Peleando y Punto (Dutch premiere)

The voice of Manuel Moreno Maya ‘El Pele’ (1954) reaches dizzying heights and plumbs bottomless depths. Spanish flamenco critics describe this singer from Córdoba exclusively in superlatives: 'a flamenco beast in the wild', 'a voice like old brass'. El Pele's is the classical gypsy voice, intuitive and unpolished, and at times so personal it cuts through one's soul. With peerless ease and mastery and uncanny timing he moves through all flamenco palos (styles), both serious and cheerful. With his raw lamento he once overwhelmed Prince and David Bowie, who invited him for a guest appearance at one of his shows. In the 80s his voice conquered the world, with guitarist Vincente Amigo, who also accompanied him on his album 'Canto'. His voice cuts loose, rends to pieces, transcends time itself. It evokes the words of poet Frederico García Lorca: 'The Cante Jondo is a song without landscape, and therefore introverted and terrifying; from its deep darkness it shoots its golden arrows that strike us in the heart.'

Farruquito - Juan Manuel Fernández Montoya

Farruquito was born in 1982 into a gypsy family in which dance, in his words, 'was our daily bread’. Born to be a great dancer, he was initiated into the secrets of the family tradition by his grandfather Farruco. 'Try to fly, but don't move', the patriarch of the dynasty taught little Farruquito, who made his début at the age of five on Broadway in the show 'Flamenco Puro', with which he enchanted everyone in Carlos Saura's film Flamenco. Ever since, he has performed the family heritage around the world to great success. Farruquito personifies a flamenco that stays close to its roots, that reaches the greatest expression with total economy of movement and stunning virtuosity. Flamenco as a ritual, a religion, unadorned and unchoreographed. Where Farruquito dances, the audience is elevated to a frenzy. No one is left untouched. To See Farruquito dance is to experience flamenco in its purest essence.