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IMPRESSIONS: Alfonso Losa and Patricia Guerrero's "Alter Ego" at the 2025 Flamenco Festival New York
By Deirdre Towers/Follow @deirdre.towers on Instagram
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Published on March 12, 2025
"Alter Ego." Photo: Beatrix Molnar
WHAT: Flamenco Festival New York
WHERE: New York City Center
WHO: Choreographers/Dancers: Alfonso Losa and Patricia Guerrero
Singers: Sandra Carrasco, Ismael “El Bola”
Guitarist: Jose Manuel Martinez “El Peli”
Lighting Designer: Olga Garcia
Costume Designer: Belen de la Quintana
WHEN: March 6, 2025
Alfonso Losa and Patricia Guerrero have a palpable chemistry. These two young masters of flamenco complement each other’s strengths, with immaculate clarity of footwork, precision, and grace. Their duet has a rare purity. ALTER EGO, their 2023 creation, opened the 24th edition of Flamenco Festival New York, "A Tribute to Granada" at New York City Center.
Silence and stillness, offset by lightning-fast passages of wild turns and footwork, are central to their conception. The darkness that greets the audience in the beginning gradually recedes until we have a glimmering vision of Losa, downstage right and Guerrero, upstage left — both facing the audience in a meditative stance. Losa turns his head, and then a minute or so later, turns once again to acknowledge the presence of another sentient being.
The heat of this seventy-five minute production jacks up when the two face each other in silence after their explosive solos, and the three excellent musicians pull their chairs from the center of the stage. The audience collaborates by muting themselves. Not a peep is heard.
As the dancers slowly mirror each other, they momentarily release the intensity of their proximity as Losa lifts Guerrero with her knees folded up to her chest in an arching turn. Their duet has a conversant quality in which both dancers are simultaneously listening and speaking. Guerrero holds her lithe body with carefree ease, soft and responsive, while Losa remains lifted and expansive. The dance off each other’s energy. Guerrero often suspends her turns and lifts a knee in a balletic attitude; Losa spins with classical lines
While many Flamenco Festival New York performances have had large casts with multiple costume changes, and all the traditional props of hats, bata de colas, castanets, mantones and lighting to accentuate the rhythms, this production has a minimal, contemporary feel. The colors of the dress and lighting are even-toned and subdued.
In one departure from the prop free aesthetic, Guerrero pulls out a red fan, during the exquisite guajira, making us pop back to a lazier, more coquettish time. The sparky virtuosity of the dancers, singers, and guitarist always feels warm and genuine. Jose Manuel Martinez plays his guitar, almost simulating an orchestra with his range of textures. Sandra Carrasco and Ismael “El Bola” each had soulful solos, but they often sang together with sweet harmony. Duende, exquisitely defined by Federico García Lorca, the poet honored in this festival, seems to lurk in the shadows, silhouettes, and other space-defining lighting that lends an intimacy to the scene.
With over 70 artists from 12 renowned flamenco companies, the 2025 festival will bring 26 performances to major U.S. cities, including New York, Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco.
