Is it Ballet, or is it Flamenco?

by Susan Kepecs

One night a couple of years ago I chanced across a jaw-dropping video on Canal Once, out of Mexico City.  Seven men, dancing brilliantly.  I kept asking myself – is this ballet, or is it flamenco?  Is it flamenco, or is it ballet?  I made sure to pay attention to the credits at the end; it turned out to be a Spanish troupe called Los Vivancos, starring in their own production, Siete Hermanos. Some months later, Canal Once ran the video again, and I was still transfixed. And now we all get to experience the thrill, because Los Vivancos are coming to Overture Hall on February 21 with their current spectacular, Nacidos para Bailar.

The Madrid-and-Barcelona-based company formed in 2007; Siete Hermanos – so named because the members of Los Vivancos are blood brothers – was its first production. Nacidos is the third.  Los Vivancos are beyond ripped, and brimming with brio. Their current work, from what I can tell via YouTube, looks heavier on sheer entertainment than their first, which – though I like my dance pure – won’t matter to most folks.  And, in fact, the Vivancos brothers are such terrific movers that it doesn’t really matter to me, either. Besides, you can’t quite characterize what they do as “dance.”  Their shows are a multimedia artform; all of the brothers are crazy good at ballet, flamenco, music, aerial acrobatics, martial arts, lighting, set design, and costuming. The choreography on which everything else rests has the distinct Euro-contemporary flavor of Nederlands Dans Theatre. There’s Balanchine in their movement style. You might call their music flamenco metal. There’s an abundance of spirit – the brothers leap and spin; they dance upside down; they flaunt theatrical machismo, challenging each other to duels onstage.

The Vivancos have an intriguing backstory. Old Spanish newspapers you can find online claim their father was the leader of a bizarre cult. It doesn’t often come up in their press coverage, and they denied the story in an interview to a Spanish reporter a few years ago. Cult or not, the Vivancos call Nacidos para Bailar a trip between the sacred and the profane, and their names come straight from the Bible – Elías, Aaron, Israel, Josua, Cristo, Judah, Josué. Elías is the oldest; Josué, the youngest, is taking a break – so, for the moment, onstage they are six. I called Elías Vivancos at home in Spain last week. Our discussion was short because his baby son, who he was in charge of at the moment, wasn’t happy about the interview, but here’s the text:

CulturalOyster: Let’s start with you – what are your outstanding characteristics, and how old are you? My readers like to know.

Vivancos: I’m 42. I think what I bring to the table in particular is creativity – behind the scenes I put out many of the ideas and romantic sentiments that end up in our art.

CulturalOyster: You all have similar artistic training, though there are some differences – from what I can see on your website your story is really complex. Can you fill me in a little on your family, your artistic development, and how you came to form the company that carries your name?

Vivancos: Well, our father was a major artist – a great dancer and musician. So what we do continuation of what he was, and of how we grew up. We began when we were very little, with music and martial arts, so without a doubt the martial arts are very present in our spirit and our attitude. We all studied in musical conservatories, and at Nederlands Dans, and ballet of course is fundamental to what we do.

CulturalOyster: Besides the shared background, how does the fact that you’re brothers play into what you do?

Vivancos: It’s the most important thing for us. Each of us has his own trajectory – before we formed Los Vivancos sometimes some of us were in the same place at the same time but other times were in different companies, doing different kinds of shows. But now we put almost everything into our mutual enterprise. While each of us has his strengths, in the end we work very much in concert on all the aspects of our spectaculars.

Being brothers also means we’re very competitive when we’re choreographing.  Each one puts something out there as a challenge. We like to see who can who can heel-tap [taconear] faster, who can fly higher.

CulturalOyster: I’ve seen Siete Hermanos twice (on TV). I’ve only seen YouTube fragments of your second and third productions, but from that it seems like you keep creating new fusions, new inventions. Can you tell me a little about this evolution? 

Vivancos: Well, since we began we’ve changed a lot. We do more fusions now, and we keep incorporating new techniques. We try to innovate choreographically, musically, and technologically. In the first show we weren’t doing aerial work but in Nacidos para Bailar we dance on the ceiling and play our instruments in the air, like tightrope acrobats. What’s important is that we try to grow constantly. We learn what we need to learn to do what pleases us. To create our shows, we do what we like to do. 

CulturalOyster: What can you tell me about Nacidos para Bailar?  And what comes after that?

Vivancos: Nacidos para Bailar was risky. We did things with lights and aerial suspension that we never did before, but we had no fear, and it turned out great.  It’s daring – really much more daring than our earlier shows – and it has more humor in it. Like there’s a silly part where four of us are playing the same cello at once. 

As for what’s next, we’re working on our new show, which we plan to premiere in 2020.  It takes three or four years from idea to realization, because the tours take time too. We’re always doing the last show while working on the next. 

[baby boy howling in background]

CulturalOyster: Don’t cry, niñito!  Elías, is there anything I didn’t ask about that you’d like to add?

Vivancos: Yes, absolutely. We now hold the Guinness record for the fastest taconeo in the world.

And we work with various agencies to give part of the take from all of our shows to agencies that work with children in need around the world. We’re involved with the Fundación Querer, in Madrid, which is dedicated to special education for children with neurological diseases, and this year we’ve also been supporting a foundation for orphans, and one that builds schools in Africa. We’re very proud of the charitable work we’re able do.