London Flamenco Festival: 8 Mar. Marina Heredia

The London Flamenco Festival was over last month, but I was too busy to update my blog (again)… So, starting today, I’m going to fill my blog posts with my impressions from the event.

The festival started off with the performance of Maria Pages, who is supposed to be a contemporary superstar, but I wasn’t interested mostly because I had already seen her ‘Sevilla’ at Tokyo premiere. Unfortunately my husband and I were not very impressed with the show despite the huge acclaim she gained. Her wiggling movements made all the choreographies look similar to each other, although I quite liked her usage of abanicos for Caracoles.

I also gave Farruco family a miss, as I wasn’t still sure what to think about the accident caused by Farruquito. I think I like his brother, Farru, better than Farruquito but I decided not to see their show this year anyway.

Missing out the two ‘most attractive’ shows, the first event I enjoyed at this year’s London Flamenco Festival was Marina Heredia’s cante concert on Saturday 8th March. She looked so beautiful! I got immersed in her passionate and heartwarming songs, including the brilliant Tango de Granada. The letra started off with ‘Que bonita mariquilla’, enabling me to imagine the magnificent scenery of her hometown.

She might not have attracted more audience than the Farruquito’s family who performed in the adjoining theatre, but we really liked her concert of sing-like-talking style, as well as the songs themselves. I found that, for a cantaor/a, costumes and body language are as important as their singing skills. With our big applauds and requests for ‘otra’, she looked so touched and even slightly in tears at the end of the show. Gracias, Marina!