July 21,22,23 La Tania returned as artistic director, choreographer, and YES, as dancer. Her marvelously conceived and executed Solasz, featured the lighting designs of Patty Ann Farrell and the management skills of Julie Mushet, her first since her 2019 resignation from World Arts West. With three dancers either resident or locally raised, eight episodes were staged at the Presidio Theatre. The audience was invited to enjoy opening night sangria in the Plaza. Where the now-obligatory acknowledgment of the Ohlone Indian lands was made.
It was a fitting connection to the fact that Solasz represents journey, specifically the pains-taking removal of the Temple of Debod from the area inundated by the Aswan Dam construction to its current residence in Madrid, Spain. The program notes recorded eight segments: from the Plaza to the Solasz or Solea, acknowledging La Tania’s dancing and choreographic talents, the music composition and guitar of Jose Luiz de la Paz, the voice of Racquel Heredia, the poems by Adrian Arias and La Tania.
The credits also acknowledged Vlademir Quintero’s Mix and Mastering, the percussion of LP and Adolfo Herrera, and the flutes of Lester Paredes.
The colorful visual backgrounds of each segment were vital in their simplicity; landscapes or closeups of unkempt, tangled fields, sprawling shrubs, rutted earth, a massive flowered field. Each was chosen to accent at least six of the eight episodes. This natural display charged the dancers’ movements, commencing with the Arrival – Legada and Baile des Las Maletas – where the dancers emerged with suitcases, their postures declaring travail and exhaustion.
Given the current refugee challenges in the Mediterranean and the eloquent dancers’ bodies, the audience was riveted. The intense response built palpably, the performance achieving a rare oneness shared by artists and audience.
It was only at the end, section VII, appropriately titled Hogar or Home, that conventional solos appeared where the four artists danced one of the traditional flamenco solos. Individual emphasis was clear in the choice of solo form from brisk, almost peppy, to sustained and passionate, languid and alluring, and the easy liquid quality of La Tania.
Julie Mushet prevailed upon La Tania to make the work and quartet of artists gifting us with such a magical evening of Spanish dance.
What I did not know was, just prior to the opening performance, Aimee T’sao wrote a brilliant, comprehensive column in Classical Voice. There she recorded La Tania’s unusual childhood, exposing an innate understanding of the premise of this brilliant work which she created with her collaborators.
Also was the salient information Julie Mushet had provided the initial impetus for the work. Besides het administrative and fiscal management, Mushet saw the Temple, when newly reconstructed in Madrid. Also unmentioned, is the fact that Mushet, whose roots stretch back to formative New England, is married to an Egyptian she describes as Pharoanic. All of which,
from T’sao to La Tania and Mushet, I find quite awesome.
mywesterneye/woollywesterneye 
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