Luis Ortega‘s company of flamenco, one of the most prestigious in Spain, on stage with an original project: some passages from the Gospel told through music, song and dance of Spanish tradition.

 

The Annunciation, Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ through music, song, Spanish dance, and flamenco.

Is it possible to represent the Gospel through music? This show, entitled En Ti, succeeds in doing just that, thanks to the artistic direction of famous dancer and choreographer Luis Ortega. This exultation of music, dancing, and flamenco, which met with success in Madrid, Spain at World Youth Day 2011, will be at the Meeting this year.
The show was born from the friendship of Luis Ortega with Father Emilio Pérez, a priest in the Archdiocese of Madrid and member of the World Youth Day 2011 local organizational committee’s Department of Culture. It was on his invitation that one of the greatest flamenco artists in the world consented to recreate the Gospel scenes through music and dance, drawing together a large group of artists from one of Madrid’s most important companies.
The show relates three Gospel scenes – the Annunciation, Christ’s Passion and Death, and His Resurrection – representing with the utmost respect and discretion the sentiments that the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus Christ lived, as recounted in the Gospel.
“Spanish dance, and flamenco in particular – its music and dance – like all of Spanish cultural expression, is born from the people, and grows and develops through the people. It knows no human borders or limits, no language or race. Because of this, and because of its versatility in blending with other cultures, we chose it as the language to show the human experience that is at the heart of all men, and that Jesus of Nazareth came to explain, educate, and save” (Luis Ortega).
This show is an exemplary response to Pope Benedict XVI’s invitation to artists in 2009, when he encouraged them to be custodians of beauty and to utilize their talent to reawaken the sensibility of all men. En Ti shows how art is able to generate signs and hopes that attract man to beauty.