Javier Latorre, bailaor and choreographer. Interview

“Flamenco's successful no matter what you do
and that makes creators drop anchor”

Silvia Calado. Seville, October 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

Javier Latorre's production line has gone berserk. In a single season, he has choreographed ‘El Loco’ for the Spanish National Ballet, put together the dancing for the musical ‘Los Tarantos’ and done the show ‘Triana, en el nombre de la rosa’ for his own company. In a world where creation is dished out in small doses, he insists on considering himself to be “one-eyed in the land of the blind”. Since he made his manifesto public three years ago, he says he sees that the flamenco dancing scene hasn't changed; even “people who used to do more interesting things years ago than the ones they're doing now”; and even references that the new generation is losing. At the same time he weighs up the first two years of his company's existence, he announces upcoming projects, among them, the choreography for an English film and a version of Jean Cocteau's ‘Les enfants terribles’ in Paris. “I'll die learning”.

Javier Latorre

This has been a more than productive season: ‘El Loco’, ‘Los Tarantos’ and ‘Triana, en el nombre de la rosa’.

They've been three completely different shows in conception, in the number of people, even in the budget, and all three equally appealing. I'd prepared the year to put on ‘Triana’ from April to July and ‘Los Tarantos’ from July to September, but in early April I was called by Elvira Andrés, then director of the Spanish National Ballet (BNE) - now, again, José Antonio -, she had me do the show ‘El Loco’ and who can say no? It's been a hard year because from April to July I was living in Madrid from Monday to Friday, putting together ‘El Loco’, and Saturday and Sunday in Córdoba, doing ‘Triana’. It's been a little bit crazy, but all right.

Let's go in order. How would you present ‘El Loco’?

‘El Loco’ was the first show I started putting together this year. It's the story of Félix Fernández García, a Sevillian bailaor at the beginning of the 20th century who was met by Diaghilev, Massine and Tamara Karsavina, of the Russian Ballets of Montecarlo. They saw him dance at the Novedades Café in Seville; they were amazed by his dancing, especially his farruca. They took him to London, where they were going to put on ‘The Three-Cornered Hat’ by Falla. History is not the one to tell us so, but he probably believed they were taking him to play the role of the ‘miller’ and when he realized there that it was going to be Massine, he ran out into the streets of London, reached Trafalgar Square, went into Saint Martin in the Fields Church and danced ‘The Miller's Farruca’ on the altar till he collapsed from exhaustion. He was taken, admitted and died 27 years later at the insane asylum in Epson.

‘El Loco’ is a love story about a guy and dancing... what I've been trying to carry out all my life. But I wouldn't like to end up the same way. It's a very nice story if you're not the main character. It's been incredible work. This year I've got a master with the people I've worked with: a master's degree in management with Paco López, a man with a great work capacity, and complicity with musicians and dancers; the music has been by Mauricio Sotelo, by Cañizares and of course, by Manuel de Falla; marvelous stage design and wardrobe by Jesús Ruiz; and involvement on behalf of the BNE dancers that I wasn't expecting. I think we managed to bring them into the same line as us and we enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Judging by the show's magnitude, is this the greatest professional challenge you've ever come up against?

I don't know; I see it like paellas. When I'm eating paella and somebody tells me that the one I ate three months ago was better, the thing is that I don't even remember the one from back then. For me each job is very important and I deal with it as if it were the first one. Then, if we talk about technical difficulty, difficulty in telling a story... well then yes, ‘El Loco’ has been very hard to tell. But if you ask me about another level, in ‘Los Tarantos’ we've worked with nineteen artists, all of them dancers who had never sung and danced on stage in their lives, except Ana Salazar. And that was miraculous work. The merit of ‘El Loco’ is different; it's telling a story of that caliber as seen through a distorted mind and for the people to understand it, I mean, for people to go crazy at the same time as the character does so on stage. And we also faced the difficulty of changing the BNE's public image.

	Javier Latorre

Artistically, ‘Los Tarantos’ has been an amazing challenge. We put together the first flamenco musical in history in six weeks with people who had never spoken (on stage) or sung in their lives. We all know that Ana Salazar sings and dances very well and, moreover, she spoke very well. But the big surprise was Carmelilla Montoya, who plays the role of the mother, the one that Carmen Amaya did in the film, and that was a surprise from day to day in the evolution of the role, getting into it, seeing her with fevers, getting pimples, going mute... Amazing. And ‘Triana, en el nombre de la rosa’ has been a real pleasure; my personal little whim this year has been to recover part of my life's soundtrack. And each one... You can't ask me which of my two daughters I love more! I could also speak wonders of ‘Penélope’, the show I did for the Murcia Ballet, or the previous one, or the one before that. Each one is a challenge in its own way.

And how do you manage to do such different shows simultaneously?

Above all, with ‘El Loco’ and ‘Triana’, I did have a hard time changing gears mentally, but I try to put each show in watertight compartments. And the truth is that I got to ‘Los Tarantos’ very tired both physically and mentally, but on seeing people's reaction, the great directing work by Emilio Hernández, the music by Chicuelo and the collaboration of Tomatito... on seeing the people mixed up in it up to their necks, the only thing you can do is get just as mixed up in it, up to your neck.

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