Despite the cold winds of Beijing, "Carmen," a pure and typical Gypsy girl with a flower in her mouth, will dance in the Theater of Beijing Exhibition Hall in early December.

With the long ruffled dresses, the dancer's sensual torso, the rhythms of their feet, Flamenco is permeated with enthusiasm and appeals to the audience with its flirtatious expression.

Flamenco is a Gypsy or ritual form of song and dance performed in southern, coastal regions of Spain.

It involves sensuous displays of the upper part of the body through arm movements and hand gestures.

While the legs and feet stamp in a stacatto, percussive pounding rhythm with machine-gun rapidity.

Flamenco is danced, sung and played on guitars by Gypsies at weddings, baptisms, festivals and fiestas.

It is danced both out of happiness and as an expression of grief. It is the oral medium through which Gypsies communicate to each other their thoughts, feelings and skills.

"Flamenco is difficult to learn," said Wang Xiaoming, a ballet teacher with the Beijing Dance Academy. "In China we have no special major in Flamenco. Only those who learn ballet will have a few courses in it."

"'Carmen' has different adaptations such as opera, classical ballet and film. But the Flamenco 'Carmen' is the most impressive," Wang said.

"Carmen," a classical Flamenco dance opera in four acts, was composed by Georges Bizet to a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halevy and was first staged in Paris in March, 1875.

Since then, "Carmen" has become one of the most frequently performed operas. Many great singers and dancers have been associated with its leading roles.

The orchestral suite drawn from the opera is often played, and in 1954 it was extended into a film version.

Living in Seville, Spain, Carmen is a cigarette girl working in a factory and a member of a smuggling group.

She believes that love is something to be seized when it passes: "If I love you, take care!" However, if she does not love a man any more, she will leave him without hesitation.

Don Jose, a corporal living with his widowed mother falls in love with her and helps Carmen escape when she is caught smuggling. Jose is stripped of his rank and sent to prison for a month.

Carmen tests Jose's love and jealousy several times and urges him to join her and her friends in the mountains.

Soon after they flee to the mountains, Carmen admits her love is already fading and she has fallen in love with Escamillo, a famous toreador.

Carmen implores Jose to return to his mother, but Jose, insane with jealousy, declares he will stay with her, even if it costs him his life.

However, Carmen insists that she cannot be untrue to herself and that it is all over between them.

Although she knows her life is in danger, she affirms her love for Escamillo. Finally, she throws away the ring Jose has given her, triggering his rage. He stabs her and she dies.

The success of "Carmen" can be attributed to its felicitous inclusion of conventionally comic and sentimental scenes alongside stark realism and a tale of morality.

Bizet's memorable tunes have kept the music of "Carmen" alive, and the title role is always a challenge for great dancers.

"Flamenco is a typical folk dance, though Chinese audiences may not be familiar with it," said Zhang Shouhe, director of the Choreography Department of Beijing Dance Academy.

"Whenever we mention a Spanish dance, we think of the matador dance. 'Carmen' offers us a good chance to know more about a nation, which is bubbling with enthusiasm," Zhang said.

From December 1 to 3, the world-renown Luisillo Spanish Dance Theater will perform Carmen for audiences of the Beijing Music Festival.

The theater group is named after its late president, Luis Perez Davila, also a famous dancer.

Born in 1928, in Mexico city, Luisillo began his international career in the Spanish dance company of Carmen Amaya and in 1950 formed a partnership with Teresa Amaya.

From these associations he gained a professionalism that stood him in good stead when he formed his own company, Luisillo Spanish Dance Theatre, in 1956. Based in Spain, the company was one of the first to employ foreigners: South African, Australian and British dancers.

Luisillo filled the stage with colorful, original dances and was able to express the emotions of love and pain in solos and duets.

Since its establishment, the theater has visited around 100 countries. In 1995, the theater brought "Romeo and Juliet" to Shanghai. The performance has left Chinese audiences with a long, lingering memory.

They hope that Carmen will have the same effect.

(China Daily 11/09/2000)