Baroque Music and Flamenco in Seville

Between flamenco gestures and baroque counterpoint, Origen delves deep into the musical roots of a culturally diverse Spain.

Fotografia: Laura León

An astounding encounter at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville between flamenco, choreographed by Patricia Guerrero, and the baroque ensemble Accademia del Piacere, directed by Fahmi Alqhai.

Origen, the new creation by choreographer Patricia Guerrero for Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, brings about an audacious encounter between flamenco and early music. Following the success of María Pineda, which revealed Guerrero’s gift for dramaturgy and visual aesthetics, the choreographer now joins forces with Fahmi Alqhai and his ensemble Accademia del Piacere, leading figures in the Spanish baroque repertoire. Together, they explore the musical roots of Al-Andalus and the transatlantic influences that helped shape Spain’s musical identity.

On stage, 15 dancers, 13 musicians, and two singers perform a score where flamenco interacts with ancient musical forms, incorporating rhythms and gestures from Oriental, African, and Baroque traditions. While the choreography retains the flamenco language, it opens itself to dances such as zarabandas, chacona, and guineos, evoking the cultural back-and-forth between Spain and the Americas.

In five parts, each retracing a historical period of the city, Origen traverses contrasting worlds—festive, solemn, obscure—without attempting to recreate the past. Instead, it seeks to extract an essence that is timeless: a space of communion between tradition and modernity. The abstract set design suggests an imaginary city, a meeting place of two musical heritages. For Patricia Guerrero and Fahmi Alqhai, this performance is a search for new dialogues, in which contemporary flamenco reinvents itself by drawing on the richness of its origins.