Review: Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company in Solera – Spanish music and dance of the highest calibre

Whenever you attend a show by the Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company, you know you are going to witness a performance of Spanish music and dance of the highest calibre, and so it was the case at Sadler’s Wells on 3 April for the company’s production of Solera. An exceptional guitarist, Peña – who was born and raised in Córdoba, Spain, but who has lived in London since the late 1960s – formed his Flamenco company in 1970 and, over the years, has presented an extraordinary array of singers, musicians and dancers to the British public.

In Solera, directed by Jude Kelly and choreographed by Fernando Romero, the superb mature male Spanish dancer Angel Muñoz appears with the younger talents of Brazilian-born Gabriel Matías and the British-based Magdalena Mannion (a replacement for the originally announced Adriana Bilboa) alongside guitarists Peña, Dani de Morón and Rafael Montilla, percussionist Julio Alcocer and singers Inmaculada Rivero and Iván Carpio. The show is all about the passing on of lived experience in music and dance from one generation to the next, as is so common in Flamenco, and it is a complete delight.

The first half takes place in a rehearsal studio, as the cast come together in the morning to practice for the forthcoming performance. It becomes the equivalent of a Flamenco jamming session, with the dancers and musicians responding to each other as they dance, sing or play. The atmosphere is relaxed and light-hearted, but there is also a sense of deep concentration and respect for the artistry of their colleagues. As Peña plays an old reel-to-reel tape of a Flamenco singer, the group listen with rapt attention until he takes up his guitar to play. The dancers take inspiration from the music and the singing: the graceful Matías tapping his feet and raising his head high, the reed-slim Mannion deftly manoeuvring her bata de cola about her ankles and toes, and Muñoz using his extraordinary hands and arms to punctuate the music. As the rehearsal draws to a close, the cast then put on their coats to go home after a day at work.

The second half is the formal performance, dramatically lit and costumed, with most of the artists given their own solo moment. Muñoz and Mannion perform a duet, dancing closely together and often executing the same steps and movements at the same time. Her hand is kissed, but she pushes him away in a pas de deux that is not a conventional love duet but a dance that suggests a much more complex relationship.

Paco Pena – Solera (c) Elliott Franks_1

Paco Pena – Solera (c) Elliott Franks

Later, Matías takes to the stage, spreading his arms upwards in wide arcs, his hands delicately twisting and turning whilst he performs incredibly percussive toe and heel taps. Some of his choreography echoes what he had been seen preparing during the first half, but it is in this act that his natural elegance and charming stage presence comes fully into focus. Never flashy or vulgar, he dances with a dignified sense of joy and spontaneity.

In his own solo, Muñoz performs with a torso that can suddenly switch from relaxed to taut in the blink of an eye, his figure nuanced and flexible but never tense. Like Matías, he has a natural elegance when he moves, but his maturity and physical presence bring additional strength and variety to his dancing, as well as sex appeal. His hands and arms cross rapidly in front of his body whilst his firm legs and feet produce cascades of zapateado that increase in speed and refinement, and, above all, you sense the discipline and a total dedication towards his art. He is a riveting dancer and performer.

As with every Flamenco show that has ever been, the evening concludes with the entire cast gathering for the Bulería, and another chance to shine. What is so good about Solera, however, is that the performance ends with you wanting more from this wonderful array of artists. A pleasure from start to finish, Solera is also a welcome prelude to the forthcoming Flamenco Festival that Sadler’s Wells will host this June, which is scheduled to include some of the greatest names in Spanish music and dance. I can’t wait.

Jonathan Gray Guest Author

Jonathan Gray was editor of Dancing Times from 2008 to 2022.

He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. He was on the Curatorial Staff of the Theatre Museum, London, from 1989 to 2005, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty.

Jonathan Gray has also contributed to the Financial Times and The Guardian, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005. He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.