JAVIER LATORRE COMPANY. ‘TRIANA, EN EL NOMBRE DE LA ROSA’
SEVILLE'S 13th BIENAL DE FLAMENCO 2004

The Passion according to Latorre

Silvia Calado. Seville, September 23rd, 2004
Photos: © Diego M. Ruperto

‘Triana, en el nombre de la rosa’. Dance corps: Mara Martínez, Fuensanta le Moneta, Belén Mora, Encarna López, Nani Paños, Álvaro Paños, Daniel Navarro, Pedro Córdoba. Guitarists: Ricardo Rivera, Keko Baldomero. Cantaores: David Palomar, Antonio Campos, Sabrina Romero. Piano: Sergio Monroy. bass: Alejandro Benítez. Percussion: Sabrina Romero, Isaac Vigera. Original idea, direction and choreography: Javier Latorre. Script: Javier Latorre and Luis Clemente. Songs: Javier de la Rosa (Triana). Original compositions, arrangements and musical direction: Ricardo Rivera. Lope de Vega Theater. Seville, September 23rd, 2004. 9 p.m. Seville's 13th Bienal de Flamenco.

Triana, the most emblematic group of Andalusian rock, receives a peculiar tribute. It comes from flamenco, the music which was tacitly in their songs and whose doors opened to rockers, hippies and other fauna of the period. Even more impressive is that the tribute comes not just from flamenco music, but from baile. The author of such an experiment is choreographer Javier Latorre, who is going through a prolific creative stage which has materialized this season in works of the magnitude of ‘El Loco’ for the Spanish National Ballet and the musical ‘Los Tarantos’ which now premieres in Barcelona. With a company consisting of a dance corps with eight first-rate dancers -bailaores and a musical group capable of transforming ‘Tu frialdad’ into a farruca, the show revises the discography, stages and different tonalities of music full of symbolism and passion.

Photo: © Diego M. Ruperto

‘Triana, en el nombre de la rosa’ starts off with an emblematic song: ‘Abre la puerta, niña’. Tangos and bulerías. All the bailaores. Diagonal. Choreographic dynamics with the ‘Latorre’ trademark. There is neither beginning nor end in the songs; they simply blend into one another. ‘Rock de la calle Feria’ is a ballad starring a solo bailaor. Flamencoized (following current rules), Triana's repertoire gives up the baroque style of psychedelia. ‘En el lago’ gives continuity to the tangos which incessantly keep moving the disciplined dance corps. The group makes room for brief individual pieces, as if announcing the future. The cante sings a ‘lereiré’ in chorus. An audiovisual show separates the first block from the second one, a mixture of images of stale esthetics. The guitar does soleá with a melody picked out from Triana's repertoire. All the romanticism. A sugary dance for two. “Reina de la morería, cada vez que estoy a tu vera...” (“Queen of the Moorish neighborhood, every time I'm by your side...“). From the bulería to the soleá. The group returns. Asymmetries. Symmetries. ‘Luminosa mañana’ ('Bright morning'). Symbolism in the lyrics. The bird. The dream.

Languor. The show's tone catches that of the songs by Jesús de la Rosa, a melancholy shadow with the hope of light. The rumba brings it. Latin air in the percussion. The work transforms. Back to life. Another audiovisual conjures up another of the group's album covers. Candles around the neighborhood. Another block. ‘Hijos del agobio’ comes turned into a martinete. The song is sung jondo-style. “Ey, amigo, ¿cómo estás esta mañana?” (“Hey, friend, how are you this morning?“). Two men dance. Smoothness. Lightness. Fuensanta la Moneta, winner of the 2003 Desplante at the La Unión Festival, once she has shown her ability to adapt to the group, offers the most flamenco solo of all, through seguiriyas. Singing to her nearly through whispers is Sabrina Romero, also ‘cajonera’. Manuela Carrasco-style; temperamental. The first ovation is for her. Another sequence of images of mellow esthetics puts up another separator. More romanticism. More sugar. Two women dance.

Another picture. Daniel Navarro takes over the limelight, a bailaor who constantly makes his versatility clear (the other day at this same theater, he played the rabbit in ‘Alicia’; two years ago, Rinconete) as well as his growing quality as a performer. In these Andalusian dances based on ‘Una historia’, he also excels as a choreographer. Without catching his breath, he joins the quartet that will dance the farruca ‘Tu frialdad’, one of the show's most brilliant pieces both for the dancing, which refreshes tradition without tarnishing the canons, and for the music... the adaptation is surprising. Another fistful of images. And the last block. A ballad tone. Gals. Tangos. Guys. ‘Una noche de amor desesperada’. The dancing doesn't stop... or repeat itself. Tour de force. All the steps. All the possible choreographic combinations. And just when it started to get long, the lullaby came to finish off shaking the audience, with its candles, its frozen baroque scenes, its crucifixion and its death. Passion. The ovation was heartfelt. Triana is in the soul of many and perhaps now it will be in the soul of many others who have now had access to the group with this ‘Triana-ized’ flamenco so sui generis for a neophyte. Bearing witness of this was Eduardo Rodríguez himself (founding guitarist of Triana), who was deeply touched by the applause. “You're going to rip out my heart through my mouth”, he told the creators of this tribute once outside the theater.

revista@flamenco-world.com