Flamenco like you've never seen it before

Have you ever seen a Flamenco singer crying out the struggles of today's world? Or seen a squad of female Flamenco dancers marching with a power that gives you goosebumps? Flamenco is one of the most powerful and striking dances on this planet and this year's Flamenco Festival has shown also how incredibly contemporary it can be.

In its 15th year, Sadler's Wells' Flamenco Festival has brought together some of the best talent you can find today in Spain. From legendary figures such as La Chana to young contemporary performers and musicians, the programme was devised so to experience the art of Flamenco from its gypsy roots to its contemporary incarnation. All dance performances were accompanied by a live singer or band on stage showing the inextricable connection between music, lyrics and choreography in Flamenco.

Not many know that Flamenco is an extremely versatile art able to change, stretch and grow into infinite forms, stories and narratives while maintaining its traditional flare. It is true that the Spanish are inspiring innovators of their own cultural forms: they see the potential of rendering their roots contemporary. And within this process, the art is no longer stuck in the past, but incorporates social and contemporary concerns and stories close to our everyday world.

We saw a hilariously funny Isabel Bayón directed and choreographed by international Flamenco sensation Israel Galván in a surreal story in which Jesus, a piano player wearing a bathing robe and a witch inhabit the stage. The sequence of 'events' that happen throughout the show are a humorous take on our obsession with magic, superstitions and taboos that are still very much present in our material and technologically advanced society. For almost the entire duration of the show, Isabel was dancing barefoot, a surprising and curious detail (a Flamenco dancer without her traditional heeled shows?!), surely a strategic choice within the provocative tone of the performance. Our highlights: two mini-solos by Isabel, this round, wearing shoes. But not in the traditional sense – while in the opening solo Isabel performed wearing a pair of Geta, traditional Japanese clogs or flip flops, later in the show she wore her traditional Spanish shoes so to dance on a mirror carefully laid on the stage: an almost celebratory dance of the 7 years of bad luck initiated by her breaking the mirror into infinite pieces.

With a strong female presence, this year's festival had several companies offering feminist stories. Yo Carmen by María Pagés and her dancers was a striking portrayal of women's societal role through the legendary figure of Carmen. Education, marriage, motherhood, domestic labour and death are just some of the themes through which María's women/Carmens narrated their stories under a play of light and dark, marking the joyful and bleak rhythms of womanhood. María's presence on stage was truly captivating, her solos exceptional. Few props and minimal lighting meant that all eyes were on the dancers. Even their costumes featured little or no excessive decoration. Magical was the moment when María's dancers slowly found synchronicity in their movements in a space delineated by projected light, until the final moment when facing one direction only, their feet pound energetically the floor in harmony like a powerful march.

Towards the end, Maria performed her last solo in front of a mirror. While slowly but steadily rotating – so to face by turns us and the mirror – Maria proudly dressed up stepping into a traditional red dress, slipping on big ornate earrings and bracelets and finally wearing a tall golden peineta. Once the delicate operation was done, Maria carefully undressed herself, taking off each piece of jewellery one at a time, and then slowly removing her dress. Left with a minimal nude-coloured under-dress Maria stepped away from the mirror and concluded her adagio.

Compañía Rafaela Carrasco's Born a Shadow, featuring Rafaela herself and dancers from her company, told the story of the imaginary connection between four female artists of the Spanish Golden Age: Saint Teresa of Avila, the Golden Age feminist María de Zayas, the actress and royal mistress María Calderón, and the Mexican philosopher and poet Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Each character narrated her story through a powerful solo performance, each showing a very different style, atmosphere and strength. The dance was accompanied by an off-stage voice reading out the letters written by one artist to the other, as a way of passing over, from one generation to the other, their stories of struggle, love and hope.