Manolo Marín, dancer, choreographer and teacher:

"Some of the bigger names -and the smaller ones- think that they've invented what they're doing, and that nothing existed before they came along"

Silvia Calado Olivo. Madrid, May 2002

Manolo Marín learned about flamenco dance in the school of life. "Looking in Enrique el Cojo's window, going to baptisms, to contests, doing footwork to the songs of Lola Flores and Manolo Caracol that I'd hear on the radio", and working. He paid for his first dance academy lessons "with the money I'd earned from dancing, after I was able to put food on my family's table every day." The bailaor, choreographer and teacher was born in Seville in the fateful year of 1936. Looking back, he acknowledges that "the artists of my generation were very talented, because none of us had any training. They used to make films for next to nothing. It's amazing". His dancing career is one of the most solidly built in flamenco, and he maintains his particular three-part artistic profile of dancer, choreographer and teacher because he is a born fighter, but also because he knows no other way: "Dancing is my life, my obsession... I have to dance. Fortunately, in my case, it's not a question of necessity, but I think that I'm going to keep doing this, just as long as I'm able to raise an arm. It's the only thing that really satisfies me, or what most satisfies me". He reflects on this three-part profile…

Manolo Marín (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The dancer: "Today, dancers have a lot more training, but sometimes not as much personality or feeling"

The choreographer: "There isn't much musicality to flamenco now; there's too much cajón and flamboyance"

The teacher: "A week-long course is simple; anyone can do it. But continuing with classes day after day and year after year..."

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