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Moving from ballad to flamenco, classical music to avant garde compositions [...] the duo enthralled Kolkata                                                 The Statesman, Kolkata, India 01/05/06

"Another international performance and with it another unique interdisciplinary presentation was up next by the team from Canada comprising of musician Martin Trudel, Flamenco dancer Rae Bowhay and renowned puppeteer and storyteller Pierre Renaud. The presentation was intriguing if not faultless and a fine inter-arts presentation."                                                                                              Third Interface Festival in the City of Joy  Bidisha Chatterjee, Kolkata, India 29/04/06


 

"Montreal choreographer Rae Bowhay presented her intriguing Slaps, combining stylized flamenco with new wave music composed by Martin Trudel, and performed live to prepared electric guitar and percussion. The slow motion and body distortions, while still within the flamenco movement convention, create a whole new dynamic."
Paula Citron, globeandmail.com 21/08/06

"Grande Scale also featured Montreal's Rae Bowhay, whose intricate and exciting flamenco work with a live drummer, keyboardist and guitar player represented what was probably the tightest performance at the festival."                                                                                                    Lynda Sparke, eyeWeekly.com - Volume 15, Issue 47 24/08/06

"Last night, Rae Bowhay took flamenco contemporary. The Montreal dancer, interacting with her guitarist-composer Martin Trudel, does a deconstructed Spanish dance. Dressed in flared trousers, she combines male and female styles in one very sexy performance."                            Susan Walker, Toronto Star 18/08/06

 


 
"I must say that I really have a weakness for the rendering and inventiveness of Rae Bowhay.
 
So, these are choreographers who are versed in flamenco, but seek to renew the language and even the aesthetic, and Rae Bowhay really struck me.
 
She tried with her musician M.T to establish a fraternal relationship between flamenco and country. I found that it was very subtle, this way to link two genres that seem at first glance quite different.
 
What I found interesting is that instead of setting out to prove that a + b = c, she proceeded in a very funny, light, and tender way.
 
She's a very cool girl with a beautiful stage presence ... she simply would start to move and it's like she herself was surprised when her body passed from flamenco, then oops! escaped out of a small foot or hip movement.
It was very, very subtle... really a girl to look out for..."
Stéphanie Brody, CIBL Kinecitta - Studio tendance 27/02/08
 


"Flamenco is a primarily musical art, and that is what the performance by Rae Bowhay and Martin Trudel confirms in Taranta. [...]
This is a very ingenious idea of having orchestrated a meeting between gypsy / Jewish / Arab flavored music, with the Anglo-Saxon country music of the New world.
 
Bowhay pays homage to both her passion and her own origins, and as such, her open-mindedness to the world does not deny her cultural heritage.
 
It is interesting to note the similarities between the two worlds: in particular, a lament against the rigors of life that taints both styles; as well, the festive aspect suggested by the lively rhythms incites, in both cases, gathering and solidarity.
 
Furthermore, the music and dance accompany each other intimately in the Country, like in Flamenco. That's what Trudel and Bowhay do in Taranta: an in situ exchange, tender and playful, between the guitar and the dancer gives rise to a very interesting dialogue from a musical and choreographic perspective.
 
The whole piece is full of comedy, a humor typical of country culture. All that, with flamenco sauce. Surprising."
Marie-Chantal Scholl, Dfdanse -Le magazine de la danse actuelle à Montréal 04/03/08
 

What comes next is the dazzling Rae Bowhay, in a stunning version, which brings together the traditional flamenco world directly from South Andalusia - land of bulls, bullfights, dust, cowboys and leather, farms, open spaces and confrontation with raw nature - with another tradition no less coded, a tradition made of bulls, rodeos, dust, cowboys, hats, boots and belts, and the ranches that open into infinite space ... of our prairies!                                                                                                      What a superb surprise the link between the dance, the costume changes and the music (electric guitar played on stage by Martin Trudel), the strident bass that echoes the noise and fury of flamenco songs. And so, Rae Bowhay, flamenco dancer originally from Alberta, offers a good Taranta, not lacking in humor.                                              Aline Apostolska, La Presse 28/02/08