Rocío Molina, Barbican Theatre, review: The flamenco goddess is magnificently weird

Dance Umbrella runs until 31 October

Rocío Molina in Bosque-Ardora at the Barbican (Rex Features)

In Bosque Ardora, her latest show, flamenco goddess Rocío Molina ranges from magnificently weird to just plain odd. It’s a very mixed bag, but there’s never any doubt that she’s a major performer. Whether imitating a fox or falling deliberately over her own high-heeled feet, she’s gripping.

Appearing as part of Dance Umbrella, the Spanish-born Molina is one of flamenco’s innovators, with superb technique and a wild sense of experiment. Bosque Ardora shows her as hunter, fox and woman, on film and on stage. The music includes flamenco song, trombones and a forest soundscape. She prowls in an animal mask, or dances in steely unison with Eduardo Guerrero and Fernando Jiménez, all curling hands and scything kicks. In a bluesy solo, she shimmies and undulates, her dancing as smooth as heavy silk.

Changing into a shirt and towering heels, Molina first dominates then is yanked about by her two partners. This section is much too long, without enough depth to the sexual games. Molina can drop from her teetering stilettos to the floor in one fluid move, but the passive persona limits her. We’d feel short-changed without her final solo, a mournful, commanding lament in more traditional style.

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