London Duende

Posted on March 3, 2014

Carole Edrich blogs from Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival

Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras opened Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival with a production of La Pepa, which started 40 minutes late. This meant the audience was a tad twitchy, although I think it’s part of the fun to reminisce about flamenco-related mañana moments over a drink with friends.

Baras represented La Pepa – the first Spanish constitution – as “an attitude” and “the voice of the people in female form”, though I struggled to find a narrative. Components included her signature tableaux, stunning solo virtuosity and a level of self-indulgence I couldn’t bring myself to dislike.

Reviewers rush off at the first curtain call to file their work, so I was probably the only journalist left when, after several, Baras announced: “The loss of Paco [de Lucia] has left me with half my heart dead.” In a show already dedicated to him, the tiny encore that followed felt more painfully authentic than the rest of the night, even when a coruscating torrent of sparkling confetti poured down upon their final tableau.

Did last-minute tears cause the delay? I have a week to find out.

Picture: Farruquito dancing Abolengo last year. He returns this year with Improvisao.
Photograph: Carole Edrich

Nicola Rayner

Nicola Rayner was editor of Dance Today from 2010 to 2015. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Independent and Time Out Buenos Aires, where she cut her teeth as a dance journalist working on the tango section. Today she continues to dance everything from ballroom to breakdance, with varying degrees of success. Her debut novel, The Girl Before You, was published last year in paperback, ebook and audiobook.