Intense bonds, fiery chemistry fuel Flamenco Festival Miami XVI

Patricia Guerrero, together with Alfonso Losa and singers Sandra Carrasco and Ismael “El Bola” will close Flamenco Festival Miami XVI on Sunday,  March 9 with “Alter Ego.” The festival is at the Adrienne Arsht Center for three days starting Wednesday, March 5. (Photo by Beatrix Molnar (courtesy of the Arsht Center).

Flamenco is defined by its ability to access “the fullness and intensity of the moment, living it to the fullest and transmitting that to the public,” says Miguel Marin, director of Flamenco Festival Miami XVI.

Flamenco Festival Miami XVI brings to the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Knight Concert Hall stars of dance and music with unique ways of connecting with one another and with the intensity that characterizes Spain’s most emblematic art form. On Wednesday, March 5, Thursday, March 6 and Sunday, March 9, this year’s three performances will feature Manuel Liñán & Compañía in the passionate, no-holds-barred “Muerta de Amor,” the acclaimed soloist Eva Yerbabuena in “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante),” and Patricia Guerrero and Alfonso Losa’s stunning duet, “Alter Ego.”

Patricia Guerrero in a new work, “Alter Ego,” which will be presented on the final night of Flamenco Festival Miami XVI on Sunday, March 9. (Photo by Beatrix Molner, courtesy of the Arsht Center)

Marín explains in a telephone interview that it isn’t merely technical brilliance that makes a flamenco artist into an icon; rather, it’s the ineffable gift of being able to communicate great emotions without so much as moving a finger.

“It is about holding the silence, holding stillness, holding that moment when you are motionless, when you have no resources to turn to.” He explains that “when Eva [Yerbabuena] enters a stage, simply walking, there an energetic change takes place.” With Guerrero, who was recently named director of the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, her mere presence “lights up the stage.”

“It is not about technique, about pirouettes,” says Marín, “it is about presence and depth in terms of an internal connection… with a more spiritual part, a more intimate part of the artist.”

In “Alter Ego,” Guerrero and Losa explore the energetic connections that they experience onstage, a bond neither has found with any other dance partner. Awarded four top prizes at the 2023 Jerez Festival, “Alter Ego” is an unbridled exploration of emotional and creative chemistry by two artists at the height of their powers.

“The beauty of this show,” says Guerrero, “lies in the love and respect we have for each other and our differences. Because it is important to know what sets us apart in order to come together.”

Eva Yerbabuena says that “Yerbagüena (Dark Bright)” is “an exploration of light and darkness, rigidity and flaccidity, that is, everything that is opposite”. (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).

In technically brilliant solos, they search separately for the alter ego that lives in each of them. Finally, the two come together, creating in that highly sensual moment a “third character” that Guerrero says “stands beyond the two of us.”

Love as a creative force appears as a common theme across the three shows of this year’s Flamenco Festival Miami. Eva Yerbabuena, whom Marín calls “the queen of traditional flamenco, flamenco ‘por derecho,’ ” has spent the better part of her career sharing the stage with her husband and soulmate, guitarist Paco Jarana.

“For me, it is an honor to have an artist, a musician and composer like Paco, at my side,” she says, not only for his ability to intuit, moment by moment, precisely what she needs onstage, but also in the way they inspire each other in the development of their art. Over the years, in studios and rehearsal halls, the two have mined their deep connection to develop a creative methodology that, she says, is infallible. Their work, both in partnership and as independent artists, has garnered critical acclaim in the flamenco world and beyond.

“It’s not, ‘I feel this music and you choreograph it,’  explains Yerbabuena. “Then there are two paths… two rivers that don’t quite meet, but rather run parallel, right?” With Jarana and her, those rivers find their force by running together.

In “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante),” Eva Yerbabuena shares the stage with seven musicians, four of them first-class singers. (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).

That nexus between music and dance has always been an intriguing feature of flamenco: since its inception as a performing art form, audiences have been fascinated to observe a group of musicians and dancers communicate with precision without anyone uttering a single word. But the other magical element of that exchange is how the musicians give the dancer access to the deepest recesses of her imagination.

For Yerbabuena, “cante jondo,” flamenco’s “deep song,” is the key to entering that place of ecstasy and risk. Marín observes that “what we call duende, that magic, searching for oneself inside, she searches for it through singing.”

“Oscuro Brillante” is itself a study of opposites, says Yerbabuena. “Light and dark, rigidity and softness, all that forms a contrast” is its subject matter. Searching out those contrasts, she wraps herself in the luxuriant sounds of four voices, those of Miguel Ortega, Antonio “El Turri,” Manuel de Gines and Ezequiel Montoya.

“They have very different voices,” she says, “very distinct melismas, all marvelous.”

In fact, all of the musicians performing this year, says Marín, have been critical not just to the performances but to the development of the three works. Singer Sandra Carrasco, who was a standout at last year’s Gala Flamenca, appears together with Ismael “El Bola” in “Alter Ego.”  Guerrero likens their artistic partnership to the one between she and Losa—a study in difference uniting in a whole that is even greater than the sum of its parts. And in “Muerta de Amor,” singer Mara Rey fills the stage with a dramatic intensity that recalls figures like Lola Flores or Isabel Pantoja.

The seven dancers of Manuel Liñán’s company will open the XVI Flamenco Festival on Wednesday, March 5, with “Muerta de Amor,” which was awarded as the best show of the Seville Biennial 2024. (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).

The intensity radiated by the performers in “Muerta de Amor”—seven dancers and five musicians in total—is heady, nearly overwhelming. Liñán fills 90 electrifying minutes laying bare the power of fantasy, of physical desire between men, of passions both carnal and emotional. Love and lust, he seems to say, come in many forms—why not celebrate them at their fullest?

Here, as in “Viva!,” the worldwide hit that Liñán brought to the Arsht in 2022, the choreographer elevates the LGBTQ side of flamenco from its historical place in the shadows. Although always present in the art form, says Marín, this community “was hidden, pretending to be what it is not.” He points to the courage that artists like Liñán have to say, “‘No…I’m going to be me, I’m going to be authentic… and show the truth of who I am. ’”

“In the end, what defines flamenco in a very important sense is the authenticity of the artist,” he says. “It’s not the choreography. It’s that the artist who bares himself completely and can express his truth.”

In “Muerta de Amor,” which opens the Miami Flamenco Festival 2025, on Wednesdsay, March 5, Manuel Liñán breaks with the stereotypes of flamenco to reveal his authentic “self.”‘ (Photo by Marcos G Punto, courtesy of the Arsht Center).

His recommendation to the public?

“Come open to the artist’s intent,” he asks. “Come open to what the artist has to tell us.” Even if it is for just one night, let down your guard and allow yourself to connect with the fullness and intensity of the moment that is at the heart of flamenco.

WHAT: Flamenco Festival Miami XVI: Manuel Liñán & Company in “Muerta de Amor”; Eva Yerbabuena in “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante)”; Patricia Guerrero and Alfonso Losa in “Alter Ego”

WHERE: Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

WHEN: 8 p.m. each night, Wednesday, March 5: Manuel Liñán & Compañía in “Muerta de Amor” (prior to the performance, at 7 p.m., the public is invited to participate in “Step into Dance!,” a free program about flamenco in the Peacock Education Center at Knight Concert Hall with dancer and educator Clarita Filgueiras); Thursday, March 6: Eva Yerbabuena in “Yerbagüena (Oscuro Brillante)”; 8 p.m., Sunday, March 9: Patricia Guerrero and Alfonso Losa in “Alter Ego”

COST: $30, $50, $75, $100, $135

INFORMATION: 305-949-6722 or arshtcenter.org

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