Flamenco and Diversity: “VIVA!”, by Flamenco Dancer Manuel Liñán, Closes His Tour in Bogotá

Funny, different, and poetic. This was the presentation of "VIVA!", by the company of Manuel Liñán, who is a well-known dancer, choreographer, and director of his own company, as part of the celebration of the month of diversity. The work is born from a childhood memory of its creator, who assures that as a child he would lock himself in his room and wear his mother's green skirt. She adorned her hair with flowers, put on makeup, and danced in secret: "That dance was unthinkable outside those four walls". This affirmation takes into account those conditions that impose both social and artistic rules and generate expectations about the way in which a person should express themselves according to his gender. LatinAmerican Post was there: this is our coverage of "VIVA!", a work full of flamenco and diversity.

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In previous interviews, Liñán says that his father was a bullfighter. He is the youngest of three brothers, the first two being women, an issue that significantly marked his childhood because his father had a strong desire that Manuel follows in his footsteps facing bullfighting. His father taught him to fight, he took him to the bullring and dressed him in a bullfighter's suit, an issue that bored him at the time because it was something almost like an obligation. What Manuel Liñán wanted was to dance and not lock himself in the imaginary masculinity that surrounds the world of bullfighting. And, effectively, dancing is what he does now and in what way.

Manuel has been dancing since he was 6 years old. At that time, the existing division in what boys and girls danced to was notorious. However, he wanted to dance to what the girls danced. It was only when he dressed, put on makeup, and used his mother's things on the sly that he really found himself. "VIVA!" It is, then, the dream come true, where the gender of the person does not matter, everyone can dance regardless of those social or artistic rules, imposed forever. Thus, this work is about something more than a display of dance, it is also a celebration of flamenco and diversity.

What the dancers and artists who participate in such a magnificent presentation do, takes the viewer on a magical journey through the world of flamenco, classical ballet, comedy, and acting, all in one quality show. The organization of the stage times and how the play unfolds keep the viewer in a constant uncertainty of wanting to know how everything will end and if that is where they will meet the faces behind the makeup and costumes created exclusively for the play. This presentation makes it clear that in art there are no genres, no rules, and no labels, art is an art and is part of the true essence of being human. It is there where there are no judgments and where, in genuine freedom, we can meet our true selves.

With an impeccable staging, Manuel Liñán's company closes its tour, after presentations in Bucaramanga, Bogotá, Mexico and London.