JUAN CARLOS LÉRIDA with Niño de Elche CIUTAT FLAMENCO 2015: Al Cante

A singer in a vacuum. A place for contemplation and consolidation. Using the historical standards of flamenco singing as a model and using abstraction and repetition as tools for creation, the dancer and choreographer Juan Carlos Lérida, alongside Niño de Elche on vocals, breaks down flamenco dance and singing into its component parts. Lérida appears on the stage (i.e. the moon) with Niño de Elche, a flamenco singer who combines his knowledge and artistic curiosity to expand the expressive range of flamenco singing, and David Montero, actor, writer and director who has spent years developing a very fruitful dialogue with flamenco. After a first set of pieces focussed on the toque (guitar), taking different approaches that finally resulted in a show, Lérida now comes to the Mercat de les Flors with the second part of this trilogy about the three components of flamenco language, this time focusing on the singing.

Flamenco dancer, choreographer and teacher, Juan Carlos Lérida has built his career over more than twenty years onstage. After training in Seville under directors and choreographers with a variety of profiles, he moved to Barcelona in 1996, where he worked with the teacher and choreographer Mercedes Boronat. Since 2002 he has been a guest teacher of flamenco, contemporary dance and composition at the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona, as well as at other places in Europe, where he has been invited to give workshops on flamenco improvisation and composition. During the last ten years he has taken part in more than ten projects, with his own choreographic work titled El Arte de la Guerra deserving special mention, premiered at the 2006 Berlin Flamenco Festival and acclaimed by the critics and the public. He has been the creator and organiser of the Flamenco Empírico cycle since 2009.

Situated on the fine line separating the labels most often used to describe the performing arts, Juan Carlos Lérida is presented as an empirical flamenco artist, a professional who has long navigated between the disciplines, in a logical synergy for many. Research as a premise, slow and deliberate approaches to different aspects of creation through the use of improvisation, methodology and pedagogy, paying special attention to subtle details and shared languages.

Performers Juan Carlos Lérida, Niño de Elche and David Montero
Direction and choreography Juan Carlos Lérida
Dramaturge and lector in fabula David Montero
Lighting and video Marc Lleixà
Scenography and costumes Andrés González

Production Danilo Pioli
Photography Jordi Font, Daniel Karsch
Co-production Asoc. Flamenco Empírico & Tanzhaus Nrw (Düsseldorf)

We have reserved seats for people who use wheelchairs. Please, contact us at publics@mercatflors.cat so we can guarantee good care