Note: This performance is part of a full evening program at Black Box teater, with two flamenco-inspired performances included in the same ticket. You can read more about the other performance – Infinétude – here!
A Scenic Experiment Crackling with Flamenco’s Rawness and Spontaneity
Choreographer María del Mar Suárez, La Chachi and singer Lola Dolores show us that flamenco is not a fossilized tradition, but boundlessly alive – full of attitude, raw nerve, and warmth.
Two women sit on chairs facing the audience, dressed in tracksuits. They roll cigarettes, eat sunflower seeds, and let their eyes drift across the room. Then, without warning, the taranto takes hold – one of flamenco’s most stripped-down and rhythmic styles. A song form rooted in the mining regions of Almería, born out of a need to express without rules, without accompaniment – a lament sung straight from the chest.
In Taranto aleatorio, the tradition becomes something entirely new. La Chachi and Dolores retain the classical structure of the taranto, but use it as a springboard for an explosive experiment – where chance takes on the role of choreographer.
No props. No set design. No classical storytelling. Everything is carried by the two women on stage – their voices, their bodies, and the unique interplay between them. Dolores sings with a power that hits you in the spine, while La Chachi lets her body speak a precise, physical language. Hand gestures, rhythmic stomps, subtle shifts – all in dialogue with the song, the space, the audience.
The performance breaks down the barrier between stage and audience – it feels as though we’re with them in a worn, smoke-filled tavern, where flamenco isn’t performed, but emerges. And lives.
Taranto aleatorio has its Norwegian premiere at this year’s CODA Festival, inviting you into a raw, intense, humorous – and perhaps unexpected – experience. Small gestures, spontaneous reactions, humorous glances – all are part of an irregular dance that is, at the same time, deeply structured.
You don’t need to love flamenco to be moved. Taranto aleatorio is not just a performance – it’s a reminder of what the stage can be when it dares to let go of control. When artists trust their presence, their intuition – and their connection with the audience.
● La Chachi (María del Mar Suárez) is a flamenco dancer, actor, and choreographer from Málaga, known for her exploration of new forms of expression in flamenco and performing arts. Trained in both theatre and dance, she specialized in flamenco with La Lupi, alongside studies in physical theatre, new dramaturgy, and contemporary dance. Drawing on these diverse disciplines, she has since 2008 developed a strong hybrid language where flamenco meets theatre and conceptual performance.
Her first solo work, La gramática de los mamíferos (2017), was a critical success and won several awards, including three PAD Awards and the Lorca Award for Best Female Performance. In La Espera (2019) and Los inescalables Alpes, buscando a Currito (2021), she continued to develop her distinctive style. The latter won the Godot Award for Best Dance Performance in 2022 and was presented at, among others, Festival de Otoño in Madrid and Teatro Central in Seville.
La Chachi is today considered one of the most unique and innovative voices on the experimental flamenco scene.
In collaboration with CODA Oslo International Dance Festival .
