Gypsy Heart . The Boston Phoenix . 11-30-98

Gypsy Heart

DIRECTED BY: Joselyn M. Ajami

REVIEWED: 11-30-98

I recall descending into the pit-like basement theater of the Boston Park Plaza for a scheduled performance last year by Omayra Amaya's flamenco troupe and thinking, "Oh-Oh! Tourist trap! Cats with flamenco boots!" Instead, I was treated to a riveting evening of virtuosic, authentic, no-compromise dance by an ensemble wildly, ecstatically emotional in their rhythmic attack -- and, in the spotlight, the queenly Omayra Amaya, a mesmerizingly gorgeous whirl of Spanish gypsy-in-motion. Bells in the rafters for this sensuous Esmeralda!

Joselyn M. Ajami does everything right in a compact 40 minutes in her excellent video documentary about Amaya, Gypsy Heart, from her proper camera placement for lots of exuberant dancing to being a back-of-the curtain witness to Amaya's heartbreak behind the performance I saw: financial loss, mental and physical exhaustion, and extreme damage to her marriage. Ajami also shows Amaya's contribution to the cultural life of Boston and Cambridge, from her spirited dance classes with flamenco amateurs to her dazzling performance at a community fair in Central Square. When toward the end of the video Amaya announces regretfully that she's leaving Boston to teach in Arizona, everyone watching Gypsy Heart will feel a pang of loss.

--Gerald Peary

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