Rocío Molina has completely redefined what flamenco can be. Some purists say she’s not flamenco at all, and when, three quarters of the way through her latest piece, Calentamiento, she sits down at a drum kit and starts bashing out a 4/4 rock beat, maybe you would agree with them. But however crazy things get two hours in, everything is built on the pure craft of the flamenco dancer, and that’s where we start in this piece on the subject of beginnings.
Calentamiento means warming up, which is what Molina is doing on stage before the audience has even sat down. She begins a footwork drill, a 12-beat phrase, the same one she has done since she was seven years old, she tells us. At 140bpm, she likes to start slowly (!), she says. Heels and toes hammer out the dancer’s daily ritual, the same way even the most prima of ballerinas starts each day back at the barre with a plié; the constant discipline of beginning again.
