Interview with Ángel Muñoz, bailaor:

"I like each student to leave happy
for having found himself"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, December 2002

"He who teaches learns twice". Ángel Muñoz teaches by learning, learns by teaching. The Cordoba-born bailaor has assimilated well the lessons of his maestros, from those given by Inmaculada Luque in the early days, to those of María Pagés - whom he accompanies as lead dancer in the company's international tour - including lessons by Javier Latorre, a turning point in his career. Now that he has also assumed the role of instructor, he tries to instill a love of music in his students as the support of movement, the technique necessary to control the body on stage, and above all the search for personality.

Photo: Daniel Muñoz

Not only did he assimilate the pillars of flamenco dancing through his mentor, Inmaculada Luque, "the first teacher I had in Córdoba", but also projected the career of a student with merit: "Instead of holding me in her arms forever like a lot of people would, when she thought that I had more to give and that I wasn't going to be able to with her, she encouraged me to study with other maestros". Roaming the Ommiad city was Javier Latorre, who recruited Ángel Muñoz, also a student of the Conservatory of Córdoba at that time, to include him in the show 'La fuerza del destino'. "It was really intense work, it was hard. I learned a great deal from him, since he's a tremendous maestro, though I don't think it was all that he could have taught me". The figure and form of his idol and maestro on stage made a lasting impression on him, as much as those of Antonio Gades, another of his references. Added to that are other lessons such as the anxiety "to hold up the body, the arms, to know how to use everything".

María Pagés is the third pillar set in the foundation of the dance of Ángel Muñoz, the lead dancer in her company. The Seville-born bailaora and choreographer, winner of the 2002 National Dance Prize, "has instilled discipline in me, which I didn't have a lot of - despite the fact that, as he says jokingly, Javier Latorre tried to straighten him out - and I can use it". He has learned with her "to go on knowing how to enjoy what is done. María is a natural born worker; she just keeps on going, she never stops trying to outdo herself day after day and she looks for the same thing in those surrounding her. She expects everyone to outdo themselves with her same zeal and her intention to move restlessly onward, until they find where they want to be".

Maestro of personality

Now that Ángel Muñoz is also a maestro, "what he looks for in his classes, as has been done with me, is to instill the necessary technique to enable having control of your body in order to move around on stage". But that is just the premise. The following step is personality: "From that point forward, I want each student to adapt any step to himself that we put together. Not everyone has to do it the way I do it; rather it must be natural. To the contrary, it would be OK to try to be the teacher dancing, but that's what I try to avoid. As a result, we should have the same step done by ten people in their own individual way; ten different steps. I like each student to leave happy for having found himself".

Ángel Muñoz already took care of finding himself. The bailaor from Córdoba contributes "the intention to be myself". And he defines himself as "quite orthodox". Although with the style of dancing "that I'm doing now with María Pagés I feel very comfortable, it doesn't fill me as much as orthodox flamenco". From the style of the company for which he is currently a solo bailaor "I also absorb a lot, I take it to my terrain. I try to take the most modern thing I do to flamenco, so that it has something special". On stage -whether it be with María Pagés, with Paco Peña or solo- that "special something" must turn into shared enjoyment: "When I'm dancing I try to enjoy what I'm doing as much as possible and I think that way I make those who are watching me enjoy it too. You have to try not to make them suffer". In his opinion, the key is "to give the most of yourself and not to hold anything back; give a hundred percent".

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