Flamenco to many people is synonymous with music, singing and dancing and Flamenco Fringe is a feast of all three. The Yotel Hotel on Queen Street is a new venue for the company, a large, modern room with informal seating and tables, cabaret style, not the small, intimate, informal setting usual for flamenco. The four walls have video recordings of the company performing, setting the scene. Daniel Martinez enters onto the small platform and begins the show with his usual exceptional guitar playing.
He is joined by two very strong singers, Inma Montero and Danielo Olivera, who also excel at handclapping, apart from still being able to perform a mean bit of dancing. Handclapping or Palmas is an art in itself, and, although it may look easy, it is not, and the palmeros weave intricate rhythms around the bases of the song, and in the tablaos this is used in conjunction with the zapateado.The zapateado being the tap dance style of footwork the dancers showcase and demonstrate their skill with their feet, and the noise created by this and the palmeros will be ringing in your ears long after you have left the tablao.
Angel Reyes was the dancer who matched and surpassed any flamenco dancing you may have seen, phenomenal; his exit was no less than jaw dropping, dancing backwards while singing, finger snapping and producing music with his feet alone. The strength and depth of feeling radiated from his emotionally consumed body, you do not need to understand the words to know what is being expressed. While the musical sound alone created by the dancers' feet is hypnotic, it is a shame only the people in the front could see the dancer’s feet, moving so fast, it being difficult for others to follow the movement.
The Spanish Daniel Martinez Flamenco Company is based in Edinburgh, founded in 2017. They run a flamenco school giving lessons in all areas of flamenco, dancing singing, playing instruments and producing shows. Martinez is a true Spanish guitarist, composer and artist, starting at seven years of age and playing over 20 years since he graduated at The Royal Conservatoire of Cordoba in 2015. It is not often two seated singers, one guitarist and one dancer get a standing ovation, which they did and thoroughly deserved.