The 22^nd Annual Festival Flamenco Internacional introduced two newcomers from Spain this season performing at the Rodey Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Rocio Molina on Tuesday revealed a totally unique aire and personality with three dances marking her as a rare artist in her field. Her dramatic presence, with a hint of East Indian movement of the torso, filled the stage area. 

Manuel Liñan and Marcos Flores combined their powerful, masculine attack in the opening Solea por Bulerías, with a playful humor as they physically joked with the audience in an “Alegrias” and “Madame Soledad.” The two companies shared a couple of wonderful cantaors, Emilio Florido and David Lagos, and palmas by Guadalupe Torres and Vanesa Coloma.

 Molina danced “De Romero,” a taranto in homage to Fernanda Romero, as a contemporary young woman costumed in a short leather dress, bolero jacket and leather boots. Her high stepping footwork, sudden lunges, back-leaning turns, (vueltas quebradas) defined a personality with magical overtones. Her use of finger cymbals, and twisting torso postures evoked a contrasting oriental quality to the movement. She ended this dance and the following “La Zocata” with a salida, or short coda.

In “La Zocata,” Molina danced in the pseudo-masculine dress of toreador pants and red sash. She walked on assertively, then began without accompaniment, creating her own rhythms with a rapid and tricky zapateado. As guitarists Paco Cruz and Manuel Cazas, and percussionist Sergio Martinez joined, her sneaky, forward developés and kicks, powerful circling arms and percussive chest contractions described a passionate and unique female flamenco artist. The salida returned to a more adagio, quiet exit.

“Tonás” was a musical conversation between Florido and Lagos as they traded songs and finally joined in a harmonic duet that maintained the improvisational flamenco quality with amazing wavering tones around one or two base notes.

Molina entered to a slow, ritualistic rhythm on palmas and percussion in “Solea por Bulería.” Leaning far back, chest leading, she moved center on a diagonal from stage left. With back to the audience, she presented the opening motif; right arm swept to the side, her head focused sharply left, then slowly brought the arm around as she turned forward. This ominous entrada introduced Molina as a sorceress or shaman figure of great dramatic power. The dance built to sharp, pointing arm gestures, feet beating the floor with machine-gun ferocity and gyrating arms, then ended with a repeat of the opening walk as a solemn salida.

Liñán and Flores opened Wednesday evening with a palo seco (without musical accompaniment) “Solea por Bulerías” in which each dancer was seen shadowed by a cantaor, all in black. Liñán moved first from behind his singer to center with sharp lunges and heel-stamped accents. Flores stepped out from in front of his singer to join Liñán at center stage. They circled their musical shadows then joined in unison moves with low foot circles and brushes and sharp directional changes, evolving an almost warrior-like confrontation with each other. This was great theatre as well as ear-popping foot percussion.

Flores’s “Alegrías,” titled Recordando, or memories, was a light and joyful dance as a dandy-like figure promenading on a Spanish boulevard. Liñán’s “Madame Soledad,” reflecting years of loneliness, began as a dark, hondo solo, fingers snapping over head, sudden lunges and double turns, yet developed into a playful game as he removed his jacket to spoof a bull fight, then strutted in a super macho prowl. Their guitarists were Antonia Jiménez and Arcadio Marin.

These two flamenco companies should not be missed, so look for them next year.

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