One of the so-called "Three Muses" at the summit of flamenco dancing, along with Sara Baras and Maria Pages, is Eva Yerbabuena. The Granada-born dancer returns to Japan riding a wave of success in the wake of her performances last year at the Spanish Pavilion at Aichi Expo, and at the Flamenco Festival in Tokyo.
In two separate Tokyo performances, Yerbabuena will perform her signature work "Eva," in addition to her most recent work, "5 Mujeres 5" (English title: "5 Women 5"), whose inspiration, she says, derives from historical or mythical women, such as Carmen and Penelope (patient wife of Odysseus).
Yerbabuena explains she aims to express four feelings from a female perspective -- love, desire, solitude and insanity -- and through them, in this passionate performance, to lay bare a fundamental essence of womanhood. As Yerbabuena herself quizzically says, the two performances offer audiences an opportunity "to share in the basic instrument at my disposition for expressing feelings. Flamenco is the best vehicle to say what you want to say. It's so rich and versatile, and at the same time technical, and it's unsettling. I don't see any limits."
Eva Yerbabuena's performance of "5 Mujeres 5" starts at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 27 at Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo. She performs "Eva" on Feb. 28 (6:30 p.m.) at the Shinjuku Foundation for Culture & International Exchange, 6-14-1 Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, a 13-min. walk from JR Shinjuku Station's East Exit. Visit www.shinjukubunka.or.jp for a map. Call Conversation & Company at (03) 5280-9996 for more information on both performances.
