Towards the end of the show, about 15 minutes before it ended, a spectator in the front row left the room. To do so, he had to walk along the edge of the stage, where the two artists were. And when he got to the door, he had a hard time opening it and getting out. So the eyes of the public and performers moved to that corner where the escape occurred.
Israel Galván and Marlene Monteiro Freitas, protagonists of the piece, began an improvisation without music at that moment. He, sitting; she, standing, slightly hunched in a frozen gesture. And both one and the other, picked up the banishment of the spectator, who became without intending it (or so we want to believe) the white elephant of Conde Duque. Galván made a light and complicit gesture (with the audience and even with the person who left), in that lax humor of which he is the owner and which raised (another) laugh in the stalls; and Monteiro, he had a fit of silent laughter that he tried to hold back. The episode lasted just a few seconds and did not even represent a fracture in the show. On the contrary, it served to strengthen the complicity between the public and the artists, who somehow, with that reaction of integrating what happened and reacting, were telling us with amusement: “ok, yes, we know, we understand that you are leaving. We continue.”
RI TE It gives off that aroma of mischief and play; of punk hooliganism that leads to confusion. That is to say, it collects the signs of the purest discourse of the dancer from Seville and the creator and dancer from Cape Verde. But it also stores the sophistication that comes with the knowledge of what is being crumbled. Defining the piece as a mere meeting for entertainment would not be fair at all, since we are faced with two creators who handle choreographic depth and reach entertainment after an intense pilgrimage that, of course, can be guessed.
Each one of them separately moves into irreverent territories of the scene. They also garner accredited recognition. And they champion an extremely personal approach that converges in that pinch of absurdity and even ugliness, which can lead to caricatured humor, sought after conscientiously. So finding Israel Galván and Marlene Monteiro together on stage, in this first collaboration, which premiered in 2024 and comes endorsed by the Teatro de la Ville and the Paris Autumn Festival (in France they have revered the dancer long before he was revered in this country), seems to make perfect sense.
The bodily idea that passes through RI TE It is the desacralization of popular culture traditions. The one that involves Galván, related to the flamenco in which he lives and the Seville of Holy Week and the fair, and the one originally from Monteiro Freitas, born in Cape Verde and living in Lisbon, trained in the legendary Belgian school PARTS. And how both of them commit this fabulous sacrilege, from the power of knowledge (of contemporary dance, of flamenco) and absolute freedom without any kind of regard.
Monteiro and Galván function as a dance and comedy couple. They communicate through movement and the deep research that each one develops in their trajectories, although the result may seem light. The caricature gesture, which both the choreographer and the dancer work in their speeches, and which causes confusion, here finds plenty of room to awaken all kinds of laughter, without fear of making mistakes. Knowing that what seems like a sketch It comes with layers and layers of meaning. And that weak laugh that can grab you in some moments of RI TEalso arrives with a unique and moving poetics.
The high moments of the show are achieved through the music that plays and refers to Andalusian and Cape Verdean popular music. For example, the sevillanas corraleras that they perform sitting down, each one approaching from the body fragmentation that they practice, the popular music of Cape Verde where a karaoke voice plays or the solemn, fun and moving, lyrical, unusual moment in which they interpret the famous Holy Week march.
The moments of silence, in which both artists relate from their bodies and the sounds they emit, lengthen and that is where the show falters, although without completely failing, thanks to that olé choked in Monteiro’s mouth that manages to come out with the help of the audience and of course Galván, capable of flamenco to the point of onomatopoeia. The extraction of the “olé” is repeated several times followed by a kiss gesture thrown into the air, by Galván, and a spit, by Monteiro, which structures this unusual communication between the two artists.
By the way, when the piece was shown at the Grec Festival in 2024, Monteiro’s spit reached a spectator in the front row who reacted with humor to the dancer’s distress, as reported in this newspaper.
With a row of flowers in the middle of her head, like a crest, flamenco boots for her, and pink rubber boots for him, RI TE It becomes an anthropological meeting of cultures and their corporeality, starring two of the most true and genuine creators of the scene. One of those pearls that are kept forever.
RI TE. Conception and dance: Marlene Monteiro Freitas and Israel Galván. Lighting and set design: Yannick Fouassier. Sound and technical direction: Pedro León. Production: Rosario Gallardo and Janine Lages. Conde Duque, Madrid. 50 minutes. March 21 and 22, 2026.