The iconoclastic choreographer Rocío Molina has coined her own artistic language based on a reinvented traditional flamenco style which respects its essence, but embraces the avant-garde. Radically free, she combines in her works: technical virtuosity, contemporary research and conceptual risk. Unafraid to forge alliances with other disciplines and artists, her choreographies are unique scenic events based on ideas and cultural forms ranging from cinema to literature, including philosophy and painting.

Rocío Molina, a restless dancer, was born in Malaga in 1984. She started to dance at the early age of three years old. At seven, she was outlining her first choreographies. At 17, she graduated with honors at the Royal Dance Conservatory in Madrid and became part of the cast of some professional companies with international tours.

At 22, she premiered Entre paredes, her first work, which was followed by many more self-creations, all of them with a thing in common: a curious and transgressor look at a flamenco style escaping from the well-trodden paths: El Eterno Retorno (2006), Turquesa como el limón (2006), Almario (2007), Por el decir de la gente (2007), Oro Viejo (2008), Cuando las piedras vuelen (2009), Vinática (2010), Danzaora y vinática (2011), Afectos 2012), Bosque Ardora (2014) and Caída del Cielo (2016).

At 26, the Ministry of Culture awarded her the Spanish National Award for Dance for “her contribution to the renewal of flamenco and for her versatility and strength as a performer capable of handling the most diverse registers with freedom and courage.” At 28, Mikhail Baryshnikov kneeled before her at the door of her dressing room at the New York City Center, after her outstandingly successful performance of Oro Viejo.

Since 2014, she has been an associated artist of the Chaillot NationalTheater in Paris, where in November 2016 Caída del Cielo,her last piece, premiered.

Rocío Molina, a versatile dancer, is one of the Spanish artists with greater international repercussion. Her flamenco pieces have been performed not only in popular and important theaters and festivals such as: Barbican Center in London, New York City Center, the Esplanade in Singapore, Festival de Otoño, Madrid en Danza, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, Dance Umbrella Festival in London, Flamenco Festival Düsseldorf, Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona, Chaillot Theatre in Paris and Bunkamura in Tokyo. But also in renowned temples of flamenco such as Seville’s Flamenco Biennial or Jerez Festival, just to mention some of them. 

Throughout her career, not only has she worked with great national flamenco leading figures such as: María Pagés, Miguel Poveda, Chano Lobato, Pastora Galván, Manuel Liñán, Belén López, Manuela Carrasco, Antonio Canales or Israel Galván, but also with leading figures of contemporary performing arts, such as Carlos Marquerie, Mateo Feijóo or Sebastién Ramírez. 

Her artistic research has been recognized with awards at a national and at an international level (Spanish National Award for Dance, Best Dancer Award in Seville Biennial, Giraldillo Award for Best Choreography, Flamenco Hoy Critic’s Choice Prize, Critics Choice Prize awarded by the Chair for Flamenco Studies in Jerez, Gold Medal awarded by the Province of Malaga, 2015 Max Award for the best choreography in Bosque Ardora, 2016 Dance National British Awards, Giraldillo Award for dance at Seville Biennial 2016) and with the unanimous praise of the audience and the critics: “A gifted and intelligent dancer” (EL MUNDO), “She’s like the nuclear power within an atom” (STANDARD), “An innate talent for the most racial dance” (El PAÍS), “She is the incarnated and urgent passion, almost red hot, that takes control of the body, that moves it and transfers it, spasm by spasm, and fills it with rage and beauty” (LA VANGUARDIA), ”One of the best flamenco dancers I’ve ever seen” (THE NEW YORK TIMES).