Compañía Rafaela Carrasco: Creaviva at Sadler’s Wells

For 23 years, the Flamenco Festival has been an annual fixture in the Sadler’s Wells calendar, featuring internationally renowned artists spanning traditional to contemporary takes on the Andalusian art form. Amongst this year’s lineup, esteemed flamenco dancer, director and choreographer Rafaela Carrasco presents Creaviva, a nine-movement show inspired by the nine Muses of Greek Mythology. The work interrogates the creative process through an intersection of dance, musical compositions and poetry. Performed by a “cuadro” of six artists (two guitarists, two singers, a percussionist and Carrasco as principal dancer), the piece oscillates between traditional tablao-style flamenco and contemporary physical theatre, occasionally dipping its toe into experimental sound design and stage production.

Creaviva opens with a series of spine-tigling clicks and pops from the mic’d up mouths of its players (a motif that returns throughout the show), layering to create an atmospheric soundscape that builds tension before the curtain rises. Large draping silk textiles in a light blue shade (mirrored in the costumes) create a backdrop that feels both domestic and cold, intimate and isolating. All six performers are seated on stage in a circular formation while Carrasco paces around them, chasing a spotlight she eventually catches in her hands. As the music swells in intensity and “palmas” turn into stomping footwork, melodic guitars break the tension in the room and invite a cacophony of “oles” in the audience.

While there’s no clear narrative through the nine suites, Creaviva successfully communicates the distinct symbols of creativity through slick costume, lighting and staging changes as well as fusing different dance styles. The concepts of learning, narrating and listening are explored through more juvenile shapes and an impressive call and response section between Carrasco and Pablo Martin Jones’ drum; at one point, both artists sit back-to-back while remaining tightly in sync as they hit impossibly dynamic syncopated beats. Feminine lines and flourishes shine in the love and seduction section, with Carrasco and one of her guitarists pushing and pulling towards each other on a diagonal across the stage. Lonelier moments come too, as Carrasco dances and sings in desperation into a microphone hanging from the ceiling.

Throughout its hour-and-15-minute run, every player shines individually (vocals by Gema Caballero and Antonio Campos are particularly powerful and gut-wrenching), but the group never fails to operate as one living, breathing entity. Carrasco proves she has “duende” by the bucketload, showing masterful control over her instrument and an emotional range that feels raw and true.