Interview with Hiniesta Cortés, bailaora:

"I have to take baile flamenco forward, to take the plunge, even if it means making mistakes"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Seville, October 2002
Translation: Gary Cook

Like many children in Andalusia, she started dancing very young, but like not so many she chose to make a professional career out of it. Hiniesta Cortés served her apprenticeship on the tablao circuit, and matured in great companies like Mario Maya's and Cristina Hoyos's. She was also Antonio Gades's former artistic partner and it was he who, acting as her mentor, gave her a chance to be one of the greats... And she decided to go it alone. 'Malena', a show which was premièred at Seville's Biennial Flamenco Festival in 2002, is her first stage production, a Manichean work in which she defends and defines her truly flamenco style, making her feel "more at one with myself than ever before."

	Hiniesta Cortés. "Malena"

Hiniesta Cortés graduated from the tablao circuit. What did you bring away with you from that schooling?

What I learnt from those days was art - I was surrounded by amazing artists. One of them was Angelita Vargas, with that same flavor she still professes, and she impressed me being such a young girl - her head, her truly flamenco composure. El Mimbre was pure inspiration. If we asked him what we were going to do he'd say, "Let's see what comes up." He taught you a lot about speed, about resourcefulness. And that's what working on the tablao taught you: resourcefulness. You learn to adapt to the fact that today one guy might be singing for you and tomorrow it'll be someone else, that today the guitarist's son is sick and he's so busy worrying about it that he doesn't even look at you... And you just have to get on with it. Those venues, besides exposing you to a different kind of audience, give you an important foundation - you dance all kinds of style and you're accompanied by all kinds of people. The tablaos are something really important to me, but I've moved on from that now. Afterwards I moved into dance Companies, and there I learnt different kinds of things: to be in a theater, lights, diagonals, discipline, schedules, greeting the audience differently. You always learn something from whatever you do.

And in the dance companies, the two figureheads were Mario Maya and Cristina Hoyos...

And once you've learnt a style of doing things you can't shake it off. Mario took a group of youngsters, strictly flamenco all of us, and he had us doing pirouettes, doing bar work, stretching on the floor, walking around the stage, telling stories on stage without having to dance. He taught that type of things to people who'd never known anything but dancing. Mario taught us to see the broader picture and that was difficult with people whose vision was so narrow and so focused on flamenco. It was all about learning how to be on stage, to perform diagonals, to keep your place, to not block out whoever's behind you, to not move out of the light, to keep away from the edge...

With Cristina I was already on my mission, I felt like I already had ability. I've also worked with her longer and harder. Cristina's taught me a lot both personally and professionally. Just by looking on you can learn a lot, things that you take on board yourself without even realizing it.

And you're embarking on a solo career with 'Malena'...

Since leaving the company I'd danced here and there, but I wanted to present a project at Seville's Biennial Festival, a tribute to a bailaora whom I greatly admired, but I don't want to reveal her name so as not to show her in a negative light. José Luis Ortiz Nuevo wrote a piece about a woman, which more or less is her, but with the name Malena, any name. The piece is a homage to so many artists who've succumbed to so many weaknesses, some to alcohol, some to drugs, some to other kinds of things… Artists to whom something's happened in their lives that's made them run for shelter, taking decisions and giving in to weaknesses that have got the better of them, cut them down and taken away their ability to fight.

Hiniesta Cortés

How did you find the new experience of creating a show?

Phew. It's horrible, you're taking knocks one after the other. I'd never tried it and the truth is that now I have much more respect for the work of people who struggle to set up a show. You can't switch off from the moment you get up till the moment you go to bed. It's an enormous effort, but the rewards are also great, most of all the applause you receive. The critics sometimes forget all the effort that's gone into it. A healthy critic should help people to change, not put them down after all the work they've done. And not just the star of the show, but all the others who have to move from one place to another, put up with days of rehearsals and eat a lot of fast food.

In the piece there's a theme of indecision: "Entre dos vereas iguales, yo no sé cuál escoger" (Between two identical paths, I don't know which to choose). Is this your personal quandary too?

I feel that dilemma too. I think all artists feel that dilemma. I've learned and I've worked my way to this point, but a lot of negative things have happened to me. I injured my knee dancing, I had an operation and I was out of action for a year, then after that I injured the other leg. And I think an artist is particularly sensitive to those rough patches life can bring your way. I have my ups and downs, indecision. Should I try this or that? And in the end you just take the plunge - and you learn, even if it means making mistakes. I'm very much aware that I have to take baile flamenco forward, I can't stand still, you have to just take the plunge even if you risk drowning.

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