The Typist

Scottish Tour

February 2015

The launch production of a new dance theatre company, Kam-Ri, The Typist told the story of ‘los ninos’, the 4,000 children who were exiled from Franco’s Spain in 1936. Told through flamenco dance, video images by Tim Reid and a five piece band featuring a score composed by the legendary Pablo Suarez, the production featured choreography by gran maestro flamenco artist Javier Latorre.

Ben co-directed the production with Kerieva McCormick who also played the lead character Esperanza who finds her way back to Spain with the aid of a forger, played by leading flamenco dancer Raul Prieto

The production sold out three performances at the Arches and two at Traverse One and toured to Inverness, Stornoway, Cumbernauld and Musselburgh.

Allan Radcliffe, The Times

This sad, frequently emotive, at times surprisingly funny story is told through dance and live music…shows off the performers’ virtuosity in a way that is often spine-tingling. The flamenco singing of Olayo Jimenez inspires an urge to break into applause…the music, dance and visuals come together to create a remarkably successful piece of impressionistic storytelling that appeals to the emotions. Kam-Ri have lifted the lid on a fascinating and little-known historical episode. One can only wait with baited breath to see what they come up with next.

Tom Kyle, Daily Mail

Dance theatre of real quality. This company deserves to be seen by a much wider audience.

Lorna Irvine, Exeunt Magazine

There’s the thunderous, footstomping sensual defiance of love in the face of a brutal regime…flamenco is its own storytelling, and is magnificent. The rich phrasing of fluttering hands, clutching at hearts and a simple raised eyebrow in flirtation, as Esperanza finds a map to her lover, say so much in lieu of language…But it’s the universality of war that pricks the skin. Singer Olayo Jimenez roars and weeps his songs, and in one truly chilling scene is folded in a shroudlike shawl by McCormick as displaced families running for cover and fighter jets are projected onto McCormick. Two generations united in sorrow and hope…a warning from history, steeped in the eternal vocabulary of dance. The Typist… is as lucid and affecting statement of intent as the poetry of Siegfried Sassoon or more recently PJ Harvey’s The Words That Maketh Murder. Kam-Ri will surely develop into a vital company.