MANUELA CARRASCO. ‘TRONÍO’.
SEVILLE'S 13th BIENAL DE FLAMENCO 2004

A sip of the sublime

Silvia Calado. Seville, October 9th, 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

‘Tronío’ (‘Thunderclap’). Manuela Carrasco Company. Manuela Carrasco: dancing. Pedro Sierra, Antón Jiménez, Agustín de Morón, Joaquín Amador: guitars. Arcángel, Enrique el Extremeño, Juana la del Pipa: guest cantaores. Antonio Zúñiga, La Tobala, La Nitra, Samara Carrasco, El Barilla: cante. Rafael de Carmen, El Torombo, El Bobote, Luis Peña, Javier Heredia: dancing. José Carrasco: box drum. Maestranza Theater. Seville, October 9th, 2004. 9 p.m. Seville's 13th Bienal de Flamenco 2004.

Manuela Carrasco

Confirmed. Manuela Carrasco continues to make the crowd tremble upon lifting up her arms, upon staring at the sky, upon grasping the edge of her vest to go in for the charge, upon venting her fury on stage, upon stretching out her flamenco figure in the air... And those moments of trembling are enough for many to surrender at her feet. The Sevillian venue was filled to the brim with die-hard fans of the artist and the flamenco philosophy she defends: “Gypsy customs, purity and race”. And it was satisfied with that brief sip of the sublime which did not appear until the final soleá.

Time does not go by in vain even for this giant of flamenco dancing, and of course, she has to measure out her participation. Taranto for the first baile, a warm-up sung beside her by Enrique el Extremeño. A beautiful Manila shawl. Distinction in her way of handling things. A garnet velvet dress. Motionless dancing. The picture. A great while later, she sketched out alegrías with a little bit of Arcángel on cante, who was making his second appearance after the fandango by El Gloria. It was a real pleasure to finally hear him in this Bienal (inexplicably not on the program, even having a new album to present, ‘La calle perdía’). And the bailaora, praised by the uproar in the background, focused on the floor. Next, she left the audience unsatisfied in the seguiriya. Hardly having marked it in a duo with Rafael de Carmen, she left the bailaor alone on stage. And he finished it with all the success to be expected, doing it quickly on the wheels of bulerías. Following the malagueña by the Huelva-born cantaor, a real delight to the senses, Manuela Carrasco came back to culminate donning a skin-tight black frilled dress embroidered with roses on the front. The three guest cantaores put their throats at the service of divinity, which merely by stopping, walking or rocking has won over the crowd's placet.

	Manuela Carrasco

There was filling between one piece and the next... sounder at times than others, being too obvious the shortcomings in directing, a prerequisite to do a show at a theater. Elegant was the sensitive guitar prologue through soleá marked by Pedro Sierra and Antón Jiménez. Interesting was the contrast in voices by Enrique el Extremeño and Juana la del Pipa, for being torn, old. Worked out were the tangos by cantaoras La Tobala, Samara Carrasco and La Nitra. And accurate, as has been said, were the seguiriyas by the company's usual bailaor. Despite the stumbling in direction, everything was more or less in place. That might be why the slip-up ‘El cuartito’ was so out of tune, a more than extensive number in which through a bar, glasses of wine, tavern dialogues and daring acts by actors, boy included, a group of guests simulated a party. At any rate, the crowd did not seem to dislike the number.

With the triumph in Seville under her arm, Manuela Carrasco will leave on her international tour beginning in January. She is scheduled to perform in Mexico, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. Where she will not dance for the time being is in Madrid. According to the daily newspaper ‘El País’, she has rejected a fortnight of performances of her show ‘Esencias’ in the Spanish capital because the Andalusia Junta only offered her a subsidy of 18,000 euros and “for a company of twenty-one people, that isn't even enough for hotels and trips; so I didn't take it”. Matters of subsidized art.

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