Flamenco Electro took audiences on a Spanish voyage from traditional virtuoso flamenco to flamenco electro passing by progressive flamenco along the way in its world premiere season at Adelaide Fringe 2024.
The show has six people on stage, sitting in a semi-circle, with the musicians on stage right and the singer and dancers seated to stage left. Mike Rizk leads the music and the show with his explanations of what we are about to hear. It was really interesting to hear the familiar flamenco sounds at the beginning of the show to the completely different electro sounds in the latter part.
Mike Rizk on guitar throughout the show is accompanied by two other musicians – another Mike (Hewett) on all things electro (synth, samples and loops), and a percussionist, Peter Micos. We were at times mesmerised by the way he appeared to be turning the maraca like instrument as if winding up a toy.
The singer for the Adelaide Fringe 2024 season of Flamenco Electro was ‘The Voice’ finalist Claudia Migliaccio. Unfortunately, her singing was often drowned out by the musicians so we were unable to fully appreciate it at times. It would be better to have their mics turned down so that she could truly shine. She lent her voice to the electro section of the evening and her vocals paired with the electronic take on flamenco was reminiscent of 90s house.
Most, if not all of the compositions that comprised the electro flamenco, also known as flamenco house, section of the show are Mike Rizk’s own and he swims in a very small pool of artists performing and making that style of music. We could easily see it being played in clubs.
For the Adelaide Fringe shows, Flamenco Electro had local dancers Poppy Arbuckle, performing traditional flamenco, and Rhianna Dunaiski offering very contemporary dance. Poppy dressed in a vibrant green flamenco dress opens dancing to the first virtuoso number. It felt like she was a little reserved and we would have liked to have seen Poppy find her inner voice and display the strong attitude associated with female flamenco dancers. As with Claudia being drowned out, we would have liked to have been able to hear the furious tapping of Poppy’s shoes more.
The contemporary dance performed by Rhianna was a stark contrast to the flamenco. Wearing a black fitted top and black pants, she commanded the stage making full use of the whole space when she performed. Her movements were incredibly fluid. It was interesting seeing such a modern dance compared with the traditional. We would have liked to see both Poppy and Rhianna share the stage throughout the show rather than just for the final number to truly see the contrasting styles side by side rather than performed to different songs.
Overall, Flamenco Electro was a good show with a lot of promise. There are the mentioned parts that could be tuned up. The Adelaide Fringe 2024 season was the world premiere so the show is only in its infancy.
3 CROISSANTS
Matilda Marseillaise was a guest of Mike Rizk
The Adelaide Fringe season of Flamenco Electro has now concluded.
Discover Adelaide Fringe shows with French and Francophone links here and French clown school trained artists performing at this year’s Fringe here.
Read our interviews with Mikael Bres, Chinese pole artist from the show Limbo: The Return and with Antoine from Cirque Alfonse’s show Animal
For events with French and Francophone links happening all across Australia this month, check out our What’s on in February
