Mercedes Ruiz, flamenco bailaora. Interview

“Eva Yerbabuena taught me you have
to love the artform above all else”

Carlos Sánchez. Seville, May 2006
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Young, restless and cheerful. Sincere, outgoing... and a bailaora since she’s had the power of reasoning. Jerez-born bailaora Mercedes Ruiz combines the baile of her land with the technique and wisdom of current trends. She has a pure style which has been sketched out over the years, with the experience of her stay at companies as important as those of Manuel Morao and Eva Yerbabuena. One day she decided she wanted to go her own way, and she left behind the servitude of a company’s baile in order to fly solo. Following her success at the Córdoba Contest and Seville’s Bienal, the artist from the San Miguel neighborhood put together her own company, with which she’s already premiered two shows and is designing the next one, ‘Juncá’.

Mercedes Ruiz (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

There’s no flamenco tradition in your family. Where does your interest come from?

I don’t know. I think you have to be born with flamenco. Since I was born, I’ve felt flamenca. My mother recalls that ever since I was a little girl, I used to move my wrists and dance. As long as I’ve had the power of reasoning, I’ve known I wanted to dance. It’s my life.

Did your parents see something in you?

Yeah. My parents like flamenco. My mother saw that I felt lured to baile and she took my sister and me to an academy to see if we really liked it. My sister didn’t like it, but I kept on dancing.

You danced professionally at the mere age of six, didn’t you?

Yeah. The good times started there. I’ve been lucky enough to hear the best ones sing thanks to being near Manuel Morao. He was an essential pillar in the early stages of my career. In that era, I was lucky enough to hear María Soleá and uan Moneo ‘El Torta’.

Who was your first maestra?

She was a lady called Pilar. I began dancing with her, but then my maestra was Ana María López of Peña Los Cernícalos for seven years.

What did you learn from Manuel Morao?

He taught me everything. There were four of us little girls with him. We used to dance a little bit of bulerías and tangos there, but we had to be up on stage. And you used to learn a lot from that. He taught us a lot of discipline and knowing how to listen to cante. He was really on top of us. I think I got used to good things because the best ones used to work there. Morao has been fundamental in my career.

And from El Pipa?

Antonio was in the Manuel Morao Company at the same time as I was. Later, he set up his own company and called me. And he taught me to know how to be up on stage. He’s a very polite person who knows how to be at places. At that time I was already at the Conservatory of Seville, since I needed positioning in baile. When I left the Manuel Morao Company I though I was the queen, but I realized I wasn’t positioned. I’d see other bailaoras on television who were positioned and I sensed I had to correct that. Around that period, Sevillian dancer Raquel Romero opened a Spanish dance academy and my mother encouraged me to sign up. When I got there and saw a bar, I realized what that was. Then I went to the Conservatory of Seville for two years to continue my training. From there, I went to the tablao El Cordobés in Barcelona, where I also learned a great deal.

Mercedes Ruiz (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

And next came your time with Eva Yerbabuena, didn’t it?

Eva taught me you have to love the artform above all else. That you have to love baile or what you feel beyond all other circumstances. She contributed many things to my baile. The thing is that a time comes when you have to decide if you’re going to continue there or go on your way. I could just see through her eyes. She seemed so complete to me that I no longer liked any other bailaora that wasn’t her. Then I decided I had to leave her company. It was really hard for me. I had to do it little by little. If I didn’t leave at that time, I wouldn’t do it afterwards. She had a lot of work and it was non-stop for us. And that, coupled with the fact that you’re in a great company with one of the best bailaoras, well, you can imagine. I felt the need to dance solo.

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