Flamenco, ‘a Way of Life,’ Returns to Hollywood’s Fountain Theatre

“Flamenco is a dance form you can do into your old age,” performer-choreographer Roberto Amaral maintains. “It’s not like ballet, which has a high level of technical involvement. Flamenco is more than technique: It’s heart, soul and emotion. It’s a way of life.”

It’s also very popular. January’s Sunday afternoon flamenco series at the Fountain Theatre “was an enormous success,” said Deborah Lawlor, the theater’s artistic producing director. “We had to turn away 300 people.”

Now, Amaral and Lawlor have rejoined forces for “Flamenco at the Fountain” (currently playing at the Hollywood theater), a two-hour program of a dozen works featuring Amaral, three singer-dancers, three dancers, two guitarists and a percussionist.

“Flamenco is basically a solo dance form,” Lawlor said. “There are three types. One is the cante jondo or deep song. The soleares is one; it’s a serious piece. So is the seguiriya , with the beat played on an anvil. Those are the heavy dances. Cantes chicos are the light songs: alegrias , tangos and rumbas. The third type are the party dances, like the sevillanas , a couples dance. But most of them are solo because flamenco is very personal, an individual expression. And the words aren’t set.”

Lawlor herself has been a student of Amaral’s for five years.

“Flamenco is an extremely difficult dance form,” she said. “It requires a whole new training of the ear because the rhythmic aspects are so different. You have to spend years getting it into your body.”

Amaral concurred. “Flamenco dancers usually don’t reach their peak till they’ve been doing it for 20 years. I’m 43 and just reaching my peak period now as a dancer and choreographer.”

Amaral, born and raised in Los Angeles, began studying flamenco at 15 “for the fun of it.” He is of Brazilian and Mexican parentage; “I must have had a natural sense of Latin rhythm,” he said. “But I didn’t study with the intention of being a professional dancer. I was going to be an artist, a painter.”

Yet after high school, he spent nine months studying in Madrid, returning home to junior college studies and local flamenco performances. In his second year, he was accepted at the prestigious Otis Art Institute--and also invited to join Jose Greco’s dance company.

“Jose won out,” he said simply. After five years with that company, Amaral returned to Spain “to work with as many different companies and styles as I could.” Back again in Los Angeles, he determined to set up his own company and began teaching out of his home studio.

In 1984, Amaral’s Ballet Espanol de Los Angeles was part of the Olympics Arts Festival; since 1987, he and his core group have toured Southland public schools from March until May, doing daily demonstrations and performances as part of the Music Center on Tour program.

Lawlor was also born here, but came of age artistically in New York in the ‘60s as an actress and dancer. She followed that with a lengthy overseas sojourn, including five years in India (as part of the utopian community Auroville), nine years in Australia and, on and off, a couple of years in France, where she made a living translating books from French.

“But I couldn’t shake the theater bug,” she said.

Upon her return to Los Angeles in 1976, Lawlor’s first producing venture was the acclaimed staging of “Early Tennessee” at the Powerhouse in Santa Monica, followed by a series of productions at other rental theaters. Two years ago, she set up shop at the Fountain, where she produces under a grant from the Barbara Culver Foundation. With her company’s work, the resident deaf theater group and now the flamenco contingency, “this theater is popping with activity,” Lawlor said proudly.

For Amaral, the theatrical venue is an artistic and personal playing ground: “I still love the pure, traditional form, but I also like to reach out and experiment. I’ve studied jazz and ballet; the more I’ve been exposed to, the more open my mind is to Spanish dance--and the more I can create my identity within it, incorporate other styles and forms and create that fusion. Spanish dance is a very expressive form: Musically, it has no boundaries. It’s reaching out and being touched by all the influences in the universe.”

“Flamenco at the Fountain” plays Sundays at 3 p.m. at the Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood, through May 31. Admission $20. Call (213) 663-1525.