Andrés Marín, bailaor. Interview

“I'm never going to perform a kind of music the same because I'm not a doll, I'm a person”

Silvia Calado. Seville, October 2004

Asymmetry, three, the uneven. Andrés Marín takes a step forward in his professional career. After consolidating ‘Más allá del tiempo’ (‘Beyond Time’) with over sixty galas, he premieres the new show ‘Asimetrías’ (‘Asymmetries’), describing it as “elegant, direct, not at all pretentious”. In his opinion, “they're sensations I have about flamenco, which I like in all its facets, as I want to show”. And to do so, he surrounds himself with three guitarists, three cantaores and three bailaoras, all of whom have an outstanding role in the show. Most of the creative weight falls upon the shoulders of ‘tocaores’ Salvador Gutiérrez, Canito and Antonio Rey, “since I wanted to see the guitarists' personalities and, at the same time, adapt my dancing to each one, not to dance it all along the same lines”. That is possible because Andrés Marín declares himself “a non-academic bailaor”, which has made him more than one enemy. And it turns out to be inevitable for him to change attitudes: “I'm never going to perform a kind of music the same because I'm not a doll, I'm a person”.

	Andrés Marín

He reacts the same way with cante. It won't be the same to dance to El Londro as to José Valencia or to Encarna Anillo, the voices of ‘Asimetrías’. The challenge is “not to adapt the cante to the dancing, but just the opposite; to adapt the dancing to the cante”. It therefore doesn't follow the usual procedure; the bailaor does not lead, but rather “they sing the lyrics for me and I try to finish off inside or I'm going to try and seek another color for it... within my possibilities”. Although, as is obvious in the show, he has a varied taste, one cantaor stands out among his references: Pepe Marchena. “I love his way of understanding the melody”. The Sevillian cantaor, insulted by flamencology but respected and followed by cantaores of different generations, is very present in ‘Asimetrías’.

Andrés Marín upholds that “he had courage at a time when he wasn't accepted and I think he was a little ahead of his time, but in a natural way... even in his extravagance”. And he recovers the milonga and the taranto from him, since “in levante cantes I think he was a genius; he didn't use to sing to the mines, but to love, to the sweetest things, to women”. In the show, this number is a dance for two with bailaora Úrsula López - a soloist of the Andalusian Dance Company - who, upon remaining alone, dramatizes lyrics by cantaor Marchena, with all the fitting sensuality: “Te compro con el refajo, unas enaguas de azulina” (“With the petticoat, I'll buy you a cornflower underskirt”). The work of this young talent of female dancing has gone a little bit further. “She's been my right hand in the choreography of the alegrías for three dresses with a train. I provided the structure and she did the train movements because women have to be allowed their place; we men can't do what we aren't cut out for”. The result has been a very visual, very dynamic, very sensual piece, performed by Úrsula López, Leonor Leal and Elena Algado, all three attired in yellow flamenco dresses with a train.

‘Asimetrías’ also includes a tribute to the poets sung most in flamenco, those of the Generation of '27. An entire piece of the show does without dancing in order for three couples consisting of cantaor and guitarist to evoke, respectively, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti and Federico García Lorca. “The poetry is very powerful, visceral and has a lot to do with flamenco in its vindicative tone”. Andrés Marín wants, moreover, to relate different forms of music and cante to each poet's use of symbols. “On listening to Encarna Anillo, who has her air of Cádiz, I thought she'd go well with Alberti; that José Valencia would sound good with Lorca, who was so inspired by the gypsies; and that the melancholy tone of El Londro would match with Miguel Hernández”. The added value is the type of cantes chosen, many of them unusual in today's repertoires: jaberas, Charamusco soleá, Vizconde fandango, Lucena fandangos, Córdoba alegrías... To the extent that there is practically a research project on cante behind this show. And the thing is that, as the bailaor points out, “in my creations there's only cante, music and dancing... for the time being”. And the wrapping is made only of lighting. If in ‘Más allá del tiempo’, Dominique You created the intimate ambience required by the show, in ‘Asimetrías’ “the lighting - designed by Francis Mannear, who has worked for the Maurice Béjart Company - has a fresher tone”.

Immediately after its premiere at Seville's 2004 Bienal de Flamenco, where it was one of the few shows that sold out, ‘Asimetrías’ has begun an international tour in France. After performing at Banlieu Scéne Nationale in Annecy, St. Quentin in Yvelines and Narbonne, it is to make a stop at Lyon's La Maison de la Danse from November 17th to 20th, 2004, a stage also visited this season by such prestigious companies as those of Merce Cunningham, Maurice Béjart and Blanca Li. And that demonstrates the heights Andrés Marín has reached since founding his own company two seasons ago. He weighs things up more than positively in this period. “I find myself more mature now, with fewer doubts and, little by little, better understood by people”. This is the result of work which, he assures, he does “from humility and simplicity”, simply with the aim to “dance what I feel”.

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