Paco Mora, bailaor and choreographer. Interview

“Málaga is capable of singing,
dancing and playing any flamenco style”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, August 2005
Translation: Joseph Kopec

The new biannual festival Málaga en Flamenco has the show ‘Málaga’ as its flagship. Conceived, put together and directed by Paco Mora, it seeks “to reflect the importance Málaga has in flamenco and Málaga's contribution to other flamenco styles”. With this job, the Málaga-born bailaor and choreographer makes his dream come true of carrying out a substantial flamenco project in his native land which is moreover exportable. Secret castings, hours of research at newspaper libraries, auditions of bailaores... The road to ‘Málaga’ - which premieres at the Cánovas Theater on September 14th - has been arduous, but by the satisfied look on the face of he who played the majestic role of Herod in the film ‘Salomé’ by Carlos Saura, you can see it was well worth it. But restlessness is already leading him to think about his following projects, since “now I can afford to pick and choose what I want to do”.

Paco Mora (Foto: Daniel Muñoz)

What is the concept of the show ‘Málaga’?

I've always had the idea of doing a flamenco show for my native land. In fact, I've been wanting to put together a steady company in Málaga since 1999. When the project for the Málaga en Flamenco Festival arises, Salvador Pendón, President of Málaga Province Council, sees fit, together with his committee, to have me direct the main opening show. They want it to be a show that relates something, but with artists from Málaga. We both coincide on that point. In the field of cante, baile and toque, Málaga comes up short as far as a musical offer. We've got a lot of very important cantes, but apart from the ‘abandolaos’, malagueña, verdiales, rondeñas, tangos... we lack basic flamenco styles such as the soleá, alegrías, taranto. So what I've done is not only to look at Málaga's own styles, but rather Málaga's contribution to other kinds of cantes, bailes and toques.

For example?

When I got down to putting the soleá into the show, I had to rely on the newspaper library, to base myself on Trinidad Huertas ‘La Cuenca’, the first bailaora who danced wearing trousers, dressed like a man. She was from Málaga and she recovered a soleá that even Seville had forgotten; that of Julián Arcas. In the martinetes and seguiriyas part, I've done research on El Planeta, a cantaor who came towards the mountains and contributed those slightly stronger, rougher cantes, like the martinete and the seguiriya. It's complicated to place the caña geographically, because it's a soleá through bulerías, a soleá apolá that's mixed with the polo..., but there are basic lyrics which are “arsa y viva Ronda”, so, according to researchers, it focuses on the mountains. Then, of course, there are El Piyayo's own cantes. I also wanted to recover those bulerías La Repompa used to do, which were by El Perchel, with another personality of ours. And entering the field of classical music, I resorted to Málaga-born composer Eduardo Ocón, who had a great deal of influence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In his ‘Cantos españoles’ (‘Spanish Songs’), he makes contributions to flamenco and writes preliminary scores of a polo, a soleá... I've also resorted to that kind of influence. In short, with this show I've tried to show how important Málaga is in flamenco and Málaga's contribution to other flamenco styles. Let it be seen how Málaga is capable of singing, playing and dancing any flamenco style and not focus exclusively on the malagueña and the abandolaos.

	Paco Mora (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

And when you talk about Málaga's flamenco singularity, what are its features?

Málaga's had a negative attitude towards flamenco because it's a tourist area. We've had flamenco aimed more at tourism and that flamenco presence of areas such as Seville and Jerez has been lost. But in the province of Málaga we come across very important festivals such as those of Ardales, Alhaurín's Torre del Cante, Estepona... which keep up that force. To name the features of Málaga's singularity in flamenco a little, I think its main contribution is the cantes abandolaos, that way of singing lyrics through rondeñas, or Málaga's own tangos, which stand out above all in the drops in voice, in those peculiar changes in rhythms and tonalities.

I try and bring out the personality Málaga can contribute. Manuel Machado defined Málaga as “cantaor”, and indeed, Málaga's cantes are difficult, but you've also got to bring out that strength it has in baile and toque. We've got good bailaores and good tocaores, but none of them ends up making a living in Málaga. They end up having to leave or are limited to the field of tourism. We want to get them out of localism, contributing a bit more modernity and currentness within flamenco. And I wanted to do it by contrasting the essence of flamenco with the most furious urgency of the staging of a show. We're not going to put any instrument into the show that isn't really flamenco. Nowadays everything's flamenco and I'm totally in favor of other instruments, but we want to focus on what's historically defined its personality: cante, baile, toque and clapping.

How did you choose the artists?

	"Much of the blame of how flamenco is danced in Málaga goes to the conservatories, since they don't train artists, they train future civil servants"

It was complicated. I had to do a lot of casting secretly, going to see artists' performances in different towns. Sometimes what happened was that everyone stared funny at me, besides the fact that I don't have the most flamenco look in the world. And they said this guy's here looking for something. It was a question of seeking out those who can make a contribution. My field of real choice, in cante and toque too, but especially in my field, in baile. Most of Málaga's best dancers aren't in Málaga; they've left. The selection of the main bailaores such as Solera Chica, Solera de Jerez's daughter, and Sergio Aranda, was after going to see them in their own element, without them knowing they were being watched, in order to check and see if they're along the same wavelengths as me. I've got a different vision regarding the conception of a show, since as soon as I see a group in which I see a lot of joking going on behind it, my heart sinks. What I like is for a man sitting in a group, even if he just has to dance a bit of bulerías, to say “this is what I know how to do” and to do it as best he can. And to go out there and work his feet off for a minute and a half, and respect those who are seated and pay thirty euros to see him. That selection was the hardest. There are a great many more who could be there, but obviously, you've got to choose. Afterwards I did auditions mainly for the dance corps.

And did you make any discoveries in the casting?

I was surprised that the flamenco in Málaga isn't the way it should be in the area of baile. Much of the blame of how flamenco is danced in Málaga goes to the conservatories, since they don't train artists, they train future civil servants. And a lot gets lost. You grab a girl who's finishing and you ask her to dance tarantos, and since it's not in her studies, she doesn't know what a taranto is. That's the bad thing. And I was surprised that there's a lot more than I thought... but it's outside Málaga.

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