Top performers also came to the International Music Festival in Jimena, sadly lost
LONDON (New York Times/InTransit/Valerie Gladstone) Feet will be stamped, guitars strummed and cries of love sung as the Flamenco Festival returns to Sadler’s Wells on Tuesday through Feb. 19. Now one of the city’s most popular festivals, it features the guitarist Vicente Amigo [who came to the International Music Festival in Jimena], the soulful singer José Mercé, and dancers as varied as the formidable, legendary Manuela Carrasco [also came to the Festival] and the young iconoclast, lovely Olga Pericet. On two gala evenings, Carrasco, Pericet, Rafaela Carrasco (no relation) and Carmen Cortés join forces in an explosion of fiery movement, demonstrating the varied forms of today’s flamenco. The Antonio Gades company will also perform the late choreographer’s dramatic, folk dance interpretation of Lope de Vega’s play, “Fuenteovejuna.” At the other end of the spectrum, the young and alternative flamenco group La Shica merges hip-hop, reggae and bossa nova in the experimental piece “Supercop.” “Every year I put together entirely different line-ups so that audiences get an idea of the wide variety of artists now making their mark in flamenco,” said Miguel Marin, the presenter of Flamenco Festival London. “There’s nowhere, other than Spain, where you can see so many different styles and such a high caliber of performer in this art form.” [This festival, with similar lineups, will also be performing in New York, Boston, Miami and other US venues, supported by the Instituto Cervantes]
