National Ballet of Spain, Sara Jiménez and Florencia Oz, and the Voice of María José Llergo Take Center Stage in the Final Stretch of the 19th Flamenco Festival London

The 19th edition of Flamenco Festival London, which has been ongoing since the 4th of this month, enters its second half with a series of performances that continue to highlight dance. Following the inauguration by the Malagueña Rocío Molina, it is now the turn of other exceptional dance figures from Spain, such as the National Ballet of Spain, the Granada-born dancer Sara Jiménez, and the Chilean artist based in Seville, Florencia Oz. All of them will perform at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre until the 15th, when the festival concludes with a concert by the Cordoban María José Llergo. A diversity of perspectives, languages, and ways of understanding flamenco marks this edition, continuing tomorrow with the first of five performances by the National Ballet of Spain. On the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th (with a double performance), a total of 38 dancers led by Rubén Olmo (National Dance Award 2015) will present 'Invocación,' the first program designed by Olmo. This show offers a global vision of Spanish dance, encompassing most of its styles. According to its director, 'Invocación' allows audiences to enjoy flamenco full of life and strength, a ballet of the purest stylized dance, and one of the rare recent bolero school choreographies. The piece, also featured in the recent Flamenco Festival New York, includes a special tribute to dancer and choreographer Mario Maya (1937-2008), one of the great masters of Spanish dance, through the adaptation of one of his choreographies, 'De lo flamenco,' which Olmo revives for this occasion. The genre of macabre dances is the starting point for the creation Sara Jiménez will bring to London. 'Ave de Plata' is the title of this piece to be seen at the Lilian Baylis Studio, part of Sadler’s Wells Theatre, on Friday the 14th. The piece, which draws on the great social satire that sees death as the unifying element of all life, was developed during Jiménez’s artistic residency in Torrox (Málaga) within the 'In-Progress' project. Now, Flamenco Festival London offers it as part of its program thanks to the collaboration of the Instituto Cervantes, which, through its World Flamenco Congress, supports the visibility of flamenco by highlighting its status as high culture and promoting its dissemination through an international program in collaboration with major festivals and venues worldwide. This collaboration also includes the performance on Saturday the 15th by Florencia Oz, presenting the work-in-progress of 'En este día, en este mundo,' a show resulting from an artistic residency at Sadler’s Wells. In this project, Oz teams up with her sister, Isidora O’Ryan, to create a work where circadian rhythms are used to connect with flamenco from a broad sense of tradition and heritage. The collaboration of the Instituto Cervantes also extends to the performance of María José Llergo, one of the great contemporary flamenco voices. The Cordoban artist reinvents and reinterprets. Her singing is free from constraints, enriching her flamenco instinct with other sounds, bringing this art closer to younger generations, as she will demonstrate on Saturday the 15th with her 'Ultrabelleza,' also on the stage of the Lilian Baylis Studio. Her performance will conclude ten days during which the London audience has had the opportunity to enjoy a journey through all facets of contemporary Spanish dance, with artists like Rocío Molina, Alfonso Losa and Patricia Guerrero, Eva Yerbabuena, David Coria, David Lagos and Company, Rubén Olmo with the National Ballet of Spain, Sara Jiménez, and Florencia Oz. Additionally, the audience has experienced the guitar playing of Vicente Amigo and Diego del Morao, and the voice of Israel Fernández, a representative of a new generation of flamenco singers, just like Llergo.