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It's striking that experiments are so heavily criticized in en era where we're
surrounded by outstanding neoclassical talent...
Antonio Canales in 'Noche de café cantante' (Photo:
Javier Hurtado)
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Such pure flamenco emanates from styles as diverse as that of Juan de Juan,
simply electrifying; of Farruquito, based on family tradition; or of Campallo,
which is like a classy Sevillano style. As for cante, there are
vocalists like El Gallo de Morón; it'd be a crime not to mention Arcángel,
he's amazing, a divine soul and a great artist who uses another kind of flamenco,
with echoes of Morente but also tinged with a Huelva style; and then there's Potito...
There you have three different approaches within el baile and three within el
cante, it's pretty impressive. Then you always have your Rafael Amargo character
in every era, a glamorous figure, a prêt-a-porter persona, straight
out of a glossy magazine or a gossip column... they were also around in my time.
And they're important too - they win over that part of the market that likes to
see a society figure... I like to see flamenco getting everywhere. Flamenco
light has its role to play, easy-listening music, so conceited, so irritating.
Then there are more serious artists who are making a healthy contribution even
to contemporary music. I mean we couldn't forget Eva Yerbabuena or Israel Galván,
they're artists who are exploring, sometimes people can relate to them and sometimes
not, but they're innovators. They rub shoulders with the top people, with theater
directors - they're the ones we stand to learn most from, we take it on board
and translate what they're doing into the language of dance. Flamenco has nothing
to fear, even if some do consider that Baras or Cortés or Canales have
lost their mind.
One of your forthcoming projects is 'Ojos verdes'. What have you got in
store for us?
It's a show inspired by the poet Fernando Villalón. The title refers
to the green-eyed bull he was constantly searching for. In the end I think he
stuck with the aristocracy of Seville, because he knew he could never find a bull
with green eyes. He was a great man and I love to revive the work of those Seville
poets from la generación del '27. He stands out from the rest because
he was a cowherd, he sat in a cave with a toad and a pig, he went to the Doñana
Natural Reserve to see the breadth of the Guadalquivir... He was nuts. I started
taking an interest in his life because I think he stuck around with that group
and he kept all his mother's money - she was a duchess - and his father's too
- he was a count - as well as all the land he owned around where the Betis stadium
is.
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Antonio Canales in 'Bailaor'
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
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Camarón sang his lyrics sometimes: "¡Islas del Guadalquivir!
/ donde se fueron los moros / que no se quisieron ir" (Islands in the
Guadalquivir, where the Moors who didn't want to leave sought refuge) Maybe Camarón
was trying to find his inspiration, that impossible quest for a bull with green
eyes. The piece will be premièred in September when it opens the season
at Seville's Teatro Lope de Vega where we're the resident company. I'll also be
putting on 'Bernarda Alba' again.
And you've also been juggling some other commitments with nothing whatsoever
to do with flamenco - with the movie industry.
There are two films. On the one hand I'm starting to shoot a film with Santiago
Tabernero. And on the other, we're working on the script of a film by Randa Haines,
who directed 'Dance with me', together with Patrick Swayze. It's an American movie
that'll be shot in L.A., Almería and Barcelona. Patrick Swayze acts and
produces; he and I play the roles of two brothers...
As in the film 'Vengo', you don't play a bailaor, you're an actor.
In Tabernero's film I play the role of a guy with a stammer, and I'm working
on it now, even though it's k-k-killing me (he stammers). And in the other
one I speak English and I'm one of two brothers, US Marines, who take shore leave
from their aircraft carrier in Barcelona, hire a moped and go down to Almería
in search of their roots... It's my first experience with American cinema and
I'm taking it very seriously. It's hard because they pay salaries that are almost
unheard of in Spain, but they're on top of you, they send you for all these medical
checks, a whole lot of stuff...
Is it possible to do everything well then, Antonio?
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"You can't do everything well... I'm a bailaor, that's my innate
talent, my raison d'être, and maybe that's why I can afford myself the luxury
of doing this other stuff"
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Like a Renaissance man? Like Leonardo da Vinci? That's pretty tricky. No, you
can't do everything well. I think I'm a bailaor, that's my innate talent,
my raison d'être, and maybe that's why I can afford myself the luxury
of doing this other stuff. Of course I might have talent for doing a lot of things.
And I think we all have talent for doing a lot of things, but we don't have the
courage to take the plunge. If we tried, we'd see that some things worked out
and some didn't. Maybe you don't have the same talent you have for the area where
you channel most of your energy, but there are things that you might have a flair
for. There are other things I'm terrible at: painting for instance. I mean I could
paint my house, but that's it - even my daughter paints better. All the young
guys from the Company and my family, they all laugh at me, ask me where I've hidden
the painting. The truth is I'm better at choreography, I can more or less write
well - I've got my strengths and limitations in each discipline - but where I
shine is as a bailaor.
You've been known to put pen to paper. In fact you published your musings
on Carmen Amaya at Flamenco-world.com...
I started writing when I came to Madrid. It was like a diary where I wrote
about how cold it was, the difficulties I encountered... After a while the same
thing happened as with all diaries - I either lost them or just didn't finish
them. But I built up a collection of all these writings. When I began to write
more seriously, I started to dig out all those things I'd written - twenty years'
worth of nonsense. You can't imagine some of the stuff I wrote, but as I started
reading and getting into literature I started to write about bullfighting, I wrote
the bullfighting novel. I started taking delight in the words of writers I love.
I can't dance with words the way you journalists do, but I like to give it a try.
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