Seven months after the young dancer’s life was unexpectedly cut short, a group of friends and dancers got together in Sharon Sapienza’s beloved Seville for a commemorative performance. Albert Storace relives the touching experience.

Fran Velasco, a classical dancer who forms part of Sharon’s Mudanzas Boleras.

Sharon Sapienza’s tragically unexpected death last February, when the dancer was aged 38, shocked and surprised her family and many friends.

Among the latter, a group of colleagues and fellow artists recently presented a memorial concert at Seville’s Teatro Central. The theatre was practically packed with a large number of friends, including her parents Frank and Edwige, her husband José Antonio Esquina, in-laws and friends. Most of the latter came from Spain but others travelled from Malta and Germany.

The evening was the celebration of a life intensely spent pursuing the art of flamenco, first as dancer and subsequently as choreographer, artistic director and producer at the helm of her own company, Producciones Sonakay.

The evening was the celebration of a life intensely spent pursuing the art of flamenco

It was a career which saw Sapienza breaking into the very closed world of this ancient art. It was no mean feat for a non-Spaniard, who managed to distinguish herself through hard work, driven on by a determination underlined by a firm principle. For her, the word impossible did not exist.

Many were those who offered to present various numbers, the quality of which was a very high one, with some distinguishing themselves superbly.

Among these was a fellow Maltese dancer, Francesca Grima, also known as La Chica (I prefer to call her La bomba Flamenca), who has been equally and thoroughly acclimatised artistically within the flamenco community.

Her seguiriyas with El Galli (singer), Fyt (guitar), Andrej Vujicic (percussion) and Abel Harana (palmas) resulted in an intensely enthusiastic reception by the audience.

So was dancer Juan Ogalla who, with Miguel Rosendo (singer) and Miguel Ángel Berlanga, performed alegrías. Also very accomplished was Alícia Marquéz with her poema y baile, presented to recorded music prepared by herself.

No less was Soraya Clavijo´s solea with the Familia Fernández. Other performers were La Tremendita with Eduardo Trassierra and Isabel Bayón with Jesus Torre with a farruca, in which the accent was more on technique. A bit different and almost too alien was José la Torre dancing to recorded excerpts from the Dies Irae in Mozart’s Requiem, then returning to Andalucia with a martinete with El Galli, Vujicic and Harana.

The evening could not be devoid of some highly-charged, emotional moments. This could not be helped when tributes to Sapienza were made in David Peral’s introductory address on behalf of the Instituto de Flamenco. More so, when Sapienza’s first teacher and mentor, the aged and legendary Matilde Coral, who still has a lot of airy suppleness in her weary limbs, described how she advised Sapienza to reach for the air with her arms and body and how she had been impressed when the determined, young student, newly arrived in Seville in 1992, told her: “Señora, I want to dance!”

This tribute elicited a very warm applause, as did the addresses by Edwige Sapienza and José Esquina, who thanked all those present for their solidarity as well as artists and backstage crew who made this evening possible.

The evening was punctuated by a number of video and photographic presentations, the first among which was a short biography of Sapienza’s professional life, produced by Juan Vergillos, followed by a series of brief clips and an edited series of photographs of the late dancer.

Her pet project, and her very last one, was Mudanzas Boleras 1812-2012, video excerpts from which were also projected. The last live presentation of the evening was a sadly apt excerpt from Manuel de Falla’s La Vida Breve, very impressively danced to recorded music by Francisco Velasco.

True that life is short, but as Esquina said: “The show must go on. Sapienza herself would want us to carry on. Our lives, which have been touched so much by knowing and loving her, will always cherish her memory, her sunny disposition, love of life and her achievements.

“It is difficult to carry on without her presence and, as I found out during this visit, Seville will never be the same without her.

“I prefer to think that she is on a long, very busy journey, unable to write or phone. I also like to think this does not exclude the fact that she still thinks of the ones who loved her.”