London Flamenco Festival, Sadler’s Wells, London
June 3, 2025
There has been something to cater to all tastes in this year’s London Flamenco Festival. Romancero del Baile Flamenco could perhaps be said to have provided the legacy performance. A guitarist (Santiago Lara), a singer (David Lagos), palmas and jaleos (Los Mellis) and Mercedes Ruiz and José Maldonado dancing. Plain and simple; no additional instruments and limited staging.
There were some excellent and varied offerings from the dancers who, had they been wearing any, would have worked their socks off, being onstage for pretty much the whole of the show’s ninety minutes. The palos chosen were traditional fare too and ranged from jondo to chico.
in Romancero del Baile Flamenco
Photo Paco Barosso
The opening in silence, although now a cliché in ballet and contemporary dance, is unusual for flamenco and certainly concentrated the mind on the fact that the two dancers mostly danced together, again, not usual in flamenco. There were elements of humour, not least in the teasing allegrias and some surprises too. A lengthy seguirillas in bata de cola with castanets was impressive and there was some excellent work with a lovely black and gold manton, at times wielded by Maldonado too.
Tatiana Ruiz’ lighting plan was retro. Think coloured cyclorama and single overhead spotlights in white. At times, transitions were a bit clunky. Clouds of mist added little in the way of ambience, appearing more as if someone had dropped a lit cigarette into an upstage wastepaper basket. Most disappointing was the sound, however. It was grossly over-amplified, even the slightest shoe nails scraping sounding like fingernails down a backboard, and the guitarist and singers were completely overwhelming when in full throttle.
It was a traditional performance without being quite flamenco pura. There were many enjoyable moments, but it all felt rather self-conscious, as if it were harking back to the decades where flamenco almost had to apologise for being in a theatre and couldn’t quite reveal its inner workings. No chance of duende here.