BAILANDO FLAMENCO 2007. ÁNGEL
MUÑOZ, ‘CINCO SENTIDOS’
Step by step
S.C. Valencia, March 24th, 2007
‘Cinco sentidos’. Ángel
Muñoz: baile, choreography, artistic director.
Charo Espino: guest artist (baile). Miguel Ortega: cante.
Antonio Españadero, Paco Arriaga: guitars. Nacho
López: box drum. Bailando Flamenco 2007 Series.
L’Altre Espai. Valencia, March 24th and 25th, 2007.
9 p.m.
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Ángel Muñoz,
farruca
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
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The smoke creates a dreamy ambience.
The silhouette of a tambourine can be made out between
the shade and the light. Nacho López seeks sounds
in the silence. His call is answered by a box drum, but
with a bailaor straddling it. Paying tribute to Manuel
Soler, Ángel Muñoz “heel taps”
with his hands. And they play and converse in the scope
of rhythm, in the very origin. The percussions disappear
to the left while on the opposite side, the cante and
baile come in. Miguel Ortega and Charo Espino, por seguiriyas,
bring voice and movement, clove and cinnamon, in the space
marked out by the light. In the back, the group finishes
taking shape with the guitars of Paco Arriaga and Antonio
Españadero. And the bailaor returns, full-bodied,
to challenge the bailaora. The key lies in the complementary
nature and balance. The masculine and the feminine, feet
and body, distance and encounter.
The credentials having been displayed,
Ángel
Muñoz steals the spotlight. Accompanied by
guitar, cante and box drum, decked out old-style, positioned
old-style, he evokes the timelessness of classical baile.
But in his time and in his person. The overwhelming technical
virtuosity isn’t incompatible with the esthetics
or the musicality. And the thing is that his dance here
is stance and posture, but also another musician (the
contingent box drum, then). Sobriety. Depth. Respect.
He polishes the markings, tears the stage, positions himself,
finishes off... and sways the audience in an extensively
developed baile, with a nearly narrative attitude. The
Córdoba-born bailaor has the evidence in his hands
of the maestros of male flamenco dancing.
A change of pace. A guitar fantasy announces
the future. A look at the lands of Cádiz... Charo
Espino, por cantiñas. She dishes out arm movements
and curves around the stage, showing off her femininity...
and good looks. She dances with regards, shoulders and
hips, loosely, mischievously. And she seeks the utmost
flavor in the simple. Then it’s cante’s turn.
Miguel
Ortega takes a step forward and sticks out his chest
por malagueñas. The Los Palacios-born artist is
an efficient, versatile cantaor both accompanying and
in the lead. And he so demonstrated in this afandangado
route, in this ‘crescendo’ which stirs up
the crowd.
Charo Espino, seguiriyas (Photo
Daniel Muñoz)
The soleá por bulerías
is traced out as sweetly as a lullaby. And little by little,
it takes on all its force in the musical, awaiting the
bailaor’s arrival. High quality in the accompaniment.
Guitars, box drum and cante fit together and polish their
sounds to go well beyond the base, squaring off compositions,
leaving room for the arrangements of the fifth instrument,
baile. Ángel Muñoz displays all of his art
in this style. More than well-prepared, he takes on the
risk with complete certainty. Neither the syncopation
nor the pirouette nor the hodgepodge nor the foreshortening
of shoulders nor the pass of arms nor the finishing gesture...
nothing resists him. Energy, feeling, expertise. And he
measures everything out with knowledge, with feeling,
and above all, with a flamenco nature. A complete bailaor.
He finishes off the task at hand in the middle of an ovation.
All that’s left is the farewell, together with his
musicians and his bailaora. The grand finale ‘Luego
nos vemos’ puts a temporary end to the simply flamenco
show - purged to the last detail, even in matters of lighting
and sound - by an artist who is gaining recognition step
by step, performance by performance, believing in the
work in the long term.
