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What’s the tablao like for
a young bailaor nowadays? Is it still hard?
It hasn’t been so hard for me; I’ve
been lucky. I’ve worked at places where it’s
comfortable to work. I went to some of those absolutely
depressing tablaos and when I saw that I was going to have
to spend what I’d earned on a psychologist, I quit.
I’m lucky to be from Madrid, I’ve lived with
my parents for a long time and I didn’t have that
necessity like many other colleagues. I’ve always
worked and looked for ways but if I saw that it wasn’t
working, I gave it up and sought something else. And then
at the tablaos where I’ve worked the longest at a
time, you dance; you don’t go there just to be present.
I really miss the tablao. In January I was at El Cordobés
for a month and the truth is that I really felt like it.
For many years I was a bailaora who danced every night,
and it was hard when that was broken. But now I think it’s
necessary; you can’t burn up that energy every day
which you need for other projects. And I indulge in my little
whims every now and then. Now I use the tablao as a laboratory.
I’m thinking about new ideas and I test them. Now
I’ll do it at Casa Patas, I’ll go alone, I want
to display new ideas, record myself… It’s that
laboratory point, I go for just a week, I satisfy the itch.
I don’t want to dance alone at theaters, that magic
you have so up close, the improvisation … it’s
wonderful.
Highlighting your recent collaborations
are the ones with Dospormedio & Cía. in ‘Flamenco
XXI’ and in ‘Sonata’...
Very important in my life. Rafael Estévez
and I have known one another all our lives. In a way, he’s
been a maestro for me. For a time, like ten years ago, we
used to spend a lot of time together, we were inseparable,
we were always putting together things… well, he was
always putting together things that I was learning. He taught
me a great deal of theory to do with flamenco cante and
dance. Now there’s been a very real re-encounter and
I learn a lot from them; they’re very interesting
people. Out of the two shows, I feel that I’ve learned
more in ‘Sonata’ than in ‘Flamenco XXI’.
I was a guest artist in the latter and they brought me out
at very specific moments; I didn’t get so involved
in everything to do with the show. In ‘Sonata’
I told them to knock off the nonsense, that I wanted to
dance. And I’ve learned a lot, it’s a hard show.
It’s a shame it’s only been done once. And I
love that side of Nani
Paños as more of a dancer, of positioning yourself,
of stretching, that which we sometimes lose when going upwards.
Right now they’re a very important pillar for me.
We have our space and our career, but at the same time we’re
always there.
Besides flamenco, what influences
you, what keeps you occupied?
Right now I’m influenced a lot by
movies; at home it’s my daily bread. For the colors,
esthetics and narrative, movies help me a lot. I love going
to the countryside and I’d love to live in the country;
I hate this. And sewing relaxes me a great deal…
In fact, your wardrobe is designed
and made by you…
I did part of the wardrobe for ‘Algo’.
The bata de cola, for the rondeña, ‘Fugaz’,
the martinete. Everything except ‘Algo’, since
as I premiered it at the Contest, that period was very hard
for me and I didn’t feel like it. I have to do it
to relax, not out of haste or obligation; that gets on my
nerves. You start doing it, you put on a little music and
the process is interesting. When they sew for me I have
to go with a very clear idea because when my measurements
are taken and I leave the fabric, that person has to do
what I’ve asked. But when I do it myself it has nothing
to do in the end with what I’d thought of at the beginning.
I cut something and then it starts to transform. I’m
working on a dress now and where it’s going is a complete
mystery. I buy fabrics and then I don’t know very
well how it’ll end up. I’m halfway self-taught.
My mother has a dance store for schools and festivals, something
very amateur. And I started sewing there out of boredom.
I would sometimes even stay at the store on a Saturday when
I was a little older. I remember listening to the first
album by Mayte
Martín all the while. I’d grab a piece
of cloth, one of the cheapest kind so that my mother wouldn’t
scold me, I’d take off my sweater, put it on top and
I’d cut it out. And when my mother saw I was interested
in it, she started to instruct me a little, because at first
I did a terribly botched job.
That interest has ended up being
a part of your shows…
It’s something really mine. That
store has always been there; I’ve always been surrounded
by fabrics. And it surely has to do with the wardrobe being
more personal.
You have a show of your own, you
have important awards, you have rave reviews … And
what now?
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“Despite
the Revelation Prize at Festival de Jerez and the
excellent reviews, I’m at home sewing a dress
and teaching classes at Amor de Dios” |
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Now someone can please give me a grant.
Despite the Revelation Prize at Festival de Jerez and the
excellent reviews, I’m at home sewing a dress and
teaching classes at Amor de Dios. I can’t go and ask
for a grant in Andalusia because I’m from Madrid and
they aren’t going to give it to me. They’ve
even stopped calling me for some programs because I’m
Madrilenian and because that money is for companies situated
in Andalusia. They don’t help me in Madrid, either.
It isn’t that they have to give me a grant because
I’m from here; if they have to give it to me it’s
because I deserve it. But this city should look out more
for its own. There’s a very small circuit and they’re
always the same people. Of course, if you’re part
of the circuit you’re happy and you never complain.
The Madrid Festival appears once again, and another year
that they don’t count on me. What now? Well, I’ll
have to work hard again to get money and get involved again
in a job. I already lost quite a bit of money to put together
and premiere ‘Algo’. But I saw it as an investment.
Now do you have to save again in order to lose it again
and keep going on like that forever?
The
bata de cola according to Concha Jareño
Silvia Calado. Madrid, April 2009
Concha Jareño
is one of the few young bailaoras specialized
in handling the bata de cola. Precisely, right
now she’s teaching a handful of students
the basic technique, a really unusual course.
The gist of the question, as the Madrilenian
maestra has concluded, is “to have good
reflexes”. And the thing is that, in her
point of view, “even having unsurpassable
technique, then when you dance the same situation
never repeats itself”. There are many
factors: “If the floor is slippery, the
bata slides in such a way that you can’t
control it. If the floor is like sandpaper,
the bata gets stuck to it. If the bata is like
a skirt and fits you at the waist, it’s
different than if it’s a dress since when
you raise you arms you no longer have that weight”.
As Jareño affirms, “there are a
great many things that make each day with the
bata de cola an entire world”. Now then,
you have to assimilate the base really well:
“The bata’s technique is important.
There are a few rules, because that’s
the way it is, and if they’re very clear
to you then it’s just a question of your
creativity. There are just a few kicks, but
then you have to know where and why in each
place”.
She learned them
from Sevillian maestra Yolanda Heredia. “She
gave me some wonderful classes and I was good
at it from the start. I went for a couple of
weeks, I gave it up because I couldn’t
pay for so many things, and one day walking
down the hall she told me I had to go to her
class even if I didn’t pay. And I learned
to move the bata de cola for free. I say so
very thankfully”. She went from being
her student to her colleague. She took part
in the show ‘Mujeres al borde de una bata
de cola’. “When it was presented
at the Choreography Contest it was the first
time I’d worn a bata de cola up on stage”.
Then came ‘Y una batita de cola’,
but an injury in the sound test kept her from
performing it: “I got sad because after
all the rehearsals, I seriously injured my neck
and I couldn’t dance. I couldn’t
move for two months, I came back from Los Angeles
with my neck paralyzed”. And it was caused
by the physical toughness involved with the
bata de cola. “Now I’m perfectly
fine, but I take good care of myself. I wear
batas that weigh very little and I choose the
lightest fabrics. I do use the ones with a big
train, because if they’re small I don’t
have enough bata, but which weigh just enough”.
That setback
never stopped her from plunging into baile with
a bata de cola. A matter which isn’t easy
at all. As Concha affirms, “there are
many professionals who are afraid of the bata
de cola”. And in fact, Eva Yerbabuena
herself confessed so to this magazine in an
interview when she was preparing ‘El huso
de la memoria’. However, Concha Jareño
has it completely interiorized. “I don’t
know, I think each person has something he’s
good at because it comes naturally to him. There
might be people who have marvelous footwork
and they don’t work on it. I feel like
the bata were a part of me, as if it were my
arm or my leg”.
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