Flamenco x 2. José Serrano and Luis Ortega, bailaores. Interview

“We’re aware of how lucky
we are in our careers as bailaores”

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 2006
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Companies don’t head up the bill alone. Besides the figure who gives his name and directing to the flamenco ballets, there are artists to really bear in mind ‘concealed’ in both the cast of guests and in the dance corps. In the case of the Sara Baras Company, the work stands out of bailaores Luis Ortega and José Serrano, who have co-starred in the Cádiz-born artist’s exuberant shows for several seasons. With parallel professional careers, they have shared the enjoyment of baile since they coincided in the Spanish National Ballet. A break between rehearsal and the show at the Teatro Villamarta in Jerez gives rise to this dialogue in which together, they relate memories, opinions, anecdotes and baile, a lot of baile.

José Serrano and Luis Ortega (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Luis. José. To start off, briefly present your respective careers...

Luis Ortega. I began my studies in Seville with Matilde Coral, Rafael el Negro and the now-deceased El Mimbre, who was my maestro. My first contacts with the stages were there, a little foretaste of what was the Andalusia Dance Company. Then in ’87 I joined the Spanish National Ballet (BNE) under the direction of José Antonio for four years, and that’s where Pepín and I met each other; we coincided for three years. Afterwards I went to the Murcia Ballet with Merche Esmeralda to do ‘Medea’, a really nice experience with maestro Granero and music by Manolo Sanlúcar. I came back to Madrid with Granero to the company he put together, the Spanish Ballet of Madrid, and next I returned to the BNE as lead dancer. I’ve alternated my career between the BNE and private companies, and also alternating as a dancer and as a bailaor. I consider myself a dancer of Spanish dance and a bailaor flamenco.

Is that difference still established?

José Serrano. To me, a bailaor’s a dancer; the thing is that the word “dancer” encompasses everything and that of “bailaor” is limiting.

L.O. I understand that bailaor refers to a specialty. It’s also a way of working. The bailaor’s freer, more anarchic. Although we’re working within flamenco, we have a dancer’s discipline.

José Serrano (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

José, how did you start off in baile?

J.S. I’m José Serrano, Pepín to my friends. I began my studies in Córdoba with Antonio Mondéjar, who was my first maestro, and he oriented me when I moved to Seville to study with Manolo Marín. And shortly afterwards, I became a member of the Mario Maya Company when it put together ‘El Amor Brujo’. I did a scene in the film ‘Montoyas y Tarantos’ with Cristina Hoyos, who called me for a gala in Paris. She also wanted me to join her company, but I had the chance pending to join the BNE for the learning, the maestros and the discipline. She understood perfectly. That was in ’89 and I was in the BNE until ’98, doing nearly the entire repertoire. I decided to leave and Antonio Canales called me to play his roles in ‘La casa de Bernarda Alba’ and ‘Guernica’. After five or six months with Antonio, then Sara Baras called me in 2000 and I’ve been with her since then.

What is there in you two from those first maestros?

J.S. What’s left is in the intention of this show, ‘Sabores’ by Sara Baras. We wanted that looking back to be seen a little bit in the two solo numbers we do, the legacy of those maestros who’ve done it so well. With all due respect, we decided to give one of the flavors within all the ones which may be seen in the show. We’ve tried to transmit lovely, incredible details from those maestros. Besides, everyone has them in the back of their mind even if they haven’t seen them for a long time. And thank God, it’s turned out really well.

L.O. Other times we fuse different dance styles and this time we wanted to fuse in time. Musically, we use other styles and they’re glances back at the past but with a fusion of eras.

J.S. Moreover, in the three-way choreography we’ve contributed, ‘A fuego lennto’, you can also see the freshness of today’s ambience. Besides the fact that we dance remembering the maestros, more emphasis has been given to elements such as Luis’s castanets in the seguiriya and to the hat of mine in the alegrías – that one over there (and he points at the hatbox on the table). In Luis’s case, the seguiriya has always admitted castanets, but I think it’s always been done by women; I don’t think any man has.

Luis Ortega (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

How did you work on that number, Luis? Why did you decide to pick up the castanets?

L.O. It was a little experimental. It’s not that castanets are my forte of virtuosity, either; I’ve worked on it at specific times in assignments in companies. But I liked the image and using castanets a different way, more as a percussion instrument than as a skilled concert performer. And the truth is that it’s been an unbelievable experience. I’ve gone to a different place, since you’re between dancer and bailaor, between bailaor and musician, since your five senses are split up differently, you listen differently.

J.S. And the number’s identity has turned out really flamenco.

L.O. It’s gained experience as it’s gone along in the season in Paris, taking on its identity. It’s an incredible experience because it’s a different kind of enjoyment and a different risk, too.

J.S. It’s fun. You have to be really on the watch for the castanets and flamenco has that too; if you’re on the watch for something, it inhibits you.

L.O. It’s given me a different perspective. Within how disciplined I am as a dancer, hands have always been my freest part. Though the rest is more tied down, hands are the freest part. And with castanets you have a corset you have to seek enjoyment in.

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