Pepa Molina’s “FlamencoBits”
On Sunday, November 3, for one day only, Compañía Pepa Molina will present the world premiere of FlamencoBits at Granville Centre Art Gallery in Sydney. The performance is currently sold out – with the option to join a wait list if you are really keen. Molina is hoping that FlamencoBits will be picked up by some of the industry professionals attending, so that it might be performed for a longer season somewhere in the future.
Choreographed and produced (but not performed) by Pepa Molina, this new multidisciplinary work features six early career and emerging artists from the Flamenco Ensemble Las Flamenkas. Compañía Pepa Molina is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and this is its eighth production in total, but only the second work to feature Las Flamenkas, which was founded in 2017. Interestingly, of the six cast members (Emilia Hanna, Sophia Marotta, Lily Cook, Anna Rocias, Amari Leiva Urzua and Eliza Cooper), three are still in high school – fitting training and rehearsing around their school schedules and other commitments.
FlamencoBits combines traditional and modern elements in an electronic Flamenco performance with live DJ (disc jockey) &VJ (visual jockey), to produce a multidisciplinary work. Through the collaboration of Spanish-Australian creatives including Molina herself, composer and DJ Manuel Barco, and multidisciplinary visual artist and VJ Miguel Olmo, FlamencoBits seeks to re-interpret the century-old form of Flamenco with experimental visuals and a contemporary electronic score.
Pepa Molina says: “As a Flamenco artist my work navigates both paths, the traditional and the contemporary Flamenco form, in FlamencoBits both pathways co-exist. As a choreographer I have a need to experiment and create cross-cultural work, to challenge the established and question the rigidity that lies in the traditional Flamenco form, which I both love, treasure & respect.”
– GERALDINE HIGGINSON