Most Popular

"Most Popular" tools sponsored by:

Recent Articles

Recent Articles by Lee Williams

National Features >

  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times

    Sexual Healing

    For Florida's sole remaining sex surrogate, love is a many splintered thing.

    By Michael J. Mooney

  • City Pages

    Your Friendly Neighborhood War Profiteer

    It's not just giant companies cashing in on America's defense industry.

    By Jeff Severns Guntzel

  • The Pitch

    Supersizing Sonic

    How a throwaway idea at the Barkley ad agency became the "Sonic Guys."

    By Justin Kendall

  • Houston Press

    Temples of Tex-Mex

    A diner's guide to Texas's oldest Mexican restaurants.

    By Robb Walsh

Al Andalus! The Legend

A dance epic recalls Spain’s golden age

By Lee Williams

Published on August 09, 2007

Sara Draper calls her Al Andalus! The Legend a “dance epic,” and rightfully so. The show includes flamenco, North African and modern dance, along with singing and recorded narration, to tell an “interethnic” love story set in the golden age of medieval Spain, where philosophy and scholarship flourished. For half a millennium, the Andalusian community of Spain was under Moorish rule, and Muslims, Jews and Christians all got along nicely, thank you very much.

The show’s music includes original works by Sharon Joy (recorded by local musicians including Isabelle Ganz and Khaled Al-Jamal) and a compilation of recorded sacred and secular music from Arabic, Sephardic and Spanish medieval and contemporary sources. And here’s the coolest part of all — since the brand-new production is still in what Draper calls “phase 1,” the audience is invited to stay after the show and offer feedback, which will be taken into consideration as the company revises the performance for a more finished production next spring.



Houston Press Insiders

  • Local food, music and news blasts
  • Free Stuff
Backpage.com