La Singla

Uno. Dos. Tres. Cuatro. Silence.

When Antonia Singla graced the stage, she did so without hearing the music. Born deaf to a Romani family in the suburbs of Barcelona, La Singla—as she would affectionately come to be called—rose to international acclaim by the age of 17. Quite literally moving to the beat of her own drum, La Singla’s pistol-like percussions were nothing short of revolutionary, gripping the world of flamenco with a dynamism never before experienced. But at the height of her fame, La Singla disappeared from the dance stage, leaving in her wake a scattered archival legacy of the world’s best bailaora.

Fifty years later, a young woman begins her search for Antonia, only to discover the seething roots of La Singla’s passion. Paloma Zapata’s hybrid film stunningly weaves the past and present together, expertly layering archival footage with passionate music and sound. A rapturous portrait of Antonia’s life, crystallized by the gaze of her admirers, La Singla is a riveting exploration of dance as expression, movement as experiment, and performance as rage.