CREW

Produced by: Les Films de la Butte (Paris) & Danza Molina (Seville)

Director: Emilio Belmonte

Writer: Emilio Belmonte

Cinematography: Dorian Blanc & Thomas Bremond

Editing: Matthieu Lambourion

CAST

Rocío Molina

The iconoclastic choreographer Rocío Molina has coined her own artistic language based on a reinvented traditional flamenco style which respects its essence but embraces the avant-garde. Radically free, she combines in her works: technical virtuosity, contemporary research, and conceptual risk. Unafraid to forge alliances with other disciplines and artists, her choreographies are unique scenic events based on ideas and cultural forms ranging from cinema to literature, including philosophy and painting.

Rocío Molina, a restless dancer, was born in Malaga in 1984. She started to dance at the early age of three years old. At seven, she was outlining her first choreographies. At 17, she graduated with honors from the Royal Dance Conservatory in Madrid and became part of the cast of professionals companies with international tours.

At 22, she premiered Entre paredes (Among the Walls), her first work, which was followed by many more self-creations, all of them with a thing in common, a curious and transgressor look at a flamenco style escaping from the well-trodden paths: El Eterno Retorno (The Eternal Return) (2006) Turquesa como el limón (Turquoise as a Lemon) (2006), Almario (2007), Por el decir de la gente (As People Say) (2007), Oro viejo (Old Gold) (2008), Cuando las piedras vuelen (When Stones Fly) (2009), Vinática (2010), Danzaora y vinática (2011), Afectos (Affections) (2012) and Bosque Ardora (Ardora’s Forest) (2014). At 26, the Spanish Ministry of Culture awarded her the National Award for Dance for “her contribution to the renewal of flamenco and for her versatility and strength as a performer capable of handling the most diverse registers with freedom and courage.” At 28, after her outstandingly successful performance of Oro Viejo (Old Gold), Mikhail Baryshnikov kneeled before her at the door of her dressing room at New York City Center. She’s been associated with the Chaillot National Theater in Paris since 2015.

Rocío Molina, a versatile dancer, is one of the Spanish artists with greater international repercussion. Her works have been performed not only in theaters and festivals such as: Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, Lincoln Center in New York, The Esplanade in Singapore, Festival de Otoño, Madrid en Danza, Festival de Nîmes, Festival Dance Umbrella, Flamenco Festival Düsseldorf, Mercat de les Flors, Chaillot Theatre in Paris and Bunkamura in Tokio. But also in renowned temples of flamenco such as Seville’s Flamenco Biennial or Jerez Festival, just to mention some of them.

Throughout her career, not only has she worked with great national flamenco leading figures such as María Pagés, Miguel Poveda, Chano Lobato, Pastora Galván, Manuel Liñán, Belén López, Manuela Carrasco, Antonio Canales or Israel Galván, but also with leading figures of contemporary performing arts, such as Carlos Marquerie, Mateo Feijóo or Sebastién Ramírez.

Her artistic research has been recognized with awards at a national and at an international level (Spanish National Award for Dance, Best Dancer Award in Seville Biennial, Giraldillo Award for Best Choreography, Flamenco Hoy Critic’s Choice Prize for best dancer, Critics Choice Prize awarded by the Chair for Flamenco Studies in Jerez, Gold Medal awarded by the Province of Malaga, 2015 Max Award, nomination to the 2015 Olivier Awards) and with the unanimous praise of the audience and the critics: “A gifted and intelligent dancer” (El Mundo), “She’s like the nuclear power within an atom” (Standard), “An innate talent for the most racial dance” (El País), “She is passion personified, urgent, almost red hot, taking over the body and moving it, spasm by spasm, filling it with rage and beauty.” (La Vanguardia), “One of the best flamenco dancers I’ve ever seen” (The New York Times).

DVD

Digital

IDFA

Vancouver International Film Festival