On
May 3rd, “Mis Hermanas,” Thicker Than Water: My Sisters and I
concluded an all too brief run at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation
Centre in Vancouver, Canada. The stirring production which included Flamenco
dancers, Latin acoustic guitars, slides of old photos and film, painted a
beautiful mural of Choreographer / Artistic Director, Rosario Ancer’s life
growing up in Mexico, her move to Spain and her subsequent emigration to
Canada twenty years ago.
The presentation began with all the house lights down and the stage lights very dim, as beautiful melodies streamed from the acoustic guitars of Victor Kolstee and Manuel “El Lito.” Singer “Angelita la del Lito” delivered a passionate solo, and as the stage lights came back up, seven sisters were seated posed like statues. Their lives would form much of the narrative, which the audience would hear in Rosario Ancer’s recorded voice, as she sat in a chair near the front of the stage.
There is no better way
to describe this production than to quote Ancer’s own words as they appeared
in the program, and so in a significant departure for this magazine, we will
defer to her, rather than writing our own synopsis. “While on a visit to
Sevilla Spain, I was awakened by the sound of church bells and the powerful
scent of orange blossoms. Memories of my hometown, which I left thirty years
ago, came flooding back. It was an emotional experience, and I could not hold
back tears as I relived my childhood. Ever since that time, I knew I had to
find a way to revisit and redefine the very deep essence of myself. This is a
story of eight Mexican sisters bonded together forever by tragedy. They grew
up in rural Northern Mexico and moved later to the city, where to this day
they still meet on a regular basis. Only one of them left home to pursue her
dream, and now she wants to tell you their story before the West Coast rains
wash away her memories. It is an enduring love, family traditions and values,
intercultural relationships and influences, the power of love and the joy of
life even at times most difficult. While this is a personal story, it is also
a story that in Canada-a land of immigrants-could be anybody’s story.”
Rosario Ancer’s parents died while the family was still young, and eventually, as one of the oldest sisters, the responsibility became that of Rosario to help care for her younger siblings, despite the fact, that from her youth she had harbored a dream to become a dancer. There are many people who will have witnessed this production, who will understand what it was to sacrifice for family, or knew of someone in their own families, who made those sacrifices. I have no further to go in my own family, than a father who gave up a promising hockey career, to help provide for a widowed mother.
This is however, not a story of sadness, but one of sweet memories told through the talented dancers, Fiona Malena (Anadelia), Marien Luevanos (Rosalba), Claire Marchand (Rebeca), Myriam Allard (Guadalupe), Rosario Ancer (as herself), Veronica Stewart (Maricela), Nanako Aramaki (Matilde Elisa) and Afifa Lahbabi (Alejandra). Each of the choreographed dances brought to life the unique personalities of the sisters, as evidenced in the flamboyant, colorful dance of Matilde Elisa, which appeared to accurately reflect the description of her person.
One of the biggest surprises occurred three quarters of the way through the presentation, when it was sprung on an unsuspecting audience, that not only does Rosario Ancer have seven sisters, but she also has three brothers. Just in case you are not counting, that adds up to eleven siblings!
The
grand finale came with the dancers standing in a semi circle clapping to the
beat of the music, as each of them moved towards the center and took their
turn one more time, demonstrating their skills at Flamenco dance. It seemed as
though each one inspired the next dancer to even greater heights. Yes, Rosario
Ancer, the young woman who had left her home in Mexico decades earlier also
danced to the delight of the audience.
Our story ends not on a wistful note to be back home in Mexico, but only expressing a longing that when her sisters meet each week, that she could join them for a few moments. You get the sense from Rosario Ancer’s words that she will always be proud of her Mexican heritage, cherish the time spent in Spain and where she met and fell in love with her husband Victor Kolstee, who is the Music Director for “Mis Hermanas.” The story is also one in which she tells how she has fallen in love with the west coast of Canada, even if she does take some playful pokes at how much rain we receive.
“Mis Hermanaa,” Thicker Than Water: My Sisters And I is a beautiful story, that teaches the uninformed a lot about Mexican culture, inspires all of us to pursue our dreams, and sheds light on what is like to move to another country, and be able to say that you are proud of both your homeland and your new home.
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Reviewed May 2008
