Although it’s easy to think of flamenco as Spanish, the reality is far more complex—and mysterious. The art form comes from Andalusia, a part of the Iberian peninsula with its own distinct history and culture. For millennia Spain’s southernmost province served as the crossroads between Europe and Africa, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Flamenco is a hybrid of Romani, Sephardic Jewish, Moorish, and Catholic Christian cultures—and more. The Roma brought influences from every land they passed through on their long journey to Iberia from northern India hundreds of years ago. For dancer and choreographer Rosario Ancer, flamenco provides an apt vehicle for the expression of multiculturalism in a very different part of the world: Western Canada—and in particular, its First Nations heritage.

Flamenco Rosario’s new production, Los Cuatro Vientos: The Four Powers—which runs at the Norman Rothstein Theatre from Friday to Sunday (November 24 to 26)—celebrates diversity while maintaining a strongly unified vision through flamenco dance and music. “All those powers bring different gifts to help the cycle of life, just as every immigrant brings a gift to Canada to make it richer,” says Ancer, interviewed at Centro Flamenco, her Vancouver dance studio.

Ancer herself came to Vancouver from Mexico in the late ’80s and went on to open Centro Flamenco and start her company along with her husband, flamenco guitarist Victor Kolstee. Though strongly rooted in tradition, her troupe’s work has always explored the many cultural strands that make up flamenco. Los Cuatro Vientos is her first production with a Canadian theme. Not surprisingly, it’s divided into four sections, each representing a different culture, colour, and direction of the compass.

“We begin of course by acknowledging the first people, who are aboriginal and come from the West and whose symbolic colour is black. The second people are the European immigrants, who come from the North, which is white, and they bring in technology. The people who come from the East, which is gold, bring grace and spirituality. And the people from the South, from Africa and South America, bring friendship, innocence, and fertility. But everything is subtle; nothing is too obvious.”

Los Cuatro Vientos is performed by six members of Flamenco Rosario as well as special guests: dancer and singer Carmen de Torres from Seville and Vancouver butoh dancers Barbara Bourget and Jay Hirabayashi, who present their own interpretation of the Haida myth of Raven and the First Men at the start of the first section. “They bring their own choreography,” says Ancer. “In the first two sections everything is very simple in terms of costumes, then we bring in more colours.”

The show is collaborative. Ancer is working with the young, Madrid-based choreographer Mariano Cruceta, and Kolstee has joined forces with fellow guitarist Carolina Plante (Cruceta’s partner) to create the music. “We are two couples—of different generations, but with the same artistic roots,” says Ancer.

“I’ve done the company’s choreography for a long time, and I wanted another perspective,” she continues. “Mariano is very well known in Madrid. He first came here in July as artist in residence for a couple of weeks at my school. We talked about the project and Mariano got very interested. He’s a very avant-garde artist, so he likes experimental work, and he’s a dancer, and knows very well the singing. He also plays the cajón [box percussion] in the show. Mariano has taken the lead on some parts of the show, as I have too, but we also have something to say in the other one’s work. It’s been a very creative process.”