Raw power defies shambolic show

By Sarah Frater, Evening Standard 05.03.07
More reviews by Sarah Frater
Sarah Frater

Powerful: in two key solos Cortes is so alive, so furious, you almost taste panic

Idiosyncratic is the tactful way of describing Carmen Cortés, although bonkers is more direct.

The dramatic flamenco diva has a show based on the heroines of the Andalusian writer Federico Garcia Lorca, but her metaphysics are so muddled, her theatrics so extravagant, and her presentation so unplugged, that you struggle to find graces to save.

There's the unintentionally comic motif of flamenco shoes, a great pile of which mount up on stage, dozens of which fall from the ceiling.

Her stiff torso and shoulders, and her slipshod presentation (costumes adrift, hair clips flying), are easy to fault, as are the sentimental pre-recorded piano music and the dancers connected with stretchy fabric (I kid you not).

(leer +) [vía thisislondon]

tags: flamenco, baile, Carmen Cortés, flamenca, Londres