Dream, live and cry, courtesy of La Lupi

24th FESTIVAL DE JEREZ
Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

COMPAÑÍA FLAMENCA LA LUPI “Lenguaje oculto”
Teatro Villamarta, 9;00pm
Photo gallery – video

Dance: La Lupi, Iván Amaya, Pol Vaquero, Marina Perea. Guitar: Óscar Lago, Curro de María. Violin: Nelson Doblas. Percussion: David Galiano. Cante: Alfredo Tejada, Cristo Heredia. Guest artists (voice): Makarines. Artistic director: La Lupi. Stage director: Juan Dolores Caballero. Classic music: Torija (Elegía) of Federico Moreno.

In the home-stretch of the Festival de Jerez, there continues to be interesting original work. On Tuesday March 3^rd, it was veteran Málaga dancer Lupi’s turn. And she doesn’t avoid being a “veteran”, but rather embraces and cultivates that condition for the story line of the work “Lenguaje Oculto”, [hidden language]. In this way, one of the first teachers of young Rocío Molina seeks to express and free herself of tension and worries associated with female aging.

Without having read the libretto beforehand, this story-line didn’t exactly float to the surface, nor was it even necessary. It seems more enriching to let a work like this reach out to you and spontaneously fill you with sensations, not intellectualism which sometimes seems like artistic treachery. In fact, the strong point of this dreamlike work is its capacity to work on a number of levels. Having decided to ignore the intellectual analytical level, the spectator is free to revel in images and situations that leave you rubbing your eyes, wondering if what you just saw really took place. It’s a surrealistic painting of Magritte turned into movement.

From the start of the show, when Lupi appears to be struggling to free herself from a cocoon, there’s an innocent freshness that makes you pay attention, “let’s see what she comes up with next”. A six-beat rhythm accommodates and supports numerous combinations and movement of people and images, and it comes off as bulerías from a parallel world.

Lupi uses a bright red woman’s purse that could almost become a new accessory for flamenco dance, not to go shopping, but to dance siguiriyas and cabal with the voices of Alfredo Tejada and Cristo Heredia. This is when we see the expression of unlove, that typically Mediterranean calamity.

White leaves on the floor form miniature tornados with each twirl of the shawl, with each turn, and a man of small stature appears as an extension of Lupi’s long train. From one moment to the next, Lupi turns beautiful into grotesque and back again to beautiful, an accurate metaphor for life itself in the version of a dedicated dancer who never ceases taking risks and communicating her vision.

NOELIA SABAREA “Las quijanas-Las cuatro locuras de Quijote”
Sala Compañía, 7:00pm
Photo gallery – video

Dance: Noelia Sabarea, Alejandro Rodríguez. Guitar: Luis Medina. Voice: Rafael “El Calli”, Manuel Peralta. Percussion: Javier Rabadán. Choreography: Javier Latorre, Noelia Sabarea. Stage director: Javier Latorre. Music director: Luis Medina.

At the Sala Compañía, Noelia Sabarea presented her work “Las quijanas-Las cuatro locuras de Quijote”, with the choreography and stage direction of the multifaceted Javier Latorre.

From the classic work Don Quijote, the dancer alludes to four key women, Dulcinea, Maritornes, Dorotea and Marcela, in search of a new dimension for her own artistic development. Noelia is a young hopeful to be taken seriously, she’s eager and full of energy, and it shows that she’s determined to communicate her message via fresh and original movements. She alternates dances with Alejandro Rodríguez who interprets classic pieces with, or without voice, in addition to a duet to lyrical music. Noelia danced cantinas, tanguillos crossed with bulerías and siguiriyas, among other things. Her wardrobe contributes much to the show, it’s neither the corny all-black thing nor colorful polkadots.