FRIDA

The premiere of the flamenco performance Frida took place on February 8, 2009 at the

Theater of Estrada named after A. Raikin (St. Petersburg, Russia). Within 10 years the

performance has been shown in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Veliky Novgorod, Lipetsk,

Petrozavodsk, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk, Kirov, Sochi, Baku (Azerbaijan), Brest (Belarus), Limassol (Cyprus), etc. – over a hundred shows in total, and always with a full house.

Frida performed by Natalia Zaikova has been seen by more than 50,000 spectators.

Dozens of enthusiastic reviews from viewers and critics posted on the Internet and in the media

unanimously state that the flamenco play Frida is a unique phenomenon of theatrical art not to

be missed, that the authors and performers managed to create a spectacle that keeps the

audience in tension and admiration from the first till the last minute.

“…How can a dance performance become a high tragedy? The best answer to it was

given by Federico Garcia Lorca in his lecture on duende. Metaphorical, like all poets are, he

called duende – the spirit of dance – a force that "everyone feels, but no philosopher can

explain," that can only be felt, so spontaneous and irrational it is. This duende is invisibly

present in the play Frida, where the vocalist's voice flows like a blood stream, and each

movement starts from the soles of the feet." (M.A. Alyakrinskaya, journalist, associate professor

of journalism and media communications, candidate of Philological Sciences).

The source of inspiration for Frida Natalia Zaykova, the autor and director, found in a

tragic biography of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, and as a dancer and the main performer she managed to tell the story of this great personality in an absolutely incredible manner by means of flamenco language. The grace and symbolism of every flamenco movement amazingly correlate with Kahlo's paintings, where all the elements are endowed with a certain meaning.

The performance is based on the organic interaction of dance and video projections of Frida's paintings that enhance the impression of the action even further.

The play involves the best flamenco performers in Russia: vocal, guitar and percussion.

Tatyana Shishkova is the only professional flamenco singer in Russia.

Author and director: N. Zaikova

Actors: N. Zaikova, K. Frolov, T. Shishkova, V. Slobodin, A. Parfyonov, S. Konyaev, D. Kirillov