Flamenco Festival Sadler's Wells June/July 2022

[Sim]

I adore Flamenco dancing, but mainly the good old classical Flamenco.  I am wondering if anyone more knowledgeable than I am can recommend which of these programmes to attend wherein I can see classical/traditional Flamenco.  I am not interested in anything 'worthy', a 'story' evening or 'Flamenco fusion'.  

 

Are there any programmes like that here?  Thanks for any advice.

 

Flamenco Festival 2022 - Sadler's Wells (sadlerswells.com)

 

[Clara_f]

Hi Sim 

 

Out of the programmes, I think the ones you might like the most are:

 

Gala Fiesta de la Bulería de Jerez

 

Manuel Liñan

 

The other programmes will still be grounded in traditional flamenco vocabulary but are looking to push the boundaries and be "Avant Garde" / boundary pushing / cross pollinating with other disciplines.

 

Manuel Liñan is traditional flamenco but there is an element relating to the exploration of gender norms within flamenco (eg. Women can dance like men traditionally but not Vice versa, aka with the pointed fingers and more showy footwork and that is what Manuel Liñan is exploring - can a man dance the female role). Nevertheless I still think you might enjoy it very much as it is not trying to be "modern" flamenco, and despite the modern (?) exploration of gender norms, it is not trying to be "worthy" if I understand what you're referring to. It's pure homage to classical flamenco, done extraordinarily well, by a star of the flamenco world. I saw them at the Jerez flamenco festival in February this year and a thumbs up for sure!

 

Hope you enjoy the Sadlers wells festival!

 

 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by Clara_f

[Sim]

Thanks so much Clara.  I was already considering the Buleria as it looks like what I am talking about.

 

Normally anything that 'explores gender norms' is an immediate turn-off for me, but you make a very good case for Linan (sorry I don't know how to do accents on the keyboard I am using!) so I will see if I can find anything on the web about him and his dancing.  

 

I will let you know what I end up seeing.  Thanks again for responding. 

 

[Clara_f]

A lot will be made online about the challenging gender norms I suspect.

 

If I'm allowed here is a promo clip of the dancing from YouTube.

 

There is a small amount of comedy in the show mocking themselves, but it is not nearly as pastiche (if that's the right term) or comedic as say Les Trocks take on the ballet classics. As I said before, they take their traditional flamenco very seriously and it's a love letter to the classical art form and to self expression through dance.

 

https://youtu.be/V0XuKBbn3Go

Edited April 19, 2022 by Clara_f

[Sim]

Thanks Clara.  I had already found this on YouTube and it does indeed look like a flamenco version of the Trocs!!  Hmmm, it looks interesting.  Thank you! 

 

[Sophie_B]

Thank you for the recommendations Clara! 

 

Since we're talking flamenco... Not strictly part of the flamenco festival, but Paco Peña's new show Solera (directed by Jude Kelly) is on at Sadler's Wells this week. I saw it yesterday and it was really fantastic - a well deserved standing ovation from the audience. In terms of aesthetics it was on the modern side but it really captured the essence of traditional flamenco for me which is the feeling of improvisation and dancers / musicians playing off each other, and highlighting all the different components (guitar, voice, percussion, dance) in turn with their own solos. It was up there with my favourite flamenco performances ever, possibly slightly influenced by the fact that it's been several years now without live flamenco for me!

 

The musicians and dancers are deliberately a mix of different generations. 2 male 1 female dancers - Angel Muñoz, Gabriel Matías, Adriana Bilbao. In particular the contrast between Muñoz and Matías was very effective - both very very good with a slightly different style. I don't know enough about flamenco to describe but Muñoz had a lot of masculine bravado and great footwork (legwork?) moving across the stage, and Matías had particularly beautiful (balletic?) arms and that very classic tall torso. Also 3 guitars, male and female singers, 1 percussionist. Aside from Paco Peña himself, who at 79 (!!) is still magic, Dani de Morón on guitar was fantastic as well. 

 

The first half is set in a rehearsal space and the whole cast wear practice clothes, the dancers sit on the floor and do the occasional bit of stretching when they're not dancing, people have their water bottles with them on stage. It felt really fresh and vivid and fun, but made sure to go through all the different styles of song and dance (Adriana Bilbao even wore 2 different practice skirts including one with a long train, I forget what it's called). The second half was different in style - with the stark lighting of a performance, more ensemble dancing and duets, lots of costume changes (pretty plain costumes - high on colour, low on the ruffles, all just focused on the dancing and music which is a good thing in my book). As an evening, I thought it worked tremendously well and the time flew by for me.