Flamenco fans on Lanzarote had a real treat on Friday evening as Manuel Liñan’s company performed their show Viva!! at the Jameos Del Agua.
The show has toured the world receiving wild acclaim in recent years, and last night was no exception, as the crowd to give a standing ovation at the end of the performance.
Inspired by Liñan’s childhood memories of putting on his mother’s dresses and dancing freely behind closed doors, the show featured Liñan and six male dancers, all dressed as women in flamenco dresses and wigs, accompanied by two singers and three highly gifted musicians.
Some of the dancers were slight and girlish, others stocky and muscular and a couple were built like rugby players, but all were hugely talented dancers and every performer and musician was given a moment in the spotlight to shine.
There were thunderous zapateados, as the dancers used their feet as percussion instruments, whirling, dipping and hitching up their skirts to display their furious footwork, while the music surged and flowed. There was humour, sadness and intense passion.
Later, there was a beautiful exhibition of Spanish country dance with clicking castanets and high kicks, and a breathtaking exhibition of bata de cola – the swirling polka dot dress with a heavy, frilled train that is worn with the tasselled, silk mantón de manila shawl.
The show ended with the dancers slowly taking off their dresses, wigs and make-up and standing, exhausted, in their undergarments as the crowd rose to its feet and applauded.
It was a brave, unforgettable show that evoked the memories of flamenco greats such as Carmen Amaya (the first female dancer to perform in men’s clothes) and Lola Flores, in a venue that Rita Hayworth famously called the “eighth wonder of the world”. César Manrique, who designed the Jameos precisely for this sort of event, would have loved it.
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