María Moreno
The dancing of María Moreno (Cádiz, 1986) is the result of pure evolution. The way her body moves is nothing more than the reflection of her unquestionable freedom, shaped both by her reverence towards flamenco tradition and by her desire to apply a modernised and contemporary version of its codes.
Her essence has touched theatres such as Sadler’s Wells in London, the Paris
La Villette, Russia’s Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Russkaya Pesnya, as well as the New York City Center. Along the way, she has won the Best Newcomer Award at the Festival de Jerez in 2017 for her piece Alas del recuerdo, cementing herself as a major name in flamenco dance in 2018 with
De la Concepción, which led to her winning the Giraldillo for Best Newcomer at the Bienal de Sevilla. At the 2020 Bienal, Moreno’s star continued to rise with the opening of the show More(No)More, which brought her a second Giraldillo – this time, the Magic Moment Award for the opening section of her soleá. In addition, the 2020 Bienal saw María take centre stage for the inaugural performance, alongside Antonio Canales and Rafael Riqueni, with whom she previously toured for his album, Herencia. That same year, Yo bailo was published, a book she co- authored with Susana Girón, thereby extending her show of the same name, which had come into being a year earlier.
She toured world music festivals with Manuel de Falla’s orchestra and the
group made up of Enriki Solinís and Euskal Barrokensemble. In the neverending struggle between her essence and her artistic expression, María captivates through her linguistic brilliance, her modernistic style and the smart choices she makes within her pieces. She has always known how to absorb influences, ever since she started out at the Conservatorio Profesional de Danza in Cádiz, all the way through to today, with the inspiration she takes from Rafael Villalobos’ ideas and direction or Palomo Spain’s cutting-edge concept of fashion.
As an artist, María is constantly trying to discover new surroundings, to take risks and get lost in research, to have a mature understanding of her own story while maintaining the conviction to seek out freedom. This is the case with o../o../.o/o./o. (soleá), which debuted as one of the 22nd Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla’s most hotly anticipated performances in September 2022.
In this show, one can see María’s new perspective, one where she does not shy away from her own essence. The challenge does not lie in the pursuit of the final result, but rather in the construction of the path.
- o../o../.o/o./o. (soleá)-
For María Moreno, the soleá is like good-quality ham: a dish to be enjoyed anytime. However, her current project takes her exploration of the limits of this palo one step further, as she reexamines her own beginnings through a flamencological voyage alongside various argonauts that accompany her. What is a soleá, and how to define it? Starting from the traditional structure of the soleá – guitar intro / initial ayeo / preparation singing / falseta / cante valiente / escobilla / soleá por bulería – each block of this project is anchored to each of these parts, questioning the parameters that define them, but allowing deeper exploration through concepts like dominance of rhythm, tonal freedom and chromaticism, or double use of voice – both melodic and dramaturgic – setting them in a relationship with cosmological concepts such as the perception of time and space, through the usage of linear instruments that challenge them, including the hurdy-gurdy, or the superimposition of parallel sonic universes. Thus, after an initial explosion of compressed material – a Big Bang – the elemental particles contained within start to appear, forming a single soleá that links back to the origin of time and projects into the future.
“Her work is a unique exercise in study, an investigation of dance, music and rhythm that is the vehicle for a truly great work. Contained within it are all the elements of the Soleá style, with all of their complexity, a special universe within the art of Flamenco.” Fermín Lobatón_ El País .