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Flamenco fusion of “El Mawi de Cádiz” hits Formentera

foto 2021 el mawi fThe Formentera Department of Culture reports that El Mawi de Cádiz will be staged in the Sala de Cultura (Cinema) at 8.00pm on Saturday 20 March. Three performers and a special guest will regale Formentera with flamenco-fusion music, song and dance. Admission is free but space is limited, so make reservations at reserves@conselldeformentera.cat until 10.00am, Friday 19 March.

Innovative yet time-tested, fresh yet familiar, El Mawi de Cádiz promises a steady rush of blood straight to the heart. Audiences will marvel at the masterful blend of musical harmonies by Alejandro Suárez, percussive beats by Cani Huertas and the walloping force of dancing and singing by El Mawi.

An early initiate to the genre, El Mawi began his flamenco career in his hometown of Cadiz, where he sang and danced in some of the city’s most prestigious theatres and festivals. With interests spilling over into classical and contemporary dance, he studied performance under Charo Cruz and pioneers like Javier Latorre, Antonio Canales, Farruquito and Rocío Molina before joining Andalusia’s Patronato de Turismo on the European flamenco festival circuit. Ever broadening his horizons, El Mawi simultaneously taught flamenco dance in Japan, Germany and France. He currently lives in Madrid, continuing to study at the Centro del Amor de Dios and sharing his trademark flamenco fusion with new world audiences.

Alejandro Suárez is a Cadiz-born guitarist whose immense versatility finds him knee-deep in everything from flamenco and Latin rhythms to folk and bossanova. He got his first taste of flamenco fusion groups at age 18, accompanying artists like Mara Rey and Joaquín Ruiz, and today is a frequent member of the international outfit Rico Sánchez & The Gypsies and La Chirigota del Selu. Suárez’s music has taken him round the globe, with noteworthy stops at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and Barbican Centre in London.

Percussionist Joaquín Huertas “Cani” has called Formentera home for the last seven years. He studied in Madrid under greats like Luky Losada and Kike Terrón, making his first production, Memorias de un Olvido, alongside Ballet Nacional de España soloist Esther Esteban and other first-class artists like Oscar Lago and Thomas Poitron. Today, Huertas plays in a number of groups and collaborates with big-name performers like Maribel la Canija and grandmaster guitarist Rafael Riqueni, who in 2017 came away with flamenco’s unofficial Nobel Prize: the 31st Compás del Cante award.

Esther Esteban is the show’s special guest. She got her start at the ripe age of eight, taking classes with Granada-native master Carmen Romero and studying at Madrid’s Conservatorio Profesional de Danza. Artistically driven, she entered the Ballet Nacional de España as a soloist, performing in iconic works like Ángeles Caídos and Suite Sevilla, while her chops as a dancer and sheer magnetism landed her a role in Carlos Saura’s silver-screen feature Salomé. Esteban currently teaches flamenco at Formentera’s Escola de Música i Dansa.

12 March 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera