Adriana Bilbao fuses flamenco and soccer elements in the dance piece ‘Zarra’
BILBAO, Nov. 16 (EUROPEAN PRESS) –
The Bilbao choreographer Adriana Bilbao has presented this Wednesday, coinciding with the celebration of International Flamenco Day that commemorates the proclamation of flamenco by Unesco as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, her new work ‘Zarra’, which opens this Thursday , at 7:30 p.m. at the Arriaga Theatre.
Zarra is a dance work in homage and recognition to the emblematic figure of Telmo Zarraonandia, Zarra (1921-2006), legendary Athletic striker, with a wide track record, who won six Pitxitxi trophies and was the top scorer in the history of the league Spanish for sixty years, until it was surpassed by Lionel Messi. The choreographer Adriana Bilbao, his granddaughter, creates a work in her honor, entitled Zarra, which highlights her “formidable greatness”.
A cast of nine performers, six ballerinas and three male dancers, perform on stage a piece that combines dance and flamenco with sports elements associated with soccer, thus emphasizing the strength and nerve that characterized Telmo Zarraonandia. .
Adriana Bilbao has wanted to put the focus, when constructing this dance piece and creating the choreographies together with the cast, on the sporting and human values that exalted the myth. Zarra is a work that is close to its origins, to the memory of a people closely linked to this sport, to its mining-industrial roots; and it also covers its history through anecdotes guided by Telmo.
Thus, the piece pays tribute to a soccer legend, the player for Athletic Club Bilbao and the Spanish national soccer team who became a generational icon in a radically different era.
Adriana Bilbao combines projects with tablaos and company performances at a national and international level. She is currently part of Solera, by Cía Paco Peña, which premiered at Sadler’s Wells Theater in London in April 2022.
In 2020, together with D8 Sorkuntza Faktoria, the development of a creation factory began, a center linked to dance and located in Bilbao, which promotes synergies between artists, the creation of new audiences and the generation of a community around dance. Tickets for the show are on sale on the website or at the theater box office during advance sales hours.