Today@Dal

Martine Durier-Copp spends her days working hard as Director of the Faculty of Management’s Centre for Advanced Management Education. But when she gets home from Dalhousie, she starts to work on something quite different: flamenco dance. “If I don’t dance every day, I’m not myself,” says Dr. Durier-Copp. She practises for an hour each weekday, and more on weekends.

When she was 17, Dr. Durier-Copp took a trip to Andalusia, Spain, where she saw flamenco for the first time. She was immediately captivated with the emotion and energy of the dance. Years later, Dr. Durier-Copp began taking flamenco classes with El Viento Flamenco in Halifax. She has revisited Spain many times, and now studies flamenco there for a month each year.

An expressive, rhythmically complex dance, flamenco grew out of Roma, Sephardic and Arabic traditions, among others. A flamenco performances consists of cante (singing), toque (guitar), palmas (handclaps) and of course baile (dancing). The character of flamenco is diverse. “It has a lot of sides,” notes Dr. Durier-Copp. “Flamenco tells powerful stories.” Drawing from, among other things, the historical suffering of the Roma gitanos (gypsies), flamenco often tells a story of the human spirit triumphing over adversity. However, as Dr. Durier-Copp explains, the dance can express a range of emotions, from joy and delight to anger and sorrow.

In addition to dancing herself, Dr. Durier-Copp also choreographs for her flamenco group, Flamenco en Rouge, which includes four dancers, two guitarists, a singer, a percussionist and a palmera. The group grew out of the broader Halifax flamenco community, united by a focus on pure Andalusian flamenco. For Dr. Durier-Copp, Flamenco en Rouge has become something of a family affair—her son Sebastian is their percussionist, and his girlfriend Kelsey is a dancer.

Flamenco en Rouge is performing in the Great Hall of Dalhousie’s University Club on Valentine’s Day. Dr. Durier-Copp choreographed the dancing for the evening, which will include ensemble works for three dancers like the guajira and the zambra. Janice Tate, manager of the University Club, is excited about the upcoming event, and praised Dr. Durier-Copp’s deep understanding of the dance form.

When asked how she feels about sharing her passion with the Dalhousie community, Dr. Durier-Copp comments that it is a pleasure to introduce flamenco to new viewers and to see their ability to empathize with the emotion of the dance and music. “Flamenco was recently named one the UNESCO World Heritage Treasures,” she says. “It speaks a universal language. At the show, people see how powerful it is—audiences start yelling ‘Olé!’”

Dr. Durier-Copp appreciates that those she works with get to see her life outside of CFAME. She points to other examples of personnel in the Faculty of Management with passions ranging from roller derby to sailing to banjo-playing to professional singing. “You scratch the surface of anyone you work with and find out they have a very rich life,” reflects Dr. Durier-Copp. “That enriches your work. It make you a more complete person.”

Tickets for Flamenco en Rouge’s Valentine’s Day performance are available through the University Club: call 902-494-6511 or email angela.welburn@dal.ca