STEFFA

In STEFFA, flamenco star Manuel Liñán slips into the role of Dutch dancer Steffa Wine. Before and during the Second World War, Steffa Wine caused a sensation as a flamenco dancer and toured the Netherlands and Germany with her Spanish Dansavonden until 1944. This was not appreciated by everyone after the war. STEFFA is a re-enactment of her controversial performances that took place in the city’s theaters during World War II. Manuel Liñán dances Steffa Wine’s struggle with her past and her ambition, mirroring this in his own search as a male dancer in the conservative flamenco world. Two exciting and different lives imaginatively intersect in this re-enactment. Steffa is a kaleidoscopic performance in a setting of special archival material in a soundscape of live flamenco singing by María Marín and guitar and Francisco Vinuesa. What makes up our identity? And how far does one go in a quest for fame, forging one’s identity in a hostile environment?

the press about Manuel Liñán and STEFFA

THEATERKRANT, Anita Twaalfhoven May 6, 2022

The dance, music and singing are so technically strong, and also so emotional and stirring to the imagination, that they hardly need an explanation. We can see from Liñán’s movement language that he is struggling with his identity and through the film music and images we quickly understand that he is fantasizing about a dancer who performed during the war. It is an associative representation. The solo in a green flamenco dress and scarf is spectacular, with Liñán banging and dancing across the stage as if they were his wings and feathers. Guitarist Vinuesa and singer Maria Marín follow him in a rhythmic interplay that sparks and makes the audience spontaneously applaud. Above all, Steffa is a successful ode to the renewal of flamenco.

Short: In STEFFA, flamenco star Manuel Liñán slips into the role of Dutch dancer Steffa Wine, who caused a sensation as a flamenco dancer before and during the Second World War. This was not appreciated after the war. STEFFA is a re-enactment of her controversial performances that took place in the city theaters. Manuel Liñán dances her fight and compares it to his own quest as a male dancer in the conservative flamenco world. Two exciting and different lives imaginatively intersect in this re-enactment.

International furore

Manuel Liñán (1980) is an internationally recognized star, a virtuoso, dedicated flamenco dancer and choreographer. In 2018 Liñán received the National Dance Prize from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. He grew up in Granada, Spain, in a socially conservative environment where his achievements as a female performer certainly did not find acclaim. Liñán explores traditional gender roles in the flamenco world and organically reverses them in his hit shows. Today he is considered a trendsetter for new forms of flamenco dance. In his latest, internationally acclaimed work ¡VIVA! he goes one step further with his research on gender and identity in flamenco. He is the ideal dancer for this performance.

Peripheral program

The performance has an extensive side program including a film by The New Yorker, Flamenco Queer, – Destined for Bullfighting, He Chose to Revolutionize Flamenco Instead – by Dancing in Drag – by Ana González and Frederick Bernas. Here emerges a queer man’s lifelong passion for flamenco after decades of hiding female impulses in a conservative society with rigid cultural traditions.