years with ‘El Farruco’, (known as the King of Flamenco), and his daughter Farruca who introduced Sharon to living Flamenco. This opened the doors for Sharon to be accepted within the Flamenco Andalucian gypsy community.
Was she always destined to be a dancer?
Sharon was always surrounded with music. Edwige is a piano teacher and we both love good music. When she was a baby we would put her in the living room next to the stereo, put a record on the turntable and Sha would stay there as long as she could, not only hear but also feel the music.
She started her movement classes with Tanya Bayona at the age of four. At the age of 12 she started her flamenco classes with Deborah McNamara. It was her nannu, Saviour Baldacchino who got her interested in Flamenco, because of the stories he used to tell her of his voyages to Spain with the British Navy.
When she was 15 Ed and I had taken her and a group of six girls from Deborah McNamara’s academy to Stiges, a town on the northern coast of Barcelona for a course organised by Prof. Jose De Udaeta. She had excelled to such an extent that her trainer moved her up with the senior girls on the second day of the course, and that was one of the first times I saw Sha cry. She was afraid she would not cope. But she did and I remember Prof. De Udaeta telling us that she had what it took to pursue a career in Flamenco. After that Sharon knew what her future was going to be.
Her dedication to classes was such that when an American friend and work colleague asked her to be a bridesmaid at his wedding in Malta, she accepted only because she could go to class while he and his new wife had a karozzin, ride from Valletta, where the wedding ceremony took place, to the reception in St Julian’s. Her dance teacher at the time, Alison Byrd, was amazed to see Sharon come in to class in her bridesmaid dress.
Sharon was a good student, she always did well in her studies, but she excelled in the ones that would help her in her future life in dance. She was loved at school both by her teachers and her class mates. She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart and was awarded the Governors’ Prize for Courtesy and Kindness, a prize that her classmates had voted for, in fifth form. She was also good in languages and picked up Spanish in three months.
What does having her opus performed in her homeland at the national theatre mean to you?
Sharon was already working on bringing muDanzasBoleras 1812 – 2012 to Malta. It was her dream to have Maltese music and dance lovers enjoy her creation and get a feel of her beloved ‘Esquela Bolera’, (Bolero School of Dance). She always aimed high with her productions. We experienced this in the past in Malta when she brought over Los Farrucos in 1996, Sonequete Flamenco in 2001 and Flamencos – The Red Shoes in 2013, all to perform at Teatru Manoel. But muDanzasBoleras tops them all.
Bringing a production like this to Malta involves a lot of work but my wife and I are not alone; we have a team of four of Sharon’s close friends that are helping us, as well as the Spanish production company iCart, managed by Trini Gutierrez Suarez. We are also very grateful to the Teatru Manoel committee for taking on this tribute performance to our Sharon.
It’s been a long process, and we would not have done it without help, but I’m sure Sharon must have been giving us a hand along the way. To have Trini Gutierrez Suarez take charge of the muDanzas Boleras company and manage it so well; for Sharon’s friends to come to our help; for Teatru Manoel to be so understanding and willing; for the sponsors to be so generous... All along it’s been hardest to talk of Sharon in the past tense, especially when we feel her and her legacy to be so alive. The next step after the show is the creation of the ‘Sharon Sapienza Foundation’.
Do you feel that Sharon’s spirit has lived on in all the dancers and choreographers she had taught?
Sharon toured the world to teach. She travelled as far as India and Vietnam to give master classes. Whenever she came to Malta she always found time to give more classes: she enjoyed their enthusiasm and loved to see the progress they made from year to year. Sharon’s company also organised a festival, in Seville called Larachi Flamenca where she would spot and encourage up and coming Flamenco artists.
Many artists and students both in Malta and Spain have spoken of Sharon as being their inspiration. Proof of this was the performance that was staged in Seville last September. Some 15 artists, including Malta’s Cikka Grima and her husband Andrej, organised a very moving tribute show called Larachi de Sharon (in Calo, an Andalusian dialect, this means Sharon’s Night.)
What can audiences look forward to at the Teatru Manoel show?
Sharon had been working on this show for four years when she premiered it in Malaga in March of 2012. MuDanzasBoleras 1812 – 2012 takes the audience through 200 years of the creation and development of Esquela Bolera. These 200 years also coincided with another anniversary: 1812 is when the Spanish drove occupying French forces to their ships in the port of Cadiz and wrote their new constitution.
The Bolero school of dance finds its roots in the Spanish courts; the French had their court dance, and the Spanish slowly merged their own Andalusian and Flamenco popular dances with what they inherited from the French. In fact the performance opening scene is set during the Cadiz uprising. The six dancers on the stage are in period costumes that where researched carefully by Sharon. Two thirds down the performance there is a time break, then the dancing resumes in the present, in modern costumes, thus giving the audience a modern interpretation of Esquela Bolera.
MuDanzasBoleras 1812 – 2012 is being staged on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 February at 8pm. Tickets cost €25 except for gallery seats that cost €10. Booking is open at from the Teatru Manoel booking office, (2124 6389 or e-mail [email protected]