Presentation of LondonFlamenco Festival in Seville

The 16th edition of the Flamenco Festival London, one of the most important platforms for the promotion of flamenco on the international scene, and the largest flamenco festival organized in a city outside the Spanish borders will take place from July 2nd to 14th 2019 by a number of proposals and functions. Although traditionally the London event has been celebrated in February, this year it changes and will be performed in July. Under the motto "This is creation. This is flamenco," the London event reflects the vibrant contemporary scene of this art and the new paths that open for it. With creativity as a driving force and fundamental axis, Flamenco Festival London gives voice to creators of different generations, consolidated artists and new talents, who are advancing this language from very different positions, but with a marked personal stamp. This edition is the most important in the history of the festival, with a broad increase in programming with 53% more shows compared to the 2018 edition from 17 to 26 performances. A total of 133 Spanish participants from 18 companies will present their work in London to an expected audience of 24,000. One more year, the program devotes a special space to emerging artists, with 11 proposals for artists presenting their work for the first time in the capital of the United Kingdom, representing 61% of the total programming. Sadler’s Wells, a space dedicated primarily to dance, will host a majority of the performances. This edition will also dedicate the Lilian Baylis Studio to show musical proposals − one of the major bets of the festival, which triples the programming of this format going from 4 to 11 performances. A new collaboration starts this year between poetry and flamenco, uniting London poets with Spanish painters, musicians and dancers. In this sense, Flamenco Festival aims to be a space that promotes artistic creation linked to the world of flamenco in all its possibilities. The number of spaces has also increased, being present in four rooms of different formats: Sadler's Wells Theatre, Lilian Baylis Studio, Rich Mix and Cervantes Theatre, this being the first time that the festival covers other spaces in the city other than Sadler's Wells. The aim is to reach new audiences and expand the variety of shows. In an edition dedicated to creativity in flamenco, Flamenco Festival is backing the processes beyond the results. It is expanding the artistic residency program started 7 years ago; a space for experimentation and meeting between flamenco artists and international artists from other disciplines. CONCEPT AND MISSION OF THE FESTIVAL Committed to the international diffusion of flamenco, Flamenco Festival London will offer in 2019 a monumental program that covers the contemporary flamenco scene in 12 days, bringing together innovative creators, great stars and young talents of dance, toque and cante. With a trajectory of three decades in which the 277,000 spectators and the 250 representations have been surpassed, in charge of the most important figures of the current flamenco, Flamenco Festival London is a consolidated event in the British capital. A space for the exploration of the paths that flamenco begins, to build in search of new horizons. The mission of Flamenco Festival is to spread the richness and variety of flamenco art, from traditional flamenco to the most avant-garde proposals. Every year, it counts on the most important figures of the current scene, from world-renowned artists, to emerging artists who begin their journey in the international market. For their annual appointment they have gone from Carmen Linares to Sara Baras through the National Ballet of Spain, Vicente Amigo, Eva Yerbabuena, Estrella Morente, Tomatito, María Pagés, Manuela Carrasco, Israel Galván, Miguel Poveda, Gerardo Núñez, Carmen Cortés, Rocío Molina, Rocío Márquez, Rosalía or Rafaela Carrasco, and also geniuses who are no longer with us, such as Paco de Lucía or Enrique Morente. THE PROGRAMMING OF FLAMENCO LONDON FESTIVAL 2019 Under the motto "This is creation. This is flamenco" the new edition of Flamenco Festival London explores the motors that move the current scene in flamenco, reflecting society and the moment we live: The limits of gender as the guiding thread of flamenco feeling on stage The female universe floods the Flamenco Festival program in London with flamenco dance, the scenic expression that best transmits the culture and flamenco feeling on the stages around the world. With proposals as powerful as those of the Flamenco Ballet of Sara Baras, Rocío Molina, Olga Pericet and Patricia Guerrero, authentic icons of the flamenco avant-garde applied to dance will all be performing. - The Flamenco Ballet of Sara Baras presents at the Sadler's Wells, between July 2nd and 7th, the show 'Sombras' with which the Cádiz dancer has travelled the world celebrating her 20-year career. For the first time in the United Kingdom, she builds in this show a tribute to the Farruca, the traditionally masculine dance that appears transvestite in the body of the artist who demands it for herself. - The impressive staging of Rocío Molina takes possession of Sadler's Wells with her show 'Caído del cielo' on July 9th. Far from the conventional, Rocío breaks the limits of flamenco by taking her body to be a vehicle for an overflowing emotion that explores gender, sex and flamenco itself, supported by root sounds: the palmas, the flamenco cajón and the guitar. - Olga Pericet's innovation and strength without limits will be unveiled on July 11th with the show 'La spina que quiso se flor or la flor que suen con ser bailaora' which is performed for the first time in the UK thanks to Flamenco Festival. Pericet once started up his scenic laboratory to build a show as poetic as his title through theatre and dance. - The powerful talent of Patricia Guerrero attacks the restrictions that religion and society exert on women in the show 'Catedral' that arrives at Sadler's Wells on July 14th. The award-winning work premieres for the United Kingdom this time bringing together three dancers, a guitarist, two percussionists, two lyric singers and a flamenco cantaor, bringing the dark world of repression and sacrifice to the stage. The future of Flamenco: a new generation Flamenco advances in search of new talents, inheritors of the tradition they receive to preserve it, creators who build new paths by drawing a horizon of freedom. From the virtue of David Carmona's guitar, through the voice of Kiki Morente as a new exponent of the eternal flamenco dynasty of Granada, to the flute full of light by Sergio de Lope, the chords of the Cadiz winds of Diego Villegas or the virtuosity of Antonio Lizana, the new generations take a step forward. - With authentic talent and virtuosity, guitarist David Carmona offers the UK premiere of his show 'Un sueño de locura' on July 12th at the Lilian Baylis Studio, a musical of Andalusian tradition. - On the same stage the young Kiki Morente, accompanied by the dancer Irene Rueda, presents on July 12th his first album 'Albayzín', for the first time in the United Kingdom, a work that distills family references and perfect combination with new proposals that pay tribute to patriarch Enrique Morente. The award-winning Pied Piper and saxophonist Sergio de Lope presents for the first time in London his new musical project 'Being of light' on July 13th, a mestizo and authentic expression of the flamenco soul that finds new paths for art in its co-existence with other sounds such as jazz. He will be accompanied by dancer Cristina Aguilera. - The Cervantes Theatre will host on July 6th the musician Diego Villegas presenting his first album 'Bajo de guía', a project that evokes the most well-known neighborhood of Sanlúcar de Barrameda, his native town, through deep and sincere music. - On July 11th the Cervantes Theatre presents the project 'Oriente' by Antonio Lizana, a journey through its two recordings that will cross bridges from the most sober flamenco styles to the most avant-garde jazz, completing a vibrant and intense show. The Flemish conversation with the public: from tradition to the avant-garde, from the individual to the dialogue with other artistic expressions Flamenco finds in it’s musical and scenic expression various ways to reach the public. From the sober and traditional staging of Miguel Poveda, to the jazz-flamenco fusion of Dorantes, Tim Ries and Adam Ben Ezra, through the range of proposals integrated in the Gala Flamenca, or the great encounter between the Amir El Saffar Ensemble and exponents of the new avant-garde of flamenco in collaboration with Shubback Festival. In this section we will highlight the encounter between poetry and flamenco in the performance 'Be bold. Be hard', ‘The night' ‘Women at the edge', 'Luminescence' and the Open Flamenco recital. - Back in Sadler's Wells, the acclaimed singer Miguel Poveda will offer a recital on July 8th, echoing his previous passage through this space in 2014. The musical forms of the tradition are embodied in his voice while touring the bars of Cádiz, and interprets a demanding soleá in full communion with the audience. - On July 10th, Sadler's Wells hosts the premiere in the UK of the show 'Flamenco meets jazz' starring Dorantes, Tim Ries and Adam Ben Ezra with dancer Jesús Carmona as guest artist, dismantling the barriers between jazz and flamenco and drawing bridges between styles for the co-existence of flamenco from any culture. - On July 4th at the Rich Mix the performance show 'Be bold. Be hard: Poetry + flamenco’ will take place. In this event the painting, flamenco and poetry will come together to dialogue among themselves and generate a unique proposal by the hand of the dancer Jesús Carmona, the multi-instrumentalist Sabio Janiak, the painter Andrés Mérida, the collective of poets The YoniVerse and the spiritual master Ivan Bavcevic. - On the 5th at the Rich Mix, Rosario Guerrero "La Tremendita" & La Shica, with Didi Gutman, star in the double program 'Women at the Edge', putting on stage their personal musical projects that blend flamenco with the freshness of the jazz, electronics, rock, rap or even punk. - On July 6th, the acclaimed Iraqi-American musician Amir ElSaffar, known for fusing the mysticism of the Iraqi maqam tradition with flamenco and jazz, will present 'Luminescence'. ElSaffar brings together great exponents of flamenco such as the cantaora Gema Caballero, the bailaora Vanesa Aibar and the flamenco percussionist Pablo Martín Jones. Also participating are the electronic genius Lorenzo Bianchi Hoesch, and the violinist Dena ElSaffar. Closing the Rich Mix shows, on July 10th the dancer Nanako Aramaki joins a poet, a guitarist and a percussionist to create the Obliqueffect show: the alteration of perspective when an artist or a group of artists breaks tradition. The choreographer and dancer Jesús Carmona shares on July 13th at the Lilian Baylis Studio the results of his artistic residency with the Festival, a week of intensive work in which the bailaor has deepened poetry in the idea of masculine energies. Women are not based on gender in an attempt to transcend social conditioning and limited definitions of male identity. The Festival exposes the creation of Flemish territories par excellence Moved by his concern to make known the flamenco creation in spaces of tradition and heritage, Flamenco Festival offers choral performances with artists from Jerez/Cádiz and Extremadura. - On the 12th and 13th of July the Flamenco Festival London will offer its traditional Flamenco Gala at the Sadler's Wells, where flamenco with denomination of origin in Jerez and Cádiz will be on stage. The exponents of the flamenco dancers Mercedes Ruiz, Eduardo Guerrero and María Moreno will be accompanied by the voice of María Terremoto, achieving a dialogue between artists that will transcend the stage. This Flamenco Gala is directed by choreographer and flamenco dancer Manuel Liñán. - On July 6, the Cervantes Theatre dedicates its program to the Flamenco Abierto recital, the staging of four young Extremaduran projects that come together from the need to share flamenco feelings. The dancer Jesús Ortega, the singer Manuel Pajares, the guitarist and cantaor Juan Manuel Moreno, and the percussionist Sergio García participate in this multidisciplinary proposal. Flamenco Eñe arrives in London for the first time The prestigious flamenco cycle organized by the SGAE Foundation, Flamenco Eñe, takes a leap within the framework of the Flamenco Festival and becomes part of London, having been on the New York programming last March. In this way, the performances of Kiki Morente, David Carmona and Antonio Lizana will be programmed within the Flamenco Eñe cycle (Kiki Morente and David Carmona) and Jazz Eñe (Antonio Lizana).