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The way you've prepared the show by working on the poems over the table with the bailaores has been peculiar...

I think it's something indispensable. If you want to tell feelings that you've had, images that you see when you read a poem, they have to know what you've read, why you've felt that. And it's very interesting for me to know what they feel. You shouldn't get up on stage to tell something without knowing what they're telling. They're a part of me on stage. It would be absurd for me to be soaking up biographies, anecdotes and poems, and them there without even knowing why they're there. What better way could there be to do it. It's interesting to know which poems catch their eye more, make they themselves more interested in looking up further information... Then, when you start putting together the show from top to bottom, they have their opinion, they have say and their educated vote. I've never supported dancing for the sake of dancing. I think all the people who have a chance to get up on stage have to tell something. We all well know that there are people who do so for other reasons...

Nor is enough attention always paid to the lyrical contents being sung...

It's not easy. In this case, Horacio's work has been fantastic. Besides being family of mine, he's a person I have a friendship with and something very special. He's an artist, he's a poet; he sees things from other points of view, feels things a different way, has a different sensitivity and when you start talking to him... He's had interviews with other poets; some who are still here, others who are no longer here, some who have had some relationship with Vicente Aleixandre, who knew Lorca... And the work of sitting him down here with the three cantaores is an incredibly enriching experience both for him and for us. I think what we flamencos need deep down is to culturalize ourselves as much as possible. And it's a beautiful way to do so by creating a show and soaking yourself up in that which inspires it.

We're seeing an unceasing coming and going of people in the rehearsal hall. What phase are you in now?

Nobody's missing today. We had to stop dancing for one day. You need all the time. We talk to the scenographer, take measurements, send the kids to Jerez to see the person who's doing the wardrobe and they have to try things on... And we lose a day for everything. Right now we're looking at the scenography ideas. I started off with one idea, but as you go along working, you see other needs. You have to close what scenography you want, what you want to say...

Is the scenography going to have the so avant-garde style of ‘La voz del silencio’ (‘The Voice of Silence’)?

The truth is when that happens, you don't even think about it. You don't make a show with the intention of creating something avant-garde. I never think about it. If things pop up it's because they have to pop up, but I believe that this is a... very poetic show. (She smiles)

Eva Yerbabuena

You don't want to tell anything, do you?

No. In time you realize that when you have an idea and you tell it to people before it's been carried out, they already have a fixed notion. It's like when you read a book and afterwards you see the film; you've already imagined your own characters and so you don't like it. I just want it to be known that it's a show inspired in these four poets, whose order of appearance in the show remains unannounced, and let each person imagine what he wants.

You aren't aiming for it to be a closed show...

No, not at all. Everything's been popping up on the spot. We're going to try for there not to be any of their poems or as few as possible. Nearly all the poems are written by Horacio. For now, there is a sure one by Lorca, ‘Asesinato’, which Miguel Poveda will sing... although it might be ruled out when he starts to work with the cantaor.

The company's three cantaores are there -Segundo Falcón, Enrique Soto and Pepe de Pura- and Miguel Poveda as a guest. Why him?

I like him a lot. I think he's a huge professional. I love what he does; he's open to everything and I love him as a person. The truth is that I've wanted to work with him for some time now.

Will you include this show in your repertoire once it's premiered and go on with the previous shows?

As long as there's a demand for them, of course. The more you work on ‘5mujeres5’, the more you purge. When you squeeze, squeeze and squeeze, what's left in the end is essence. I think that's what happens with the shows. I don't like to say no, unless it's impossible to do.

And these aren't times of putting together shows every day, are they?

	"You can't put together shows like hotcakes"

It's really hard. You can't put together shows like hotcakes. There are times that for whatever reason, from a conversation, from reading something, a little light bulb lights up and you say “OK, this is it”. But having to do a show by obligation would be horrible. There'll be years when it doesn't pop up; I guess there'll come a time when I feel like stopping and resting a little bit. Besides, I'm dying to have a child; I have to take my time and I'll do it. My daughter Manuela is dying to have a brother or sister and it's the only thing the poor girl's asked for.

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