Yinka Esi Graves

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Image courtesy of Greg Festival de Barcelona

The character in a painting by Degas becomes the protagonist of a reflection on the invisibility of those who are different. It is based on the own experiences of an English dancer with roots in Ghana who presents her first solo show.

There is no one better than this flamenco dancer, born to a Jamaican father and a Ghanaian mother, to explain to us through the language of dance, what it is like when someone is present but gazes pass over them; when no one pays attention and the world ignores them. In this performance, the concept of “crypsis" — which refers to the capacity of some animals to avoid being perceived — either as a predatory tactic or as a defense, is thus of special relevance.

We already saw Yinka Esi Graves during the Grec 2021 Festival de Barcelona, accompanying the singer Buika in a concert at the Teatre Grec. Now, however, the artist is no longer present as a guest; she has a stage of her own. It places the character of Olga Brown — the mulatto figure who appears in the only Degas painting to depict the world of the circus — at the very center of it: Miss La en el Cirque Fernando. 

The show, which takes the form of one of the concert-parties typical of the Ghanaian tradition, was created over the course of several residencies in the UK, France and Spain and features collaborations with renowned artists, including the flamenco guitarist Raúl Cantizano, a master of flamenco improvisation; the drummer and poet Reme Graves and the flamenco singer Rosa de Algeciras, writer of the lyrics of a song created specifically for this show.

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