CAIDI DEL CIELO (Fallen From Heaven) ADELAIDE FESTIVAL 2025

 

Caida del Cielo (Fallen From Heaven)

Artistic co-direction, choreography, musical direction Rocio Molina. Artistic co-direction, dramatic art, stage space and lighting Carlos Marquerie. Composition of original music Eduardo Trassierra. Participation in the musical composition Jose Angel Carmona, Jose Manuel Ramos “oruco” and Pablo Martin Jones. Collaborator for Dance Elena Cordoba. Costume design Cecilia Molano. Costumes creation Lopez de Santos, Maty and Rafael Solis. Photography Pablo Guidali and Simone Fratini.

CAST: Dancing Rocio Molina, Guitars Oscar Lago, Singing/ electric bass Kiko Pena. Handclapping and beat, percussion Jose Manuel Ramos “Oruco” Percussion and electronics Pablo artin Jones. Technical direction Carmen Mori. Lighting Valentin Donaire. Sound Javier Alvarez. Stage management Maria Agar Martinez. Executive direction El Mandaito Producciones S.L. Her Majsty’s Theatre. Adelaide Festival. February 28 – March 3 2025

Rocio Molina  Photo Simone Fratini

 

Reviewed by Peter Wilkins

A great dancer can transform her art and transport us to new ways of experiencing and understanding our humanity. Roci Molina is such a dancer. In her Adelaide Festival performance Caida del Cielo (Fallen from Heaven) Molina, accompanied by four musicians including a singer. infuses her art as a flamenco dancer with the passion and the pain, the darkness and the light and the vulnerability and the power of being a woman. We see her first in a single spot motionless in the centre of the stage. She is dressed in a  white flamenco dress  with a train that splays out across the floor. Slowly the arms move into the classic position of the flamenco dancer before she sinks to the floor. Reptilian like she communes with the earth, a fallen angel in search of her roots. It is the overture to her discovery of self and a celebration of her womanhood empowered by the fiery spirit of the flamenco and the enduring power of the spirit of duende.

 The dress is removed and she changes into the clothes of the matador, sleek, tight and stylish. It is here that she gives sway to possession by the traditional dance of the Spanish folk. It is the flamenco of the caves of Granada. Arms reach towards Heaven and the feet pound the earth with percussive rhythm. It is the dance of the people, assertive and confident, rebellious and defiant. Castanets click and Kiko Pena lets out the song of the dance like a wind sweeping across the Andalucian plains while the musicians lend fire to the pulsating rhythm of the dance. 

 Caida del Cielo is performed in four separate movements, marked by the phases of the moon and a costume change, This and a comic interlude when the members of the company come to the front of the stage to eat from their crisps packet allow Molina a pause from her powering dance and a natural transition to a new stage in a woman’s experience. At one stage, Molina responding to the harsh music of German metal band Einstuerzende Neubauten crawls across stage leaving a trail of mud behind her as she struggles to regain a sense of self. A musician kneels at her feet in symbolic gesture to remove the dirt before a final celebration of her womanhood, bedecked with flowers that she casts through the audience in triumph and joy. The journey is complete, the descent substantive in its goal of discovery of self as woman. The flamenco offers affirmation.

For more than ninety minutes Molina and her musicians transport us to a new understanding of what it means to be a woman and the nature of struggle and survival. Molina’s athleticism and artistry is extraordinary, at times heart pumping, at times awe inspiring. Molina is the doyenne of flamenco. More than that she is an inspiration to all. It is little wonder that the audience leapt to their feet in a standing ovation.