Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca Meld Spanish Dance with Classic Greek Drama [Berkshire on Stage]

Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca, whose vitality, energy and passion have won accolades around the world, return to the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington from Wednesday-Sunday (July 1–5) with Antigona, their visually arresting adaptation of Sophocles’s Antigone. The dance drama merges live music, theatrical spectacle and dance to create a production that propels the classic Greek play to new heights. In the production, Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca bring the inherent theatricality of flamenco to bear on this classical tragedy – reigniting the theatrical potential of the Greek chorus as the lyrical and rhythmic heart of the drama.

Noche Flamenca’s lead dancer and choreographer, the celebrated Soledad Barrio, will embody Antigone, the classical Greek heroine. Daughter of Oedipus and sister of the shunned Polyneices, Antigone follows her heart and defies Creon by burying her brother. Sentenced to death, Antigone then kills herself. Ms. Barrio will bring her usual fire to the role. “Powerfully athletic,” says The Washington Post, “Soledad Barrio burst forth with a chain reaction of staccato footwork and pumping knees, whipping her head as hairpins flew. Not to join her in this captivating journey would be to lose a chance at love, both its ecstasy and its agony.”

Click to read the rest at Berkshire on Stage.