SACAI and METAMORPHOSIS / modern flamenco

On Friday, 9th September, the Katedrala stage will host an event dedicated to contemporary flamenco and its integration into modern dance, featuring international dance-theatre company Flamencoraneo’s show METAMORPHOSIS and young dancer Urška Centa with her performance SACAI. Fans of flamenco and contemporary performing arts, do not miss this opportunity! FB event>

Metamorphosis is a dance-theatre show by international flamenco ensemble Flamencoraneo, directed by Serbian dancer and choreographer Saška Šašić La Sali. The new stage work is inspired by the eternal struggle between the traditional and the modern and by linking seemingly contradictory concepts and structures. It depicts the path of shaping and transforming modern man through a complicated system of social norms that stunt the development of his individuality, and established habits that, to him, become automated reactions.

Due to the need for stronger expressiveness, the show’s authors merge contemporary flamenco and modern dance. The Spanish, Serbian and Slovenian ensemble, composed of three dancers and five musicians, puts on a supreme stage experience, suitable for all fans of music and dance.

Artistic direction: Saška Šašić La Sali
Choreography: Saška Sašić La Sali, David Mazón Fierro, Mitja Obed, Natália Fernandes
Music: Jorge Canda Neira
Dramaturgy: Natália Fernandes
Costume design: Shash
Light design: Maryanka Van Schaik

Dancers: Saška Sašić La Sali, Mitja Obed, Zoe Sepúlvedra
Musicians: Jorge Canda Neira, Ángel López de Toro, Petar Lazarević, Aleksandar Radojičić, Boris Magdalenc

Sacai is the debut project by young Slovenian dancer Urška Centa, in which she seeks new solutions for movement within the traditional musical form of flamenco. She creates contemporary flamenco that remains loyal to its strict dancing technique, yet at the same time develops expressively via modern dance.

The performance speaks about the faces of truth, the different views of the world and the ‘truths’ seen through a kaleidoscope. Perceptions of time, space, people and events are subjective reflections that present the world to our eyes in various colours and shapes according to the principle “adaequatio intellectus et rei”. Everyone sees through their own eyes only what they want to and what they understand.

Artistic direction and choreography: Urška Centa
Music: Jorge Canda Neira, Ángel López de Toro
Visuals: Claudi Sovre Mikelj

Dancing: Urška Centa, Glasbeniki: Jorge Canda Neira, Ángel López de Toro

About the authors:

Saška Šašić La Sali was born in Zagreb and began her dancing career in Belgrade. She studied flamenco at the Mayte Gálan Dance Conservatory in Granada and at the Amor de Dios Flamenco Arts and Spanish Dance Centre in Madrid, where she learned from renowned dancers such as Merche Esmeralda, La Truco, María Juncal, Cristobal Reyes, Inmaculada Ortega and Miguel Cañas.

Today she lives and creates in Madrid. Regarded as one of the most important driving forces behind the development of flamenco in the Balkans, she presents her projects all across the countries of the former Yugoslavia. She premiered her first performance, Café Cantante, in 2012 at the First Flamenco Festival in Zagreb, which later won her the best dance performance award at the XXIX International Sarajevo Winter Festival. In 2013, she premiered her second theatre-dance performance La Rosa del Penal, created together with Slovenian dancer Anja Mejač, at the CIBRA festival in Toledo. That same year, she joined the dance company of Pedro Fernández El Embrujo, performing on numerous stages around Europe. In 2015, she premiered the Flamencoraneo interdisciplinary project at the IKS festival in Split, complementing her artistic expression with elements of modern dance, ballet and theatre.

Urška Centa is a Slovenian flamenco dancer who began her education in dance at the Department for Contemporary Dance at the Ljubljana Conservatory for Music and Ballet, under Jana Kovač Valdés. She continued her dancing career under Argentinian flamenco dancer Liyu Trejo and at PKD Flamenko under Ana Pandur Predin. Since 2008, she has regularly attended intensive flamenco seminars abroad, learning from renowned dancers such as Isabel Bayón, Bélen Maya, Farruquito, Matilde Coral, Leonor Leal, Pilar Ogalla, Ana María López, Carmen Herrera, Selene Muñoz, Carlota Benedí and others. Since 2014, she has lived in Madrid, studying at the Amor de Dios Flamenco Arts and Spanish Dance Centre. Her mentors are Merche Esmeralda, Ana Salazar, María Keck, Concha Jareño and others. In the 2014/2015 season, she also completed training at the Centro de Estudios Superior del Flamenco UFlamenco in Madrid.

Urška is well-known in the Slovenian cultural space as a member of the CoraViento artistic flamenco group, which she has been a part of as a dancer, choreographer and organiser since 2011. With the group, she participated in the creation of full-length dance performances V zeleni senci lune (premiered 26 November 2011, Prešeren Theatre Kranj), Trenutek (premiered 28^th May 2013, Kino Šiška), Carmen (coproduced with DBUS and Young Slovenian Ballet, premiered 24^th June 2015, Lendava Theatre and Concert Hall) and (NI)SEM (premiered 31^st March 2016, Kino Šiška). In 2013, she started working with the Nova Schola Labacensis ensemble under the direction of Boris Šinigoj, contributing to the formation of two programmes, Musica Antigua y Flamenco Nuevo (Old Music and New Flamenco) and Raíces del flamenco y danza del fuego (The Roots of Flamenco and the Fire Dance). Since 2014, she has performed in Slovenia and abroad with Hungarian theatre-dance artist María Keck, with whom she has created the Del Viento project (premiered 20^th December 2014, Kavarna Union in Ljubljana), which brings flamenco closer to lay audiences via flamenco as a universal art and its fusion with Hungarian Roma music. Since 2015, she has also worked with the Caña ensemble under the guidance of acclaimed musicians, guitarist Matjaž Stošić and percussionist Damir Mazrek.

Organised by Cora Viento in collaboration with Kino Šiška.