Laura
Collins-Hughes

July 22, 2015

Flamenco paired with ancient Greek tragedy? It’s the kind of idea that makes the brow furrow. But in Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca’s dark and explosive “Antigona,” this odd-couple match makes an “Aha!” kind of sense, uniting two fierce and stylized forms to tell the story of a sister’s defiance of a king in defense of her dead brother. A haunting, distant classicism coexists with sweaty, unmediated corporeality in this dance drama, adapted by Martín Santangelo, Noche Flamenca’s artistic director, from Sophocles’ “Antigone.” Displaying the same allegiance to dance as the earliest Greek dramas, it mines the martial, confrontational qualities of flamenco, and the mournful ones as well. Sophocles’ narrative is not the easiest to follow, and “Antigona” takes pains to provide context amid the dance and song, almost all of it performed in Spanish with clear, well designed English supertitles. “Meet the family,” the gregarious Master of Ceremonies (Emilio Florido) says, introducing us to Oedipus and Jocasta; their sons, Polyneices and Eteocles; their daughters, Antigona and Ismene; and Jocasta’s brother, Creon.