Flamenco in all its forms.
The necessary gesture
Or the carnal, philosophical and political power of the Festival Flamenco Azul
In 2026, the Festival Flamenco Azul places its gaze at the heart of the essential: the true gesture. The one that trembles. The one that imposes itself. The one that repairs. The gestures of artists, citizens, children and teachers. Gestures born of an inner urgency that express a way of inhabiting the world. Flamenco isn't played: it's snatched away. Each dance, each song, each note emerges from a profound need. To speak, to breathe, to survive.
With "Le Geste Nécessaire", the Festival Flamenco Azul questions the vital source of the flamenco act: that moment when creating becomes a need, a call from the body and the world.
Gesture is a constant tension: between strength and fragility, discipline and freedom, drive and thought.
Three forces run through this edition, without ever being compartmentalized: the gesture that creates, the gesture that connects, the gesture that transmits. Three ways of being in the world, three profound necessities that make flamenco a living, embodied, essential art.
The great contemporary creations invited give substance to this inner quest, this sensitive response to finitude.
With Óbito, Yoel Vargas confronts death, loss and crossing: a gesture of resistance, tense between fall and passage. Ana Morales, meanwhile, in Más que Baile, explores a dance that goes beyond movement to question meaning, identity and the truth of the body. And with its latest creation, Luna Negra, Compagnie Solea plunges into shadowy zones, subterranean forces and the unspeakable, where gesture becomes revelation.
In concerts, gesture becomes vibration.
With Juan Carmona, Melchior Campos and Ana Crismán, music becomes breath and living matter. Between tradition and invention, each reinvents his own language. Ana Crismán's flamenco harp is a shining example of this: a bold, out-of-place gesture that gives birth to the compás of an instrument so foreign to flamenco, yet so right in its breathing.
In tablaos and encounters, flamenco rediscovers its beating heart.
In Istres with José and Isabel Fernández, at the Centre Solea with José Maldonado, or at the Cinéma l'Alhambra with Isabel Gázquez and Josele Miranda, gesture becomes presence. The sweat, the moment, the fragility of live performance. Flamenco exists only because it is lived, here and now, at its most naked and powerful.
But the flamenco gesture is also social and deeply political.
Through the training of young adults with Down's syndrome (T'Cap 21), the A Pulso project with women in social distress, and numerous school projects, flamenco has become a tool for bonding, transmission and emancipation. These shared gestures give the body a place, a voice and a presence. They affirm that everyone carries within them a necessary gesture.
Last but not least, transmission is a key theme throughout the festival.
Conferences, debates, screenings, workshops and master classes remind us that the body is a living archive. And that, in the face of the turmoil of the world we live in, transmitting this powerful, unifying art is to open up a space of light, resistance and hope.
Being there, together, sharing emotions and supporting artists is now, more than ever, a militant act. It's this presence that I'm counting on, with the immense pride of an open-minded, curious, multicultural and intergenerational Marseilles public, from the four corners of the planet.
I wish you all a wonderful festival! Let's cross it united, in this necessary gesture that transcends us and connects us.
Maria PEREZ
Artistic Director of the Festival
Founder of Centre Solea
Or the carnal, philosophical and political power of the Festival Flamenco Azul
In 2026, the Festival Flamenco Azul places its gaze at the heart of the essential: the true gesture. The one that trembles. The one that imposes itself. The one that repairs. The gestures of artists, citizens, children and teachers. Gestures born of an inner urgency that express a way of inhabiting the world. Flamenco isn't played: it's snatched away. Each dance, each song, each note emerges from a profound need. To speak, to breathe, to survive.
With "Le Geste Nécessaire", the Festival Flamenco Azul questions the vital source of the flamenco act: that moment when creating becomes a need, a call from the body and the world.
Gesture is a constant tension: between strength and fragility, discipline and freedom, drive and thought.
Three forces run through this edition, without ever being compartmentalized: the gesture that creates, the gesture that connects, the gesture that transmits. Three ways of being in the world, three profound necessities that make flamenco a living, embodied, essential art.
The great contemporary creations invited give substance to this inner quest, this sensitive response to finitude.
With Óbito, Yoel Vargas confronts death, loss and crossing: a gesture of resistance, tense between fall and passage. Ana Morales, meanwhile, in Más que Baile, explores a dance that goes beyond movement to question meaning, identity and the truth of the body. And with its latest creation, Luna Negra, Compagnie Solea plunges into shadowy zones, subterranean forces and the unspeakable, where gesture becomes revelation.
In concerts, gesture becomes vibration.
With Juan Carmona, Melchior Campos and Ana Crismán, music becomes breath and living matter. Between tradition and invention, each reinvents his own language. Ana Crismán's flamenco harp is a shining example of this: a bold, out-of-place gesture that gives birth to the compás of an instrument so foreign to flamenco, yet so right in its breathing.
In tablaos and encounters, flamenco rediscovers its beating heart.
In Istres with José and Isabel Fernández, at the Centre Solea with José Maldonado, or at the Cinéma l'Alhambra with Isabel Gázquez and Josele Miranda, gesture becomes presence. The sweat, the moment, the fragility of live performance. Flamenco exists only because it is lived, here and now, at its most naked and powerful.
But the flamenco gesture is also social and deeply political.
Through the training of young adults with Down's syndrome (T'Cap 21), the A Pulso project with women in social distress, and numerous school projects, flamenco has become a tool for bonding, transmission and emancipation. These shared gestures give the body a place, a voice and a presence. They affirm that everyone carries within them a necessary gesture.
Last but not least, transmission is a key theme throughout the festival.
Conferences, debates, screenings, workshops and master classes remind us that the body is a living archive. And that, in the face of the turmoil of the world we live in, transmitting this powerful, unifying art is to open up a space of light, resistance and hope.
Being there, together, sharing emotions and supporting artists is now, more than ever, a militant act. It's this presence that I'm counting on, with the immense pride of an open-minded, curious, multicultural and intergenerational Marseilles public, from the four corners of the planet.
I wish you all a wonderful festival! Let's cross it united, in this necessary gesture that transcends us and connects us.
Maria PEREZ
Artistic Director of the Festival
Founder of Centre Solea
Booking
Booking
Opening times
Opening times
From 22 March 2026 until 18 April 2026 - Open everyday
Localisation
Localisation
- www.festivalflamenco-azul.com
Spoken languages
Spoken languages
