Rocío Molina: Calentamiento review – an electrifying blast of punky flamenco

Rocío Molina continues to challenge the boundaries of traditional flamenco with her latest work, 'Calentamiento'. Some purists argue that her performance isn't flamenco at all – especially when, three-quarters of the way through, she sits down at a drum kit and starts bashing out a 4/4 rock beat. But however crazy things get over two hours, everything is built on the pure craft of a flamenco dancer.

The title 'Calentamiento' means warming up, which is exactly what Molina does on stage before the audience has even sat down. She begins a footwork drill – a 12-beat phrase, the same one she has done since she was seven years old. At 140bpm, she likes to start slowly, she says. Heels and toes hammer out the dancer's daily ritual, much like a ballerina starting each day at the barre with a plié. She asks: why do we keep starting over? How do we keep going? She must keep beginning so that it never ends, while her beats spark like electric shocks.

The entire first hour lays out her genius. Working with writer/director Pablo Messiez, she makes direct connection with the audience, reveals her rituals, asks for a cigarette, and chats as she ups the tempo to 180bpm, 'getting acquainted with the pain', she says. She is a brilliant technician, dancing with absolute decisiveness – every pose distinct and distinctive. It all comes from a powerful centre; when you feel your balance going, she advises holding your arm out as if stopping a bus: the mundane, the comic, the sublime in one moment. Molina makes shapes no other dancer does – at one point it looks like choreographer Jiří Kylián doing flamenco.

'To dance I need to be sweaty and tired,' Molina says. Once the 'show' part begins, 'Calentamiento' goes off in wild directions: five singers appear in a neon box making silly noises; there are transformations, drama, satire, a pile of metal chairs, thumping bass. She wants a show that never ends – this one is two hours without an interval, but you stay with her. It's thrilling, curious, surprising, witty, and always stunning to watch her dance – punk spirit, precision craft. The Flamenco festival at Sadler's Wells in London continues until 29 June.