Benise: The Spanish Guitar November 13, 2010

Benise, and his Emmy Award-winning PBS Special Nights of Fire cast, return with a new world music and dance production, The Spanish Guitar. While taking place on an ever changing stage, Benise’s new show will feature real video footage from his travels around the globe. The cultures and experiences Benise encountered on his voyage were the inspiration for the new music, dance, and costumes featured in The Spanish Guitar.

The Spanish Guitar is an epic tale that will transport the audience to such exotic places as a Parisian café, a Flamenco Tapas Bar in Spain, an Arabian desert, a Venetian Masquerade ball, and the cobblestone streets of Old Havana. This new show will feature Benise’s guitar as protagonist, as it becomes the keeper of the stories of glory and tragedy through time and worlds gone by. Brilliantly choreographed dance numbers and orchestral pieces accompany the stories that were sealed inside this magical instrument. Benise’s The Spanish Guitar takes us on a deeply personal journey to worlds both far and away and reminds us that hope can be the healing thread in all our lives.

The dancers in The Spanish Guitar were carefully handpicked from a global pool of some of the most brilliantly diverse talent to be found. Traditional Flamenco dancers, Broadway performers, and soloists previously featured with the likes of Madonna, Gloria Estefan, and Ricky Martin, have all joined forces to make up Benise’s female dancers—The Gitanas. Great additions to The Spanish Guitar will be appearances from guest artist and vocalist, from her own PBS special, Giorgia Fumanti, and the return of renowned violinist Karen Briggs.