Above: Alborada dancers (l-r) Caterina Carrasco, Claudia Morena, Krystina Cardenas, Teresa Rodruguez and Jacqui Gesumaria perform “Tangos de Cádiz,” accompanied by guitarist Raphael Brunn. Left: Alborada dancer Claudia Morena performs “Alegrías.” PHOTOS BY NATALIA PROSKINA Members of the Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre will be offering several free dance performances to the public during the summer, beginning on June 14 at Metuchen Borough Hall, 500 Main St.
As part of Metuchen’s Junebug ArtFest, the outdoor concert is slated for 7:30-8 p.m. It will be moved inside Borough Hall in the case of inclement weather.
Alborada is a professional dance company that provides lessons to students out of studios in Fords and Metuchen.
The troupe’s artistic director, Eva Lucena, said Alborada’s top students audition to become apprentices in the Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre. Apprentices are initiated by performing at local venues with a principal dancer.
Originally formed in New York by Lucena and Maria Alba in 1980 under the name of Spanish Dance Theater, Lucena reestablished the dance company in 1995 in New Jersey under the name of Alborada to honor Alba’s memory when she passed away.
The Spanish word “alborada” means “the coming of dawn.”
The mixed professional troupe consists of 24 dancers, in addition to the musicians and singers accompanying them. Each performance consists of a variety of musical accompaniments and often a chamber orchestra, featuring flamenco and chamber music.
Through dances, drama, colorful costumes and music, Alborada’s performances reveal the diverse and historical threads that make up the rich fabric of Spanish culture. Its repertoire runs from Spanish flamenco and traditional dances to Hispanic, Celtic and Moorish cultural influences.
“Our mission is to provide educational yet very upbeat concerts to the public,” Lucena said. “We seem to be very wellknown for our niche in the arts as cross-cultural programs inasmuch as we like to show the audience how much we can work with other art forms from other countries and create the similarities and the fusions.”
Future Alborada shows will be held from 6-8 p.m. July 11 at the courtyard at Princeton Shopping Center, 301 North Harrison
St., Princeton, as well as the Hispanic Business Expo from 6-7 p.m. July 16 at Pines Manor, 3085 Route 27, Edison.
Those who enjoy the free shows, which present a snippet of what Alborada has to offer, may be motivated to see the entire professional dance troupe end the summer season with “The Moorish Connection” at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 8 at Middlesex County College Fine Arts Theatre, Edison. Tickets for that show will be $20 for general admission, and $15 for students and seniors. “People will see how much dance forms from other parts of the world are related because of the way that Spain moved around the world and brought back various influences and gave to the countries they inhabited,” Lucena said.
For more details and an updated list of upcoming performances, visit www.alboradadance.org or call 848-203- 3420.