Isreal Galvan is one of the most technically gifted flamenco dancers of his generation. His body control and footwork has a precision and speed which has been rarely bettered by any Flamenco performer at Sadlers Wells. When combined with his extraordinary sense of rhythm whether through finger clicking, chest beating or tapping on something that makes a noise, you know you are watching a true technician, a master of his chosen art. Which explains the excitement that surrounds his appearances at the Sadlers Wells Flamenco Festival.
Where Galvan differs from his peers though is his imagination, he is not a dancer happy to restrict himself to the confines of traditional Flamenco, far from it. In FLA. CO. MEN he has created a show that can only be described as a slice of surrealist genius. It is as if Salvador Dali and Monty Python put on a dance show and got Schoenberg to do the music.
What is incredible is that somehow this show is incredibly entertaining. Each scene morphs from the previous one in a loosely connected way. One minute we are watching Galvan seemingly learning choreography in a chefs outfit, to the next where in complete silence he is eating a sandwich from a sandwich bag atop a speaker for a uncomfortably long time. The the next thing you know he is dancing in the most mesmerising manner to that most untraditional of Flamenco instruments: a timpani with a pedal and a Xylophone.
Yet the craziness is pierced throughout with humour, no mean feat considering the natural austere atmosphere of Flamenco. There are not many times you go to a Flamenco show and burst into laughter.
At the midway point the lights blacked out in the theatre and in a fascinating aural experiment Galvan danced without music on a portable flamenco dance floor at various points in the aisles of the auditorium. You couldn't see him, but you could hear him and the effect was magical as he marched his way around the auditorium getting sonically closer or further from you.
There is no way this show should have been entertaining as it was considering its content and it likely there is only one performer who could possibly have pulled it off: Isreal Galvan. Something driven home in the encore when Galvan arrived in a poker dot dress and indulged in some impressive gender switching dancing. At that point he could have turned up dressed as a pantomime horse and he would have got a standing ovation. Remarkable. 5/5
Where Galvan differs from his peers though is his imagination, he is not a dancer happy to restrict himself to the confines of traditional Flamenco, far from it. In FLA. CO. MEN he has created a show that can only be described as a slice of surrealist genius. It is as if Salvador Dali and Monty Python put on a dance show and got Schoenberg to do the music.
What is incredible is that somehow this show is incredibly entertaining. Each scene morphs from the previous one in a loosely connected way. One minute we are watching Galvan seemingly learning choreography in a chefs outfit, to the next where in complete silence he is eating a sandwich from a sandwich bag atop a speaker for a uncomfortably long time. The the next thing you know he is dancing in the most mesmerising manner to that most untraditional of Flamenco instruments: a timpani with a pedal and a Xylophone.
Yet the craziness is pierced throughout with humour, no mean feat considering the natural austere atmosphere of Flamenco. There are not many times you go to a Flamenco show and burst into laughter.
At the midway point the lights blacked out in the theatre and in a fascinating aural experiment Galvan danced without music on a portable flamenco dance floor at various points in the aisles of the auditorium. You couldn't see him, but you could hear him and the effect was magical as he marched his way around the auditorium getting sonically closer or further from you.
There is no way this show should have been entertaining as it was considering its content and it likely there is only one performer who could possibly have pulled it off: Isreal Galvan. Something driven home in the encore when Galvan arrived in a poker dot dress and indulged in some impressive gender switching dancing. At that point he could have turned up dressed as a pantomime horse and he would have got a standing ovation. Remarkable. 5/5
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