Women, dances and bailes in the times of Federico García Lorca

A straightforward proposal. But nonetheless, not at all common. Nothing is invented. No inappropriate movements or zapateados (flamenco stamping) out of synch. We go back a century but with the sound, setting and costumes of today, so as to return to the bailes that Federico García Lorca may have seen. Or had a glimpse of.

We know about the dances of Lorca and Antonia Mercé, “La Argentina” or with Encarnación López, “La Argentinita”. But then there were others around him which he did not see. The Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, under the artistic direction of Úrsula López, recuperates this patrimony with the idea that from the perspective of the past we move forward. Women and dance in Lorca’s time. Historic pieces of women such as Antonia Mercé, Palucca or Martha Graham are strung together in the most faithful way possible to the original in El maleficio de la mariposa, (The Butterfly’s Evil Spell) the title of the first theatre work which Lorca presented at the Teatro Eslava de Madrid in 1920. A century later, women and dance come together around the figure of Federico.