Culture Tiger

romanrios.blogspot.co.uk This month, dance lovers in London were given the rare treat of a visit from flamenco queen Sara Baras for this year’s Flamenco Festival in Sadler’s Wells. Accompanied by a tremendous force of a corps de ballet and musicians on guitars and percussion that drive you giddy with the passionate rhythms, Baras’ latest production ‘La Pepa’ is a tribute to the Spanish Constitution of Cadiz in 1812 and a celebration of her beloved country. On this flamenco interpretation of a historical journey, the entire spectrum of emotions from sorrow to passion to sheer joy make their mark through the smallest and largest of gestures, from an elaborate turn of a hand to full body turns at high speed with skirts circling furiously around like Catherine wheels. Every part of the body is strong, controlled yet yields itself to immense sensitivity. Baras dances like a supernatural being  - steps move effortlessly from a subtle rousing build up to a fast and furious staccato that l

Valentine's Day produced a little crisis - I wanted to do “something” with my significant other which was not depressingly and cynically marketed (overpriced bland set menus served with the elbows and awkward conversations of strangers? No ta) . So I booked tickets for Dirty Fan Male at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club - an evening of love letters to soft porn stars read out with musical accompaniment. This is how you do romance properly. Dirty Fan Male is presented by Jonny Trunk, founder of Trunk Records, who recalls his past job managing his glamour model sister’s fan club along with their mother who had left her job at the National Trust especially. This eventually led to handling huge volumes of fan mail for several other models in the soft porn industry. Over the years, Trunk collected fan correspondence full of an incredibly wide and colourful range of sexual and romantic desires. www.trunkrecords.com With keyboard accompaniment, actor and impressionist Duncan Wisbe