Tempos draw Gadzik to flamenco
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By David Burke
QUAD-CITY TIMES
Olenka Gadzik recalls the night when she and a musician friend got together to jam — her friend playing blues and her playing flamenco music.
“I realized we were having a rhythmic train wreck,” the Davenport musician-artist said with a laugh.
Indeed, flamenco music — a Spanish style known for its impassioned dance — is unlike nearly any other music for Gadzik, who has studied world rhythms and taught them to schoolchildren throughout the Quad-Cities and the state of Iowa.
“The flamenco rhythms are a challenge for me for what I teach,” she said.
Gadzik will demonstrate the dance Friday night at the Center for Living in Rock Island during a session called “Flamenco Fundamentals: Get Some Attitude.” She will be accompanied by guitarists Lars Rehnberg and Brian Pool.
The music, she said, is exhilarating.
“When I started making music in America,” the Polish immigrant said, “I was told if you want Americans to dance, it has to be bomp-bomp-bomp-bomp, a very steady 4/4 (time signature).
“I find it very vindicating to know these dance rhythms in the odd meters exist. I want to bring that form to the attention of people here.”
Gadzik said she and others find the dance liberating.
She recalled a friend from Japan who learned the dance and considered it a breakthrough since Japanese women traditionally have been told they must be demure and reserved in public.
“Here there’s a vocabulary of expression and emotions,” she said.
If there is enough interest after the exhibition, Gadzik said, she may begin teaching flamenco classes.
Gadzik said children take to the dance very quickly, and it’s also very therapeutic for adults.
“It’s great for anyone who has a lot of emotion and passion that they want to express,” she said. “A lot of the dance depends on heel work, stomping heels forcefully on the floor. That relieves a lot of stress.”
David Burke can be contacted at (563) 383-2400 or dburke@qctimes.com.
IF YOU GO
What: “Flamenco Fundamentals: Get Some Attitude” by Olenka Gadzik
When: 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 29
Where: Center for Living, 2008 4th Ave., Rock Island
How much: Free
Information: (309) 788-5433 or Olenka.com on the Web
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