Two of the best known names at the forefront of innovative flamenco come together in a show that is presented as an investigation and an open itinerary. Both artists perform live, accompanied by musician Pepe Benítez, violinist Maureen Choi and soprano Olalla Alemán. Also taking part in the Barcelona staging of the production is the Càrmina choir, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year. In the new production, led by Rocío Molina, everyone talks about desire, about the human body and about the capacity it has to create images of a past that it does not understand. Desire is presented as a flow that traverses the human and the sacred, the spiritual and the material. With a title that alludes to the pictorial process of colouring the flesh, Rocío Molina addresses the tensions produced by desire, in artistic creation or in its most carnal form, in a piece in which sacred and electronic music, celebration and festivity, repression and the intimate pleasure of bondage converge.
It is the most recent creation by an artist who won the León de Plata de la Danza at the Venice Biennale in 2022, thereby becoming the first flamenco dancer to win this award, which is given to contemporary dance creations. It was awarded to her for being a "radical interpreter of traditions who expresses herself beneath the sign of contemporaneity". This is not surprising, given that Molina - also the winner of the Positano Dance Award and the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts 2022, and winner of the National Dance Prize in 2010 - is one of the greatest renovators on the flamenco scene. With a long international career, this iconoclastic choreographer and restless and versatile creator is particularly popular in France, where she has been an associate artist at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris. In 2008, we saw her at the Grec, participating with Belén Maya, Diana Navarro and Merche Esmeralda in the collective show Mujeres, and in 2018 she brought motherhood to the stage in the show Grito pelao, with Silvia Pérez Cruz.
A co-production of Danza Molina S.L., Grec 2023 Festival de Barcelona, Bienal de Danza de Venecia, Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla and Teatro Español.
In collaboration with the Andalusian Agency of Cultural Institutions. Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Junta de Andalucía.
With the support of the National Institute for the Performing Arts and Music (INAEM).
Dance: Rocío Molina. Singing: Niño de Elche. Piano / electronics / programming: Pepe Benítez. Violinist: Maureen Choi. Soprano: Olalla Alemán. Chorus: Coral Càrmina. Original idea and choreography: Rocío Molina. Stage direction: Rocío Molina, Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio Esnaola. Music direction: Niño de Elche, in collaboration with Rocío Molina and Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio Esnaola. Musical composition Cumbia y Exhorcismo: Pepe Benítez. Development, support and artistic co-ordination: Julia Valencia. Costume design: Leandro Cano. Set space design: Juan Kruz Díaz de Garaio Esnaola. Lighting design: Carlos Marquerie. Choral music design: Daniel Mestre. Sound design: Javier Álvarez. Texts: Enrique Fuenteblanca. Technical direction: Carmen Mori. Graphic design: Julia Valencia. Lighting technician: David Benito. Staging: María Agar Martínez. Shibari artists: Simone Fratini, GlüWür. Costumes by Pepe Benítez and Olalla Alemán: Gloria Trenado. Wicker skirt: Taller Artesano de Mimbre José Luis Encijo. Production management: El Mandaito Producciones SL. Photographer: Simone Fratini.
