Paco Peña’s adventurous flamenco

By Michael Watts

Declaring a liking for flamenco used to be problematic for the Anglo-Saxon temperament. We were rightly scornful of cod-Latin acts like Dorita y Pepe (who were Dorothy and Pete from south London) or the histrionics of the guitarist Manitas de Plata, who was born French and adopted a Spanish monicker meaning “Little Silver Hands”. But modern audiences are more discerning, performers more worldly and experimental, and flamenco more popular globally than ever before. Large numbers of Japanese women view it as a safety valve in a highly formalised society, while Spain’s huge influx of foreigners has invigorated flamenco’s native economy. There are annual flamenco festivals in the Netherlands, Chicago and London. And this year, Sadler’s Wells, an important innovator under its artistic director Alistair Spalding, has staged dance mash-ups of flamenco with hip-hop and Indian kathak.

Confirmation of flamenco’s pulling-power and ambition is that its foremost impresario, the guitar virtuoso Paco Peña, has sold out nine nights in late June performing at Sadler’s Wells, which holds 1,500 people. His recent shows have included a flamenco mass and a spectacular history of flamenco, staged by the British theatre director Jude Kelly. His new one, more simple and direct, is called “Flamencura”—a word meaning, for Peña, flamenco's groove. It will feature a gospel song by Vimala Rowe, a British jazz-funk singer whose CV includes Hindustani classical music.