High-Steppin' StrutterTaiwan's Flamenco Queen Flor de Loto

In a cavernous dance studio at the National Fu Hsing Dramatic Arts Academy, amidst a sea of black and yellow skirts, stands a Spanish dance instructor. Cane in hand, she calls out in Spanish: "Uno, dos, tres. . . ." The pace of the dance quickens, and the aquiline-nosed instructor gets increasingly caught up in the proceedings as she counts out 12-beat stanzas and starts singing a Spanish song, looking for all the world like a dancer who might have just this second burst out of a night club performance. She is Golden-Fairy Hsu, better known to devotees of flamenco by her Spanish name: Flor de Loto.

A returnee to Taiwan after 20 years in Spain, where she rose to international fame as a flamenco dancer, Flor de Loto sports a deep tan and gregarious personality. There is a flamboyance about her, but not an intimidating sort. On the contrary, she has a way of putting absolutely everyone at ease, as if she were the nice lady next door. With ease and grace, she manages to combine the hearty, unrestrained spirit of the Spaniards with the traditional virtues of the Chinese.

How did a small-town girl from southern Hsinchu County end up so deeply involved in a foreign art form like flamenco?

Transplanted lotus

Flor de Loto tells the story as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. She loved dancing as a child, and since her older sisters studied dance, she naturally did likewise. When she later entered a high school for the arts, her natural persistence led her to spend most of her time sweating away in the dance gym.

In 1982, Flor de Loto was admitted to the Real Conservatorio de Danza de Madrid, where she was struck by the realization: "My God! This is the dance for me!" Spanish dance has been an inseparable part of her life ever since. She says that flamenco was from the very start a dormant seedling planted deeply in her sinews. All it needed was the sun and soil of Spain to grow to maturity.

Strangely enough, she happens to look rather Spanish. Perhaps it really is true that flamenco was always in her blood. In any case, Flor de Loto's flamenco is the real thing, and she's totally at home with the language and customs of Spain. Her neighbors and friends in Spain think of her as a local, and even overseas Chinese have been known to mistake her for a Spanish senorita.

Flor de Loto laughingly recalls the time she was at a law office in Spain waiting for a friend when a Chinese client of the firm came in and discussed sensitive secrets right in front of her until the lawyer got him to shut up. On the dance floor and in everyday life, she has Spain written all over her. Laughs Flor de Loto: "My friends say I'm a Spaniard who speaks really good Chinese."

This total submersion has made Flor de Loto the Flor de Loto she is today. A sparkle comes into her eyes when talk turns to flamenco: "You have to be cool-headed with flamenco. Every single step counts." The reason people think of flamenco as passionate and romantic, she explains, is that they associate it with the Spanish and their passionate nature. Some feelings just can't be expressed in words, and only dance will do. But behind the swirling skirts and dripping perspiration lies iron discipline and a cool-headed, restrained passion. The dancer must have a naturalness of movement that comes from perfect technical mastery.

"Strength of character is very important in a dancer. If you've got problems and distractions, you can't dance good flamenco." Flor de Loto stresses that dance is a direct expression of what's in the heart, and that without depth, one cannot hope to express the beauty of life. As a seasoned veteran, she would have us appreciate not only the external form of the dance, but also the internal substance of the dancer. Particularly with a dance like flamenco, which often features primarily a single performer, the story that a rigorously trained dancer tells is her own.

Looking back on the golden days of her training in Spain, Flor de Loto recalls: "I was busy practicing from Monday to 4 p.m. on Sunday, then I'd wash a big pile of laundry and do housekeeping." But dedicating her youth to dance never struck her as a sacrifice at all.

The best years

Flor de Loto fondly recalls Maria Magdalena, the first instructor who had a big impact on her after she enrolled in the Real Conservatorio in 1982: "It was she who gave me my Spanish name, Flor de Loto, which means 'lotus blossom.' It's a symbol of wisdom, beauty, and dignity, which is what she wanted for me. When she gave me that name, perhaps she already saw what lay in my future." Young Flor de Loto danced well and was a favorite of all her instructors. Her entry into the world of flamenco was almost matter-of-course, as if this oriental lotus blossom were fated all along to bloom in Spain.

Flor de Loto received her doctoral degree from the Real Conservatorio in 1991, the first Chinese person ever to do so, and entered into the prime of her career. She began a life of teaching and choreography, and started doing world tours with the dance company that she established in 1988.

Spain is a second home for Flor de Loto. The fertile flamenco soil there aided her professional growth and kept her in Spain despite occasional bouts of homesickness inspired by the holidays, when all about her were happily reunited with loved ones while she herself was half a world away from home. If you ask about the most difficult part of living abroad for those 20 years, she will tell you that it was the longing for family.

A matter of Spanish pride

How is it that a foreign woman like Flor de Loto has been able to carve out a niche for herself in the quintessentially Spanish art of flamenco?

Unswerving determination shows through in her answer: "I see it in very practical terms. If you want to dance well, you've just got to practice and practice. I'm making a living practicing an art form seen as the spiritual essence of another country. I have a mission to spread Spanish dance, so how can I not work hard?"

At the mention of her dance company, Flor de Loto can't help laughing as she recalls one memorable experience: "In 1996 we were invited to Taiwan. We stayed in the Asiaworld Plaza Hotel. The dancers didn't like Taiwanese food, so they asked me to do something about the situation. I just kept on applying my makeup and treated the matter like it was no big deal. Seeing how nonchalant I was acting, they got uptight and said: 'This could affect our dancing, and hurt your reputation!' But I stayed as cool as a cucumber. I just said: 'If you don't dance well, all they're going to say is that the Spanish don't dance as well as the Chinese.' Well, they danced their hearts out that night, and the applause was thunderous. After the performance I took them all out and treated them to a steak dinner!" In addition to her fine dancing skills, Flor de Loto has got the Spanish approach to life down cold-humorous, optimistic, never-say-die.

Spiritual sustenance

With all her formidable flamenco accomplishments, one might be surprised to find that Flor de Loto is also a big fan of Chinese literature.

"I love it all. . . poetry, histories, philosophy, you name it. I would love to have the entire Complete Works of the Four Categories on my bookshelf so I could commune with the ancient sages." Flor de Loto laughs: "I'm inebriated with flamenco and infatuated with Chinese literature."

Flor de Loto bears out the old saying that art knows no national boundaries. She is keenly aware of the commonalities between different types of art, and is an expert in the four main categories of Spanish dance: Danzas Regionales, Escuela Bolera, Flamenco, and Clasico Espanol. She is no less enthusiastic about the many forms of local opera to be found throughout China. The jota, a folk dance popular in the province of Aragon that features traditional musical instruments, beautiful lyrics, and high-pitched melodies, is very similar to China's "clapper opera" of Henan Province. The art forms of East and West both find primitive expression through Flor de Loto, who somehow pulls it off without a trace of affectedness.

20 dedicated years

Flor de Loto has won many accolades during more than two decades of involvement in Spanish dance, including "Best Foreign Choreographer" for her Jota. On the eve of her company's departure to perform in Taiwan for the third time in 1996, she received a personal letter of congratulations from Spain's King Juan Carlos in recognition of her role as cultural ambassador between Taiwan and Spain. The honors have only strengthened Flor de Loto's resolve to communicate the essence of Spanish dance to her compatriots in Taiwan.

Since returning to Taiwan in 2001, Flor de Loto has established a Spanish dance association and her own Spanish dance company to train Taiwanese students with a talent and passion for flamenco.

As a dancer, Flor de Loto is keenly aware of the finest little details, and it shows in her teaching. Chang Tsuo-yu, who goes by the Spanish name of Adriano and has been studying dance ever since graduating from university, says Flor de Loto is very good at spotting students' strengths and weaknesses, and at giving pointers tailored to the individual. Chu Wen-yu (Agustin), a software engineer at the Hsinchu science park who has been studying under Flor de Loto for over a year, adds: "I was a bit intimidated by her at first because she's a very strict teacher, but gradually I started seeing what makes her an artist, the way she always speaks straight from the heart. . . ."

As each class wraps up, Flor de Loto always calls roll and comments on each student's strengths and weaknesses. And nothing escapes her attention on that score. Besides teaching dance, she is also very much a personal confidant of her students, whom she calls "kids." After a more than a year of hard training, she urges them to strive for more: "You are at the threshold, but you haven't yet stepped over it."

Indeed, an old saying reminds us that "one minute on stage takes ten years of practice." At the dance gym in Taipei's Neihu District, a group of students are eager to talk about their experiences studying dance. During class, Flor de Loto sometimes shares her thoughts on life with her "kids." After all, dance is not just about dancing, but life itself.

Dance has taken up most of Flor de Loto's life, and led her to spend her prime years in a faraway land. Her powerfully moving stage presence is the product of long and strict discipline. What special insight into life enables Flor de Loto to move her body so as to release the forces that underlie our very existence? What phrase of motion, what poetry in space, elicits such strong resonance in our hearts? And can one who is so in tune with the beat of the universe be equally engaged on a personal level with those about her? When talk turns to love and friendship, Flor de Loto is unreserved as usual. Popular as a child, she was the object of no little admiration after going to Spain. But her full social life simply enabled her to pour all the more energy into her dancing, without feeling as though she were missing out in other areas of life. Her dancing career sped continually forward, leaving her with little time for anything else. During all these years of devotion to flamenco, dancing itself has been Flor de Loto's source of happiness. The 20 years she gave to flamenco were given without regret.

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With a quick twist, Flor de Loto sends her long flamenco skirt flying. (courtesy of Flor de Loto)

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Flor de Loto taps out the beat with a cane. Her students are impressed by her ability to tailor her instruction to each individual.

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(Left) Flamenco wouldn't be flamenco without the guitar and its cascading melodies that quicken the pulse and stir the emotions.

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(Far right) How many sweat-soaked practice togs does it take to stoke up this kind of fire? Flor de Loto has given it 20 years, without regrets. (courtesy of Flor de Loto)