Flamenco dreams dashed this past Saturday

After a full day of work this past Saturday February 10, 2007, I headed to Emerson's Cutler Majestic Theatre in search for student rush tickets.

After walking a good 25 minutes from the Copley mall down Boylston street, my dreams of seeing the Flamenco Festival 2007 were strewn across the sidewalk like day-old Boston Globe's in a Mission Hill apartment.

There were no student rush tickets reserved, the least inexpensive tickets were $40 (out of my budget right now as I anxiously wait to get paid this week from my humble job as a sales associate for the Coach store) and I couldn't get two tickets together (a friend tagged along).

After talking up the art of flamenco, the severity, passion, reminiscence of tango and love and artistry, my date was more pumped to see the Compania Rafaela Carrasco performing Una Mirada al Flamenco (translation: A Look of Flamenco).

But see it we did not.

I was pretty disappointed and took my anger out on the no doubt work-study cashier at the ticket box who merely passed on the bad news that because the show was nearly sold out, no student rush tickets had been set aside.

Which is a real shame because I have taken flamenco lessons. Granted I was about 7 years old, but with castanets in hand, black theatre (character) shoes strapped tight and gypsy fringe scarf wrapped around my waist I learned and absorbed as much as I could through an after school program that run a mere month.

The Flamenco Festival was celebrating its 8th year, and Una Mirada al Flamenco made its Boston premiere last Friday.

The Cutler Majestic Theatre Web site description of the Flamenco show is as follows:

"From Seville, Rafaela Carrasco keeps one foot in the old world as she dances toward the new. She is an elegant, refined, yet gutsy dancer whose innovative choreography expresses what flamenco means in the 21st century. Una Mirada al Flamenco (A Look at Flamenco) features five male and female dancers profoundly reworking traditional flamenco, while a delicate cello, lyrical piano and expressive guitar and singing maintain the intensity of emotion."

Which I missed.

With each time I reread the description, my heart sinks a little more.

I guess there's always next year.