ELENO VIVAR

Found in a ditch in Andalucía, formed from the tierras negras, bulls blood, pure duende and catalysed to life by the wail of an ancient gitana priestess. A chiaruscuro life of blinding light and ravenous darkness was written on her fate cards.

Taken in by nuns and raised as one of their own in a forgotten mountainside convent, one day a visiting bishop tried to force this young novice but when he saw what was hiding under the child’s habit he denounced Eleno as a demon and had her encarcerated.

She escaped the night before her forced surgery and roamed the wilds of Andalucía, the loamy banks of the Guadalquivir, the acid rocks of Sierra Morena communing with the ancient spirits and running with the wild bison on the plain of Granada.

Drifting through Seville, dancing on street corners for money she found herself in La Maestranza, possessed by some demon she jumped into the ring, faced the bull and instantly became an infamous matador.

Poetics: Bright and fiery like the plains of Almeria.

Performed at Poetry Brothel London, LEAP Dance Festival Liverpool, Chester University Dance Festival