Estévez / Paños and Company: La Confluencia – Sadler’s Wells, London

Choreographers and Directors: Rafael Estévez and Valeriano Paños

All male dance companies are still a relative rarity across all forms of dance, still hampered by old approaches to choreography that prioritise the beauty and elegance of female dancers with men in a supporting role. So, it is fascinating to see Rafael Estévez and Valeriano Paños’ five-strong company performing at the Sadler’s Wells Flamenco Festival, an annual highlight in the venue’s regular programme which this year welcomes La Confluencia to the mainstage, a production that muses on the roots of classic flamenco with some contemporary flair.

And it is a varied evening, performed without an interval for 80 minutes in which the company deliver six individually distinct but related dances that take their inspiration from the varied European and multicultural influences that shape this dance form. Here that translates as vibrant Paso Doble and contemporary dance as well as male desire and strength, but also comic and absurdist theatre, even a hint of Samuel Beckett in the unusual combinations of rhythm and storytelling, plus a little bit of twerking.

The six dances vary in length, some that showcase a particular dancer or atmospheric style including the memorable Introduction in which the five dancers walk with slow, deliberate purpose towards the audience as the lights come up on stage. This first piece sets the tone for the show in which Olga García’s theatrical lighting design creates tone and emotional connection with varied use of side lights, angled beams and spotlights that help to focus the intensity of the performances or support their careful pacing.

That deliberately varied and deftly controlled pacing becomes one of the themes ofLa Confluencia, mixing the fast-paced footwork that holds the audience’s attention with the very slow shaping and gradual raising of the arms that anticipate a change in tension. It keeps the audience alive with expectation in a captivating third dance in which Estévez himself holds court, seated on a chair with acapella support from Francisco Blanco while the choreographer’s feet tap out an intense rhythm.

A similar balance is notable at the start of the final piece, which places the superb Paños centre stage for a classic Paso Doble that is full of power, situated in the performance position watched by his companions who eventually join in, their stance and syncopation a high point of the evening. The remainder of the dance evolves into more chaotic expressions with lots of posing and pulling t-shirts over their heads as the meaning rather slips away.

The longest dance in the middle also mixes lots of styles but draws on the theatre of the absurd in tone and physicality. There is some storytelling in here, lost characters with loose shapes, some death and resurrection, a touch of clowning and even a feeling of men passing time by fooling around while they wait for something to happen. It has its moments of intensity in some of the duets but the use of white hankie props and more pulled-up t-shirts give this part of the show a comic feel.

Estévez / Paños and Company: La Confluencia is certainly broad in its style and conscious of its audience, playing as often to the crowd as to each other. But the range of skills on display from the dancers, also including Alberto Sellés, Jorge Morera and Jesús Perona, as well as musicians Claudio Villanueva and Iván Mellén, is the selling point.

Reviewed on 12 July 2023