Alborada to perform 'The Feast of Sarah'

Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre, Old Bridge, will present a cross-cultural offering, "The Feast of Sarah: A Gypsy Festival," at 3 p.m. on May 7 at the Union County Arts Center, 1601 Irving St., Rahway.

The production is a re-creation of the oldest religious festival in Saint Maries de la Mer (Camargue, southern France) to which the Roma, the gypsy populations, made their annual pilgrimage. The audience will experience the gathering of an extended Spanish gypsy and Hungarian Roma family with their cousins from the Balkans.

More than 1,000 years ago, Roma tribes migrated from northern India. Some moved through Bulgaria into Transylvania and Hungary, others went south via Egypt into southern Spain. Despite different migrations, their roots and music remained based in Indian traditions. In 42 A.D., St. Marie Jacobe and St. Marie Salome landed on the shores of southern France in the Camargue with their Egyptian servant, Sarah, whom the Roma worshiped as their patron saint.

The May 7 performance of "The Feast of Sarah" will feature the entire Alborada company, the Daughters of Sofia Tribal Dance Company, Kalman Maygar Hungarian Dance Ensemble and the Gorcsi Brothers Band. Highlights will include the playing of gypsy violins and Hungarian cimbalom; the singing of "saetas" (religious songs from Spain); lyrical dances and music of the Balkan Roma; early dances of the Spanish gypsies; the spiritual, ritualistic fusion dance; and the high-energy "czardas" that the gypsies learned while living in Hungary. Spanish gypsies will dance using tambourines and "zills" (Arabic finger instruments), demonstrating their Arabic background.

Peter Suarez, Eva Lucena and Lisa Botalico will be featured in a re-creation of scene from the film "Golden Earrings" starring Marlene Dietrich.

The performance is funded in part by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the American Music Center Live Music for Dance of New York.

Tickets cost $20 per person for the general public, $15 for students.

For more information, call (732) 255-4071 or log on to www.alboradadance.org, or call the Union County Arts Center box office at (732) 499-8226.

The mission of the nonprofit Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre is the cultivation and preservation of the arts and culture of Spain. Eva Lucena is the group's executive and artistic director.