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Do you take on the directing, choreography and stage design like in your previous show?

There’s a collaboration by designer Óscar Mariné in the stage design. The stage design is very minimalist; it’s very subtle. The musical director is Paco Jarana and I do the choreography and artistic directing.

Do you feel comfortable in all those roles?

Eva Yerbabuena (Photo: José Luis Álvarez)

You’re always afraid, whether you take care of everything yourself or not. You like to know how. You create the show ‘Eva’ and you do it. When you see it finished, well then, you know it’s come out all right, but you don’t have solid knowledge of what stage directing is. Paco and I virtually sought out an order together; Raúl Perotti and Manu were there to give us a hand. Everything is commented on between us and we work a lot as a team. That’s a great help. But really, you ask yourself, how can I learn and how is that done. And we decided to have the collaboration of Hansel Cereza in that case. First you have to know what’s there and what’s not. After that, nobody better than you knows what they want and how they want it.

And what’s your method of work like with Paco Jarana, the musical director?

I start to bombard Paco. I’m a person who works a lot with pictures, like with a photographic memory. And at any moment, you don’t know when or how, a picture comes to mind and you see it on stage. You start off with that sort of photograph to develop. When there are several, I begin bombarding Paco like crazy. Out of telling him the show’s pictures so much, he named it. It always ends up that way. I tell him everything that occurs to me, he gradually absorbs it and creates the atmospheres. Then between the two of us, we try and put the choreography and music in order and link up the atmospheres.

Are his fingers already black like in ‘A cuatro voces’?

He doesn’t have any fingers left.

Does the company still have the same group?

Yeah. There’s a choreography participated in by Eduardo Lozano, a bailaor from Córdoba who’s now a dance coach in the company. And I’d like him to take part in a choreography, just like Patrick de Bana. All four cantaores are the same: Pepe de Pura, Enrique Soto, Rafael de Utrera and Jeromo Segura. I try to have variety in the cante and good people. I’m picky about that, and Paco’s even pickier than I am. He knows me better than anyone and knows what I need. That’s really clear. We try to have the best within what’s there and what we can have, because there are voices you’d love to have but you can’t.

What does it mean to you to open this season in which the Teatro de la Zarzuela celebrates its 150th anniversary?

I’m about to make a dream come true. There’s something I wrote in a notebook some time ago: every possibility, if it isn’t fulfilled, ends up being a dream. And this possibility is going to be fulfilled. I’m about to make one of my dreams in life come true: to be at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, not one day and sharing the stage, but ten days and with the absolute premiere of ‘Huso de la memoria’ and the premiere in Madrid of ‘A cuatro voces’.

Moreover, it isn’t labeled in the program as ‘flamenco’, but rather as ‘dance’. Is something changing?

To me, flamenco is dance; I’ve always said that. It seems strange to me that flamenco isn’t registered as dance. It’s one of the greatest cultures there is in dance. And I’m not going to change my mind; I think flamenco should be within dance.

You share this anniversary bill with dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch, whom you’ve collaborated with on several occasions...

	"I see that we’re starting to reap the fruit; it’s a really special moment"

I adore Pina Bausch artistically and personally; she’s one of my muses. I’ve had the privilege of meeting her personally. What can I tell you? I couldn’t have started off the year better, I really couldn’t. I thought Pina was coming to the (Teatro) Real and when I bumped into her here, I was... Double the honor, double the pleasure, double everything. I think it’s a year in which you see at all levels that everything is twice as good. I see that we’re starting to reap the fruit; it’s a really special moment.

And to round off the season, you’re also doing another assignment for the Spanish National Ballet (BNE) which also premieres at the Teatro de la Zarzuela. What’s the project?

That was another surprise. I was called recently by José Antonio – director of the BNE – and he proposed for me to create a choreography for the National Ballet and to be here dancing at the premiere. I said yes; I was really excited about it. There’s an idea I told him. Besides creating the choreography, he wants me to dance at the premiere. Choreographing is hard; it isn’t easy at all. And when you start choreographing for other people, you’re at it, you’re at it, and in the end you forget that you have to be there, too. It’s complicated, but we’re working on it. Besides, I can’t stop. I can’t leave the company, but we’ll try to be at the premiere.

Besides the premiere, you’re reviving ‘A cuatro voces’. To the contrary of what normally happens in flamenco, your company distinguishes itself by keeping alive all of its shows...

It’s a shame. You create a show and it’s never what it should be at the premiere. You see it, but it grows performance after performance. The more you do a show, the more you purge it. I hate to say that now I’ll stick this in a trunk and you forget about it. Besides, I think it’s interesting for people to know how your work develops chronologically.

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