Nuevo Ballet Español Show "Cambio de Tercio" in Riga

As part of the 16th International Baltic Ballet Festival, the flamenco group Nuevo Ballet Español paid a return visit to Latvia. Yesterday, on 17 April, the hall of the Riga Congress Centre resounded with vibrant Spanish rhythms. Energy flowed from every movement of the dancers, the flamenco musicians, and the singers. A powerful wave of vitality swept over all the audience members, who with every performance followed what was happening on stage with ever-increasing liveliness, applause, and cries of delight.

Flamenco dance was shown in all its splendour, from notes of aching, deep spiritual experience to all-encompassing joy and abandonment in the celebration of life.

The principal soloists and founders of Nuevo Ballet Español are the experienced and professional dancers Ángel Rojas and Carlos Rodríguez. The vitality and agility in their dance steps are simply admirable. Beads of sweat dripped generously from their foreheads, but their smiles and connection with the audience did not disappear for a single moment.

Four dancers in magnificent flamenco costumes, which they changed for each individual dance, lent the flamenco show the charm of fluidity, femininity, and grace. A performance with large red fringed and elaborately embroidered shawls made the audience hold their breath in delight.

The dancers were accompanied by two guitarists, a percussionist, a violinist, and two singers with resonant voices. For, as is well known, the concept of flamenco encompasses the union of these three arts - dance, music, and song.

The concert was a pleasure for the ears, the eyes, and the soul alike. Leaving the hall, it seemed as though a part of the artists' energy and joy of life had now become one's own. A truly wonderful performance!