Olga Pericet is an internationally renowned creator, bailaora and choreographer. Her show, La Leona is simply dazzling. On a dark stage, to a vibrant beat and insistent bells, a body gradually comes to life, slowly leaning and stretching. Inverted, the female back becomes a guitar – a central motif for this work. But it also seems something inhuman, animal-like; Pericet draws attention to the human body as an animal body in all its taut power and ferocity.
She is almost naked, as far from the traditional traje de flamenca, the figure-hugging, flounced dress of the female flamenco dancer, as she could be. She is La Leona, the lioness but also an incarnation of Antonio de Torres’ favourite guitar which he named La Leona. Thus Pericet begins her witty deconstruction of flamenco’s traditional music and choreography while ramping up its essential potency.
Pericet’s show explores masculinity and femininity, exuberantly exploding gender stereotypes. She appears in one scene in the sharpest of tailored suits, playing up the matador-like. cape-swinging moves and bull-like prances of the male flamenco dancer. Then she becomes a fabulously over-the-top femme fatale in layers and layers of pink flounces, somehow appearing to be about eight feet tall. Earlier two of the band members have a comic scene in front of the microphone in which they turn pairs of scissors into percussion instruments, creating further percussive sounds as they rhythmically chop cardboard into guitar shapes. Now Pericet sports one of these cardboard guitars as an outrageous hair comb. There are more of these surreal visual touches throughout the show. At the end, she brings the curtain down as she pulls the painted backdrop from its moorings.
The members of her outstanding band are all talented, inventive performers. They too explore the very edges of what flamenco music can be, from Juanfe Pérez’s powerful bass, through the delicacy of Jose Manuel León and José Jaén’s guitar-playing, to the plaintive singing of Israel Moro.
Pericet is a mesmerizing performer, vibrating with energy and sensual charm. Her imaginative vision is simply astonishing.
Reviewed on 11 July 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Astonishing, mesmerizing
