Around the World in Three Weekends - San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, California

Dance Magazine, Oct, 2002 by Rita Felciano

In addition to the hip-hop groups that demonstrated the evolution of the form, two terrific ensembles energized the last weekend's lineup. Marcelo y Valesa Solis's deft rendering of the intricacies of 1940s-style tango sparkled with wit and sex appeal without ever raising a leg above knee level.

Gliding by each other, they interjected small hops and skips into cross-stepping patterns. They flicked a leg or hooked it around a partner's without missing a beat of the scratchy, old-time music. Emese: Messengers of the African Diaspora is a new Afro-Cuban ensemble directed by Silfredo La O Vigo, who also happens to be a dancer with ODC/San Francisco and an accomplished painter. His three-part Voz de los Orishas (Voices of the Orishas) tackled the familiar subject of the Yoruban deities who found a new home in the Carribbean. La O Vigo's approach to presenting them in dance was choreographically clear and theatrically effective. The opening, with the dancers in white, emphasized communal group movements. This segued into a musical section with the dancers joining the musicians, using gourds to enhance their invocatory circle and line dances. The subsequent solos evoked each Orisha's individual power--space-eating leaps and fierce attacks for the sword-yielding warrior Ogun, and magnificent brocades, undulating hips, and a soft smile for the beauty of Oshun. At the end they all came together for a final tableau, a pantheon of the gods.