The Herald, 24 august 2000 MARY BRENNAN ...yet again, this company surprises me with the way the rythm and movement motifs of the genre can be re-started, integrated ( into contemporary dance-work), and used to evoke nuances and moods of spiritual passion.
Five women,clad in identical chiffon coat-dresses and trousers-the tones tend towards monskhabit brown- enter into a ritual of prayer and devotion. In time, their glass goblets of clear water will, mysteriously, turn into wine -and the upstage mirror will, occasionally, hold a glowing image of a face, a hand. But, for the most part, they will dance. Kneeling, their arms will be, in turn, suppliant, penitent. With their bareknuckles, they will rap out rythmic rosaries on the floor. When they then use castanets the sound is like fearful teeth chattering pleas, or revernced bones rattling in processional reliquaries. Over and over you sense, in the sudden sinuous twisting of the bodies, the intricate percussing of feet, a process of expiation and surrender that inhabits and understands the sensuality as well as the strictures of flamenco and faith alike.
It's a remarkable, brilliant, bold piece of dance - a world away from the flashier flamenco of Joaquín Cortés- , but certainly closer to a knowledge of the sorrows, joys, and yearnings that are its inherent pulses. The List, 7 August 2000 MICHELLE MAN ...Their latest work d.C.(annus Domini) continues their creative research into the flamenco language. But they still satisfy within the aesthetic parameters of contemporary dance. They've taken away the frills and kiss-curls to breed an intense simplicity. The new show, based on the structure of a Mass, takes on a sense of weighted, hypnotic ritual suggesting a froup in prayer. Feet sensitively beat out rythms as bodies and arms swirl in spheres of serpentine seduction.
Visceral sensuality has become the trademark of the company. Director-choreographers Montse Sanchez and Ramon Baeza have won dance prizes at home and rave reviews from Manilato Cardiff, Switzerland to Cuba. Purists have shuddered at the daring costumes in previous shows, and the fusion that aims to forge flamenco traditions towards an updated gut reality. The shuddering in Edinburgh is bound to be from pleasure at the contagious rythmic vibes that will get these young women -and the audience- buzzing.
The Scottsman, 22 August 2000 DON MORRIS
The latest work, d.C.(annus Domini) is a determined, hour-long danced mass for five women, opening with the arrested imageof their veiled figures in a ghostlygrey light.
The air is heavily scented, the music sombre and the faces stony with intensity as they begin to move in close uniso with statuesque elegance. Beneath their long skirts, invisible feet drum a furious rythm, wich they later supplement with skilful castanet work, rapping with their hands on the floor and on their bodies in this kaleidoscope of rythm.
The beggining is rather too slow and static, but the dancersshow the vigour of their flamenco skills, and perform with such fervour that the religious theme is suggested clearly with no need for overt symbols.
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