Vanesa Aibar & Enric Monfort

The Making of La Reina del Metal

21 Jan 2023

Flamenco Biënnale 2023 Festival Creation

Watch ‘The Making of’ La Reina del Metal, dance performance by choreographer Vanesa Aibar and percussionist Enric Monfort and IX Flamenco Biennial’s festival creation. La Reina del Metal lived its world premiere on 21 January 2023, during the opening weekend at Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ in Amsterdam.

La Reina del Metal is a compelling performance that explores the relationship between movement and flamenco rhythms. The body becomes sound. Sound becomes the body. A rite of passage brimming with metal percussion, electronica and flamenco rhythms which fully immerses the viewer in a 4D spatial sound system experience akin to a ceremony.

Flamenco dancer and rising star Vanesa Aibar was one of the surprises of the 2019 Flamenco Biennale. It was there that she met the percussionist Enric Monfort, with whom the festival commissioned her to create this work.

With a crash, a collection of metal crashes to the ground. The aligned sculptures resemble crinolines, bodices, baskets and muzzles. It turns out to be the start of the construction of an industrial-sounding kingdom for two. (…) Innovative flamenco is more than drumming juggling with rhythms; it sometimes involves old iron and overwhelming sound systems.

de Volkskrant 23 Jan. 2023

The intimate relationship between dance and music comes to life with metallic percussion sounds, pounding flamenco rhythms and ominous electronic rustles. Vanesa Aibar dances on the edge of exhaustion.

Het Parool 20 Jan. 2023

She is wrapped in chains, but she is not chained. She doesn’t walk, she strides… When she starts dancing, the music is made out of metal.

NRC 19 Jan. 2023

Vanesa Aibar reinvents her freedom time and time again. A fascinating sound world. Strong as steel!

Theaterkrant 23 Jan. 2023

Raw, muscular, virtuosic and dancing on the brink of exhaustion: a memorable opening of the Flamenco Biennial.

Het Parool 07 Mar. 2023