Graham Watts casts his eye on this year’s Flamenco Festival held at Sadler’s Wells, London, earlier this summer.

We are enjoying a rich generation of experienced flamenco dancers: Sara Baras is 54 and both Manuel Liñán and Mercedes Ruiz are 45 (María Pagés is, astonishingly, 62). I mention these ages merely to make the essential point that their performance capabilities are as enriched by this experience as the finest Spanish wine is improved by age, with oak casks represented in the wooden floors of the tablao!

Just four days after the death of Paco de Lucía, Baras opened the 2014 London Flamenco Festival with La Pepa, delivering an unforgettable evening punctuated by her loving thoughts and memories of the legendary flamenco guitarist. Her latest show, Vuela was presented as a memorial to de Lucía while also celebrating the 25th anniversary of her company, and the 20th incarnation of the London Flamenco Festival.

he enduring artistry of Baras is carefully preserved by clever pacing. She began seated on a chair, in the style of La Chana who performed here at the 2018 Festival, aged 71. However, once the chair was discarded, Baras rattled out hundreds of beats a minute with insouciant precision in her trademark zapateado, swivelling in fast flamenco turns; but until her powerful and climactic finale these impressive solos were interlaced with performances by six excellent bailaoras and their shared male partner (Daniel Saltares).

Read Graham's full review of the 2025 Flamenco Festival in edition 267 of La Revista
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Note on the author:

Graham Watts is a dance writer and critic, and member of the BritishSpanish Society