Her dancing has all the aroma of the flowers from the neighbors' patios. Her fingers snap the naked compas of "unseemly expression". And her eyes only look towards the illustrious past: Farruco, Carmen Amaya and Antonio. Manuela Carrasco feels "saddened by today's way of dancing". For this reason she covers her gypsy skin with the typical dresses of the last century, to proclaim "This is how Seville dances!".

Manuela Carrasco continues to be one of the most magnetic dancers and because of this she has to spend countless hours in the studio. Her husband, Joaquín Amador, guides her steps with a peg-tuned guitar that exudes tradition. When an audience goes to see the couple, Amador's guitar is the first clue that they are about to witness the musical equivalent of a well-aged wine.

Manuela Carrasco (Photo: Anahí Cármody)

"I try to present the purest style and I want to bring to the stage the kind of dance that was done in Seville at the turn of the last century. This is why we dress in the old style, because I like to follow this line. If you don't appear on stage dressed like a flamenco, you're losing respect for the dance" says Carrasco. With this philosophy in mind, the company has worked out a show, which is divided in two parts. The first part begins with the caña, followed by taranto, alegrías - the latter by Rafael del Carmen - bulería por soleá, and seguiriya. And in the second part it's time for the dances of the Seville of communal patios, the "casas de vecinos": zapateado, tango, garrotín, tango de Málaga, bulería, alegría, and soleá. "I'm a flamenco dancer and I like to come out with a bata de cola, my hair in a bun, and some coral earrings, which is how you ought to dance", says Manuela giving an idea of the show's esthetic. With this approach, the Sevillian dancer wants to proclaim a traditional style that contrasts with the new tendencies: "You can evolve as long as you don't move away from flamenco. You can't go out to dance wearing a nightshirt with clasps the way men do today. I am one of the dancers who is maintaining flamenco. Farruco maintained it, but he's no longer with us, Güito maintains it, and very few others". In any case, for Manuela Carrasco the recent commercial tendency in flamenco dancing has its days numbered: "The time will come when the new way of dancing will end, because flamenco comes from the gut and from art. You can't go out and do kung-fu, which is what they're doing today, or dance like you're in a fashion show".

In this sense, she thinks that the art form needs shows like hers. "In the last Bienal there was a lack of first-class people who should have been there because they are the maestros of today's people. In dance, thank goodness there was Güito and Manolete. The Bienal ought to offer purity and the best of flamenco, and I think they respect flamenco more in Japan than right here".

HISTORY OF FLAMENCO

The anger she feels at watching certain shows is obvious. She has her own personal truth, carved in stone, and without knowing why, as a dancer, she now feels like a chicken in the wrong coop, "but I'm going to be remembered in the annals of flamenco - she says - and that's not going to happen to the others. People are beginning to realize that you have to dance for real, and if not, your number's up". Everything that Manuela says is seconded by Joaquín Amador who is practicing arpeggio with a damper, and he doesn't stop for a second. "We're tired of people who destroy flamenco" he says before recalling the legendary American night in '87 with Farruco, Chocolate, Fernanda y Bernarda...

Alberto García Reyes
Translation: Estela Zatania