Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company

Flamencura Sadler’s Wells Tuesday 8 - Saturday 12 August 2017 Performances at 7.30pm, Saturday matinee at 2.30pm Tickets: £12 - £40 Ticket office: 020 7863 8000 or www.sadlerswells.com Acclaimed flamenco guitarist, composer, dramatist and producer Paco Peña returns to Sadler’s Wells with his company to present Flamencura, from Tuesday 8 – Saturday 12 August 2017. Flamencura received its UK premiere at Sadler’s Wells in June 2015, garnering five star reviews. The production reconnects with flamenco’s roots, stripping away theatricality and narrative, and providing a raw platform for the company’s artists to present and express their most quintessential emotions. The show features choreography by the award-winning Fernando Romero. After the experimental cross-cultural influences Peña has explored in recent years, with Flamenco sin Fronteras and Quimeras, Flamencura demonstrates how the vehement feelings that moved singers, dancers and guitarists of days gone by will remain the life-blood of flamenco and continue to nourish the art today as well as connect it with other art forms. Flamencura presents ten dance pieces, a combination of solos, duets, ensembles and musical numbers, ranging from choreographies inspired by the Spanish folk traditions that give origin to the art of flamenco, to cutting-edge contemporary takes on flamenco. The show features acclaimed principal dancer Ángel Múñoz whose work From White to Black thrilled audiences at the London Flamenco Festival in 2014 and “gave way to an expression of energy and ecstasy that is only seen in the best of flamenco dancers” (The Telegraph). Completing the diverse trio of dancers are Charo Espino and Yolanda Osuna. The musical ensemble joining the dancers on stage includes guitarists Rafael Montilla and Paco Arriaga and vocalists José Ángel Carmona and Inmaculada Rivero. Paco Peña said: “From the start of its cultural journey, in the Andalusian home some 250 years ago, flamenco has undergone a remarkable development; from a folk-based form of singing, dancing and guitar playing, full of character, although hard to define, into a highly complex, sophisticated art form well established in mainstream musical activity and regularly performed in the best theatres of the world today. In preparing Flamencura, I wanted to return to the essential core that, not only made flamenco the vehicle through which Andalusian people expressed their history, their feelings and the essential emotions that their lives contain, but that has also underpinned the development of this form of music and dance into a truly universal art that touches audiences.” Over a career spanning more than four decades, Paco Peña has expanded the possibilities of flamenco and changed perceptions of the art form, bringing originality and energy to flamenco performance by mining the richness of its traditions while being inspired by contemporary culture. Since 1970 the guitar maestro has taken the Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company to international venues including The Royal Albert Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Sydney Opera House. Peña is regarded as one of the world’s leading flamenco performers, his skill, innovation and passion acclaimed by audiences worldwide. Paco Peña Flamenco Dance Company was last seen at Sadler’s Wells in summer 2016 with Patrias, created to mark the 80th anniversary of the tragic death of Spain’s literary hero Federico García Lorca at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

Press night: Tuesday 8 August at 7.30pm

For more information or to arrange interviews please contact Caroline Ansdell on 0207 863 8125 or caroline.ansdell@sadlerswells.com Press images can be downloaded from http://media.sadlerswells.com NOTES TO EDITORS ABOUT SADLER’S WELLS Sadler's Wells is a world-leading dance house, committed to producing, commissioning and presenting new works and to bringing the best international and UK dance to London and worldwide audiences. Under the Artistic Directorship of Alistair Spalding, the theatre’s acclaimed year-round programme spans dance of every kind, from contemporary to flamenco, Bollywood to ballet, salsa to street dance and tango to tap. Since 2005, it has helped to bring over 130 new dance works to the stage and its award-winning commissions and collaborative productions regularly tour internationally. Sadler’s Wells supports 16 Associate Artists, three Resident Companies, an Associate Company and three International Associate Companies. It also nurtures the next generation of talent through research and development, running the National Youth Dance Company and a range of programmes including Wild Card, New Wave Associates, Open Art Surgery and Summer University. Located in Islington, north London, the current theatre is the sixth to have stood on the site since it was first built by Richard Sadler in 1683. The venue has played an illustrious role in the history of theatre ever since, with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and English National Opera all having started at Sadler’s Wells. Sadler’s Wells is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and currently receives approximately 9% of its revenue from Arts Council England. ABOUT PACO PENA Paco Peña is a flamenco guitarist from the Andalusian city of Córdoba, he moved to London in 1966 and started off by playing in a Spanish restaurant in Covent Garden. With his virtuosity and artistry, he soon made a name for himself as a solo guitarist in a city that was gripped by Jimi Hendrix mania. Just four years later, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s South Bank, Peña presented his first show with his own flamenco company. Since then he has taken flamenco around the world, giving solo concerts as a guitarist, conceiving and presenting a series of artistically ambitious shows, composing a flamenco mass and a requiem, and founding a centre for flamenco in Córdoba, where he still spends part of each year. His dance company has for many years now performed regularly at Sadler’s Wells, London. While always remaining true to the tradition and essence of flamenco Peña has expanded its horizons and frame of reference. As a guitarist, composer, dramatist, producer and artistic mentor, never distorting flamenco with flamboyance, he has preserved its authenticity, yet also renewed it through innovation. In so doing, he has been part of phenomenon that has transformed perceptions of this archetypal Spanish art form, around the world and even in Spain itself.