Sara Baras is one of the few living flamenco dancers who can sell out London's Sadler's Wells Theatre for several consecutive performances. Baras is from Cadiz, the flamenco heartland. Yet she looks nothing like the typical flamenco dancer; she has a slender figure with long arms and thin legs, and her wardrobe looks like it came out of an haute couture atelier.
Her Sadler's Wells show is, to my mind, the best she's ever put on; I've seen many over the years. It's a tribute to flamenco masters who have passed, beginning with the superstar guitarist Paco de Lucia. With her flash turns and machine-gun feet, she pays homage to these masters one by one. The peak moment is her extraordinary farruca, a masculine dance which she performs in a black tunic and trousers. It's a tour de force of technique and emotion, as she punctuates the moans of a very young singer with the pitter-patter of her feet.
Sadler's Wells has plenty of other great dancers to see during this year's festival: Farruquito, Marco Flores and Olga Pericet are on my wish list. Ole!
Her Sadler's Wells show is, to my mind, the best she's ever put on; I've seen many over the years. It's a tribute to flamenco masters who have passed, beginning with the superstar guitarist Paco de Lucia. With her flash turns and machine-gun feet, she pays homage to these masters one by one. The peak moment is her extraordinary farruca, a masculine dance which she performs in a black tunic and trousers. It's a tour de force of technique and emotion, as she punctuates the moans of a very young singer with the pitter-patter of her feet.
Sadler's Wells has plenty of other great dancers to see during this year's festival: Farruquito, Marco Flores and Olga Pericet are on my wish list. Ole!