Rocío Molina performed her warm-up as part of Encender el cuerpo, presented at Chaillot Théâtre national de la danse. This performance is a lighter version of Calentamiento, which she had previously performed at the Cannes Film Festival in November 2025. Power, precision, and strength are the three words that best summarize the flamenco technique of Rocío Molina, a star of contemporary flamenco. In her 35 minutes of warm-up, which open Encender el cuerpo, she gives a masterclass in zapateado, a rhythmic footwork central to flamenco, which she comments on live via microphone, not hesitating to make personal digressions and fill her narrative with anecdotes.
Gradually, the stage catches up with her. A duet begins with a light aluminum chair, humming O Solitude by Purcell, then on a prelude by Bach played by Glenn Gould, with whom she shares the wildness and sense of the absolute. Rocío Molina is on conditional release, throwing to the ground the costumes that burden her or blowing her nose in anything that comes her way. When José Manuel Ramos "Oruco," her loyal compàs appears, both protective and stimulating, the training intensifies and it is the opportunity to triple the tempo of the feet that compulsively strike the ground.
Both then engage in a restrained duet around a wooden table and two chairs, which returns with intensity to the essence of the tablão, the traditional flamenco stage. The performance also addresses topics that the dancer and choreographer had not yet addressed, such as physical attraction or desire between a man and a woman. It is disturbing, but a bit too short.
In the longer version, Calentamiento, it was an entire set that came to life around her, in a studied and furious chaos, and with four singers confined in a mirrorless box, representing her inner voices. One regrets this excess and madness, and the forest of chairs that collapsed or were projected from the ceiling, but perhaps the technical configuration of the small Gémier room did not allow for this XL format. In the reduced version, this quasi "one woman show" nevertheless becomes a terrain for experimentation and play for the dancer between cabaret number and demanding introspection. A form of the absolute to which she is accustomed.
Rocío Molina's Encender el cuerpo at Chaillot Théâtre national de la danse
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