Shakespeare’s Globe is staging Love’s Labour’s Lost with a strong flamenco influence, led by director Indiana Lown-Collins, who believes the art form matches the play’s themes of passion, desire and death. She says the Globe’s acoustics and oak stage make it an ideal setting for flamenco, and chose the comedy because its emotional intensity and Spanish setting lend themselves naturally to that style. The production also uses flamenco to emphasise the strength of the play’s women, presenting them as a force that disrupts and overtakes a male court.

Most of the cast are not trained flamenco dancers, with only two professionals involved, so the rest are undergoing a three-hour daily rehearsal “bootcamp” under choreographer Carmen Igarza. The article describes how heeled boots, music and movement are reshaping the actors’ performances, giving them more swagger, posture and physical confidence. Lown-Collins contrasts this with what she sees as a more restrained British attitude to the body, arguing that flamenco helps release the emotions the male characters try to suppress until they finally erupt.