There is no need to wait a hundred years to appreciate some things: our time is producing masterful pieces, works destined to endure without the need for time to validate them. Trilogy on the guitar de Rocío Molina is certainly one of them. It's been a little over four years since we saw it land in that Teatro Central with capacity restrictions and masks, and it has only gained in substance. Theatre of Nîmes (France) has decided to host the three parts of the show on the same day, a dance marathon that explains why the Malaga native, now over 40, is at the top of this discipline.
Depth, gravity, humour, strength, delicacy, frenetic dances and moments of calm, luminous passages, daring, sensuality… Why go on? The initial temptation of the person writing this is to summarise the judgement in a few words: Trilogy It simply contains everything. Because perhaps it is this plenitude that the guitar represents for Molina, six strings to say the unspeakable and a hole in the wood that contains, like the Aleph, the universe.
We can highlight, however, some aspects of the different deliveries. Home (One) It is not so much about dancing to the guitar, as to a guitarist. The devotion that is professed to Rafael Riqueni becomes a dialogue between the musician and the dancer's body, which also allows the rapture. The master of Fabié street, punished by life and resurrected under the spotlights, brings out compositions such as Bitterness o Picking roses to inspire Rocío Molina, but there are also scenes of enormous plasticity, such as when The artist covers herself with the floor mat and transforms into a strange creatureIn any case, what prevails is the sweetness, the exquisite care for that fragile and brilliant being who touches her.
«Depth, gravity, humour, strength, delicacy, frenetic dances and moments of calm, luminous passages, daring, sensuality… Why go on? The initial temptation of the person writing this is to summarise the judgement in a few words: the Trilogy simply contains everything»
After the tender reverence to Riqueni, the second part, In the background it glistens (the other of the one), gives way to new blood. It is time to squander strength, carried on the wings by the sounds of Oscar Lake (replacing Eduardo Tassierra) and Yerai Cortes, while the screen in the background reflects the movement of dark waters, a metaphor for the fears and inner doubts that will end up being conjured up at the next station. The time for the madness of the bata de cola, of the dizzying brushes and the impossible cambrés in an enormous catalogue of dances, from the farruca to the soleá.
We thus arrive at the conclusion, not in vain titled Back to one. We begin with sweetness and we must walk towards sweetness, even if it is materialized in the sugar spilled on the floor, in which Molina rolls joyfully, or in the numerous sweets that he devours during the montage, under the astonished gaze of Yerai Cortés. It is all, of course, a joke, because the play is dominated by nonchalance. Laughing and laughing at oneself as a disinfection and exorcism, that seems to be what the Malaga native is proposing, bringing out a very accentuated comic side.
But nothing could be further from the truth: here Cortés also comes with tremendous music, supported by different sound effects, which may seem like a loop obsessive about taranta or creating an oasis of peace in the sensitivity of the spectator, or making the entire audience dance with an irresistible tune by palos party-goers. Molina, who had already danced for more than two hours during the day, was tireless. At one point he confessed to Cortés: “The more tired I am, the more strength I have.” It sounds like sarcasm, but it seemed real.
La Trilogy on the guitar It culminates in personal liberation and ecstasy. It is a very personal conclusion that is easy to identify with. It is undoubtedly a spectacle flamenco, but also an epic tale, a visual poem and a brief philosophical treatise. And for the history of contemporary dance, what they call an instant classic.
Credits
Trilogy on the guitar, by Rocio Molina
Festival Flamenco Nimes
Theatre of Nîmez
January 12, 2025
Rocio Molina, dance
Rafael Riqueni, guitar
Yerai Cortes, guitar
Oscar Lago, guitar
