Show: 17
Category: Musical Theater
By: Flamenco X
Directed by: Marie de los Reyes
Location: Southern Theater
Summary: A series of flamenco dances accompanied by live music.
Highlights: Where else can I see flamenco dancing other than the fringe festival?! I'm sure there are places, but none that I frequent. To be honest, I only saw this show because the one I was planning to see in this slot dropped out and the local Spanish and Latin dance company Flamenco X bravely agreed to fill the slot the day before the festival began. I'm glad I saw it; the dancing is fantastic, and unlike anything I've seen! The slow seductive movements followed by fast movements, with beautiful arm and hand movements, is a thrill to watch. Especially when they stamp on a wooden plank with a satisfying percussive noise. Four dancers (Marie de los Reyes, Gaël Poretti, Nan Marie Zosel, and Rafaela Del Sol) present a variety of dances, some sexy, some funny, some folk dances, and there also was a young woman doing some jaw-dropping acrobatics (unclear is that's part of the flamenco tradition). The first few dances were to recorded tracks, then guitar player David Elrod came out and played for the dancers, with Marie singing on some songs in addition to dancing. While the individual performances are great, the production is a bit rough. Between scenes there was lots of awkward silence as we waited for the next scene to be set up and for the dancers to change from one gorgeous costume to the next. The amiable host Nan covered for some of it with her charming and disarming banter (including telling a Lena and Ole joke after encouraging us to yell Olé), but there's too much dead space within the show. A rough production but mesmerizing dancing I probably wouldn't see anywhere else.