Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, one of America’s leading Spanish flamenco dance companies, presents its spring 2026 season at The Joyce Theater.
Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana “Quinto Elemento” 🇪🇸
Patricia Guerrero choreography deconstructs traditional flamenco to its essence, with live music by Francis Gómez
Joyce Theater, Chelsea
Apr 21-26, Tue-Sun
Wednesday Curtain Chat, Saturday Family Matinee
$57+
Patricia Guerrero
Patricia Guerrero, director of the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía, is a winner of the highest honor in Spanish dance, el Premio Nacional de Danza, Spain’s National Dance Award.
The Four Elements
The four elements are from ancient physics. They are earth, water, fire, and air. Quinto Elemento, the Fifth Element, is ether, the substance of the heavens. It is always present, but you can’t see it.
In a flamenco context, el Quinto Elemento is duende, the flamenco spirit. It is striving to dance with God from the soles of the feet.
Spain’s flamenco community is very traditional. Cultural expressions that have a rich history face constant tension between tradition and the way we do things now. In the traditional arts, you are not allowed to improvise or stretch things until you have mastered the tradition, perfectly.
Guerrero is a master of traditional flamenco in the flamenco heartland of Andalusía, no less. She uses chaos and fragmentation to deconstruct traditional flamenco. She seems to be saying that even if you take a hammer to the traditions, it’s still flamenco of it has that fifth element of duende spirit.