Press Release: A fortnight of flamenco's hottest talents - Flamenco Festival 2019 at Sadler's Wells

[Jan McNulty]

Flamenco Festival London 2019
Sadler’s Wells, EC1R 4TN
Tuesday 2 – Sunday 14 July
Performances at Sadler’s Wells: Tuesday - Sunday at 7:30pm, Saturday matinee performances at 3:30pm & Sunday matinee performances at 4pm
Tickets: £15 - £55
Ticket Office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com

 

Sadler’s Wells

Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras: Sombras (UK PREMIERE)
Miguel Poveda: Recital de Cante (UK PREMIERE)
Rocío Molina: Fallen From Heaven
Dorantes, Adam Ben Ezra and Tim Ries: Flamenco Meets Jazz (guest star Jesús Carmona) (UK PREMIERE)
Olga Pericet: The Thorn That Wanted to Be a Flower, or The Flower That Dreamed of Being a Dancer(UK PREMIERE)
Gala Flamenca - Mercedes Ruiz, Eduardo Guerrero & María Moreno (guest singer María Terremoto) (UK PREMIERE) 
Patricia Guerrero: Catedral (UK PREMIERE)

 

Lilian Baylis Studio
Shubbak Festival - Ali Chahrour: May He Rise and Smell the Fragrance (UK PREMIERE)
Shubbak Festival - Amir ElSaffar Ensemble: Luminiscencia (UK PREMIERE)
David Carmona: Un Sueño de Locura (UK PREMIERE)
Kiki Morente: Albayzín (UK PREMIERE)
Jesús Carmona: Residency Sharing (UK PREMIERE)
Sergio de Lope: Ser de Luz (UK PREMIERE)

 

In its 16th year, celebrating the diversity and dynamism of flamenco, Sadler’s Wells’ renowned annual Flamenco Festival returns from Tuesday 2 - Sunday 14 July for a fortnight of unique dance shows featuring some of the world’s finest flamenco dancers and musicians.

 

Revolutionary dancer and flamenco legend Sara Baras returns to Sadler’s Wells to open this year’s festival with Sombras (Shadows). Celebrating the 20th anniversary of her company, Sombras draws on the dance form that has woven through her career, La Farruca. Renowned for its dramatic fast-footwork usually performed by men, Sara Baras dances La Farruca alongside six dancers to claim the dance form as her own.

 

On Thursday 4 - Friday 5 July, Shubbak Festival presents Lebanese choreographer Ali Chahrour’s May He Rise and Smell the Fragrance, in the Lilian Baylis Studio. On Saturday 6 July, acclaimed Iraqi-American musician Amir ElSaffar brings together an ensemble of flamenco artists including vocalist Gema Caballero, dancer Vanesa Aibar, percussionist Pablo Martin Jones and mastermind electronic musician Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch. Using elegant, melodic arabesques to connect traditions, this special line up in Luminiscencia merges East and West into a unique evening of soulful dance and music.

Flamenco singer Miguel Poveda, returns in his first show at Sadler’s Wells since 2014 with his latest work Recital de Cante on Monday 8 July. Poveda takes the audience on a tour of the traditional musical forms of flamenco, from the cantinas of Cadiz to the demanding la soleá repertoire, while sharing his personal connection to the music with a spontaneity that ensures a completely unique performance.

 

 

On Tuesday 9 July, Olivier Award-winning choreographer Rocío Molina presents her latest show Fallen From Heaven. Molina shakes up the traditional guitar, cajón and clapping hands combination with a drum kit and electric guitar which draws on both male and animalistic movement to explore gender, sex and flamenco itself.

 

Tuesday 10 July brings together three exceptional musicians who have been prominent in breaking barriers in music: pianist Dorantes known as ‘the jewel of the flamenco piano’, double bass phenomenon and multi- instrumentalist, Adam Ben Ezra, and master of tenor and soprano saxophones who tours with the Rolling Stones, Tim Ries. Former principal dancer with Nacional de España and pioneer in flamenco’s evolution, dancer Jesus Carmona completes the ensemble, and together, they present Flamenco Meets Jazz.

 

Olga Pericet, known for creating a world full of evocative imagery through a combination of theatre and dance presents The Thorn That Dreamed of Being a Flower or The Flower That Dreamed of Being a Dancer on Thursday 11 July. Pericet won the Spanish National Dance Prize in 2018.

On Friday 12 July, the Lilian Baylis Studio hosts two acts from the acclaimed showcase of new flamenco talent: the Flamenco Eñe series, co-organized with Fundación SGAE. First up, for his London debut, David Carmona presents Un sueño de locura or “a crazy dream”, playing off the musical traditions of Andalusia.

 

Later, the son of a legendary cantaor and a bailaora, Kiki Morente, performs his album Albayzin(2017), filled with classical tradition and contemporary innovation, in homage to his father. The performance also features young dancer Irene Rueda.

 

From Friday 12 - Saturday 13 July, Sadler’s Wells welcomes the annual Gala Flamenca, showcasing the very best in flamenco. Manuel Liñan returns as director and this year’s line-up features dancers Mercedes Ruiz, Eduardo Guerrero and María Moreno. They are also joined on stage by singer María Terremoto - the youngest ever recipient of the Giraldillo award for new artist at the Seville Flamenco Biennial.

Jesús Carmona is at the Lilian Baylis Studio on Saturday 13 July is with his Residency Sharing, at 6pm. At 8pm is Sergio de Lope, award-winning flautist and saxophonist, who has collaborated with flamenco stars such as Farruquito, presents Ser de Luz in his London debut.

 

Closing the festival on Sunday 14 July is Patricia Guerrero with Catedral. Joining her on stage are three dancers, a guitarist, two percussionists, two opera singers and a flamenco singer. The rising star steps into a shadowy world of repression and sacrifice as she draws on the binding constraints of religion and society. Catedral won her the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Performance at Seville’s Bienal de Flamenco.

 

Throughout the festival, Sadler’s Wells also hosts a range of unique workshops to learn and explore flamenco’s choreographic style and technique from the artists themselves, including Patricia Guerrero and Olga Pericet. On Sunday 14 July there is a music workshop focussing on flamenco guitar and on Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 July: a multidisciplinary workshop exploring the practice of artistic expression. Please see below for further details.

 

Workshops
Dance
María Jesús & Charo Pedraja (Sara Baras Company) - Alergrías Mood
Friday 5 July, 3pm - 4:30pm
All levels

 

Olga Pericet - Improvise in Flamenco Rhythm
Friday 12 July, 1pm - 2:30pm
All levels

Patricia Guerrero - Flamenco Attitude
Saturday 13 July, 5pm - 6:30pm
Intermediate level 

 

Mercedes Ruiz - Fiesta in Jerez
Sunday 14 July, 11am - 12:30pm
Intermediate level

Music
Santiago Lara - Jerez Toque
Sunday 14 July, 11am - 12:30pm
Intermediate level

Multidisciplinary
Sabio Janiak - Ivan Bavcevic - Beyond Technique
Saturday 6 July and Sunday 7 July, 11am - 7pm
Practitioners of artistic disciplines                                                                                                                                                                

 

Notes to Editors

ABOUT SADLER’S WELLS
Sadler’s Wells is a world-leading creative organisation dedicated to dance in all its forms. With over three centuries of theatrical heritage and a year-round programme of performances and learning activities, it is the place where artists come together to create dance, and where people of all backgrounds come to experience it – to take part, learn, experiment and be inspired. 

 

Its vision is to reflect and respond to the world through dance: enabling artists of all backgrounds to create dance that moves us and opens our minds, and sharing those experiences with the widest possible audiences – to enrich their lives and deepen their understanding of what it means to be human.

 

Audiences of over half a million come to Sadler’s Wells’ three London theatres each year, with many more enjoying its touring productions at venues across the UK and around the world, and accessing its content through digital channels. Sadler's Wells commissions, produces and presents more dance than any other theatre in the world, embracing the popular and the unknown. Since 2005, it has helped to bring over 170 new dance works to the stage, many of them involving its 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies and four Associate Companies – the most exciting talents working in dance today. 

 

Sadler’s Wells nurtures the next generation of talent through a number of artist development initiatives and reaches over 30,000 annually through its learning and engagement programmes.

 

Located in Islington, north London, Sadler’s Wells’ current building is the sixth to have stood on site since entrepreneur Richard Sadler first established the theatre in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera having all started at Sadler's Wells.

 

Sadler’s Wells is to open an additional mid-scale venue in east London in 2022. The new space will be at the heart of the East Bank project, a new cultural and education district in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, which will also include BBC, UAL’s London College of Fashion, UCL and the V&A in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. As well as a 550-seat auditorium, Sadler’s Wells’ new venue will include a choreographic centre and a hip hop theatre academy, the first of their kind in the world to be run by a theatre.

www.sadlerswells.com

 

ABOUT FLAMENCO FESTIVAL
Flamenco Festival is a not for profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of Spanish culture around the world directed and founded by Miguel Marin. Flamenco Festival’s annual international events showcase the leading flamenco names of today, from world renowned artists and icons of traditional flamenco to the most innovative, emerging young stars of flamenco, dance music and song. 

 

Flamenco Festival USA was founded in 2001, and since then has become a showcase for Spanish artists in New York, Washington DC, Miami, Boston and other American cities. In 2003, the first Flamenco Festival was presented in London at Sadler’s Wells, and since then it has become an annual date with Flamenco in London.             

                                      

Flamenco Festival London is sponsored by Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música, INAEM. Flamenco Festival London is supported by Extenda, Agencia Andaluza de Promoción Exterior through its program Andalucía Flamenca, Fundación SGAE, Oficina de Turismo de España en Londres, Embajada Española en Reino Unido, Instituto Cervantes Londres, and Acción Cultural Española AC/E.

www.flamencofestival.org

 

ABOUT SHUBBAK FESTIVAL 
Shubbak is the UK’s premier festival of contemporary Arab culture, presenting outstanding Arab artists to audiences in London and across England. Shubbak's programme includes UK premieres and new commissions from over 150 artists based in the Arab region, in Europe and in the UK, with both cutting-edge and celebrated names, through a mix of visual arts, film, music, theatre, dance, literature and debates. Led by Eckhard Thiemann, artistic director, and Daniel Gorman, executive director, Shubbak 2019 is the 5th edition of this biennial festival.

Shubbak 2019 principal partners are Arts Council England, A. M. Qattan Foundation, Bagri Foundation and British Council. Shubbak is a registered charity number 1150374.