SIXTH FESTIVAL DE JEREZ

Two for one with ovation

Silvia Calado Olivo. Jerez, March 10th, 2002

Antonio Canales: choreography, direction and solo dancer. Juan de Juan, David Paniagua, Ignacio Sánchez, Paul Vaquero, Mónica Fernández, Laura González, Sara Vázquez: dance. David Cerreduela, José Jiménez: guitar. Luqui Losada: percussion. Montse Cortés, Guadiana, José Luis Carmona: cante. Luisa Carmona, Saira Carmona: chorus. Juan Parrilla: flute. Bernardo Parrilla: violin. Teatro Villamarta. Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz), March 10th, 2002. 9:00 p.m.

	Canales with the 'manolas' (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
	Antonio Canales and Paúl Vaquero (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
	Antonio Canales (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

One way of bringing flamenco dance to the theater is 'Torero'. Set design and a plot. Another way of bringing flamenco dance to the theater is 'Flamenco'. Dance, cante, absence of plot. For staging, technical crew, lighting, wardrobe, structure, dynamism, upstage and down, on just such a framework, one figure: Antonio Canales. The dancer from Seville juxtaposed both ways of conceiving flamenco dance for large scenic spaces in a 'two-for-one' excessively drawn-out show. 'Torero' was enough, but...gluttony won out. And even so, he was hailed by the audience.

Torero: proof that the passage of time has no effect on a good show. The work which premiered in 1993 and converts the stage into an arena and Antonio Canales in matador, wins over the audience with its intelligence and its rhythm. The dancer proposes a reflection upon what it feels like to be a bullfighter, from the moment he puts on his 'suit of lights', until the dagger is planted, passing through the intimate moments of prayer. And perhaps this is why Canales' dance wins fans, because it transmits other ways of feeling and experiencing. He has arms and figure. He dances...he doesn't just machine-gun with bulerías. All around him the group serves the function of backdrop more than participant...despite attempts to characterize a wife and a mother and concede the ring to the young bullfighter (Juan de Juan). The exception, Paúl Vaquero, who pulls off his metamorphosis into fighting bull with expression and strength. Vaquero and Canales give form to the best scenes of the show, face to face, lances, passes with the cape, the fight, love, death. The stage set is partly a well-represented bullring - complete with optical illusion - and partly a backdrop that goes up to the tiers of seats...and the sound of the group drifts to the stage: the flute and violin of the Parrillas to set the mood, the velvet-voiced cante of Montse Cortés and the smoldering cante of Guadiana, the guitar of Viejín, the compás por bulerías for everything that enthralls the lower half, and also the silences...blessed silences.

Flamenco: what they call Antonio Canales' way of mounting a show of flamenco dancing and singing, just so, with nothing added. In the line of 'Bailaor', he presents a structure where musicians, as much as first dancers, join forces to bring forth Canales. With an unimpressive taranto prelude interpreted by José Luis Carmona, the work became concentrated in fandangos in the feet of Juan de Juan. Fireworks. An unwarranted cante of tangos held back the dance for several minutes up to the insipid dance trio with David Paniagua and Ignacio Sánchez and...a bata de cola? A throwaway. And at the end, him. Antonio Canales comes out in black - in sharp contrast to everyone else's white - doing a soleá which soon leads to bulerías compás which goes perfectly with his staccato heels...that impossible squandering with the cajón. Flashy effects accentuated by the lighting and meticulously studied to bring applause, the hand to the heart, the encore and the closing fiesta with everyone dancing bulerías.

Two ears, a tail and once around the 'bullring', by popular demand.