Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla 2006. Andrés Marín. Review, photos and online video

‘El alba del último día’. Andrés Marín: baile, artistic director. José Valencia, Segundo Falcón: cante. Salvador Gutiérrez: guitar. Antonio Coronel: percussion. Pablo Suárez: piano. Musical directors: Andrés Marín, Salvador Gutiérrez. Script and dramatic art: Andrés Marín, Salud López. Seville’s 14th Bienal de Flamenco 2006. Teatro Central. Seville, October 7th, 2006. 9 p.m.

Andrés Marín offers a new show. Following ‘Asimetrías’, he takes a look back at that fictitious night when the era of the singing cafés ends. More than a tangible storyline, it is simply a theoretical excuse to place the old and the avant-garde on the same plane, a game in which the bailaor’s discourse is developed. The show’s common thread is the route traced between Seville’s Café Kursaal, Málaga’s Café de Chinitas and Granada’s Café Suizo, each of them defined by a thought-out selection of cantes belonging to the place and by others suggested by the circumstances there at the time. From the trilla to the martinete, from the soleá de Triana to tangos, from the polo Tobalo to the taranta del Cojo de Málaga, from the granaína to bulerías. Therefore, as in previous shows by the Sevillian bailaor, the cantaores are key parts to this work: Segundo Falcón and José Valencia. Both perform each of their pieces with high quality, shaping up a whole bordering on bareness. And the same thing happens with the musicians, with Salvador Gutiérrez in charge of the guitar and the soundtrack, plus the embellishments by Antonio Coronel on percussion - emulating Arto Tunçboyaciyan in ‘Cruce de caminos’ – and those of Pablo Suárez on piano. And the thing is that the bailaor is a good listener.

Joining the group of artists are some audiovisual showings alluding to the show’s motif, plus an element of taranto, the red metal staircase which acts as a tablao. This artist is used to taking pains with details, doing without anything ornamental, seeking out austere elegance. And that’s all. This time Andrés Marín find himself alone for over an hour and a half in the show, without moving a dance corps as he did in the previous show. He dances in tune with the style he’s polished over the last few seasons, that baile on the edge, breathed, with clean technique, percussions, geometry. On this occasion, he has Salud López to consult the choreography of some pieces with, which has contributed to elaborate the bailaor’s already contemporary style even further. Though the rhythm isn’t always suitable, since it perhaps stops too much to reiterate choreographic formulas in the first part, afterwards the show is sprinkled with moments of climax both of baile – for example, the piece in which he dances to the sound of silent bells as if of cante – one of them is the original cante por malagueñas conversed by two voices -, as well as by guitar – in the solo Salvador Gutiérrez uncovers how to play with feeling and even percussion – with a restless Antonio Coronel who even strikes buckets of water. Andrés Marín thus imagines the decline of an era which was golden, but also diverse, somewhat roguish and temporarily on the frontier.

And tomorrow...

Juan Carlos Romero, ‘Suena a romero’. Teatro Central, 9 p.m. The Huelva-born guitarist does the live version of the repertoire from his album, ‘Romero’. As he explained at a press conference, it’s “a simple show which, despite the stage set-up, is still a guitar concert”. It is directed by Pepa Gamboa, who has taken part in this Bienal in shows such as ‘La puerta abierta’ by Isabel Bayón, elaborating that she has sought out “minimum interventions, just with elements of the imaginary, nature and a lot of poetry, because it’s a concert and the important thing is the music”. Live, Juan Carlos Romero has artists of the likes of cantaor Rafael de Utrera, bailaor Rafael de Carmen and Bobote on clapping. He is scheduled to reel off the repertoire of his latest album with them, but now updated: “It isn’t that there are new things, but they’re focused differently. You don’t realize it, but you start to change the performance because you’ve changed”.

Further information
- Interview with Juan Carlos Romero, guitarist (november, 2004)

Online store
- CD: Juan Carlos Romero. Romero

‘Malgama, Circontemporáneo y Compás’, Compañía Varuma Teatro. Teatro Alameda, shows for schoolchildren from October 9th to 14th. Following the success of the educational children’s workshop by Compañía El Flamenco Vive, the Bienal attends to children once again with five shows for schoolchildren by Compañía Varuma Teatro. The show blends numbers from the circus – including jugglers, trapeze artists and clowns - with flamenco styles, part of which is taken care of by guitarist Raúl Cantizano, cantaora Alicia Acuña and bailaora Asunción Pérez ‘La Choni’. The company is already working on its next show, for which it will have bailaores Israel Galván and Alejandro Granados as consultants.