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SEVILLE’S 2006 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO. ‘ARENA’,
ISRAEL GALVÁN
Beyond
a bull
Silvia Calado. Seville, September 15th,
2006
Translation: Joseph Kopec
‘Arena’. Israel Galván:
baile, choreography. Diego Carrasco, Miguel Poveda, Charanga
los Sones, Cuarteto de Percusiones Orquesta Joven de Andalucía:
guest artists. Enrique Morente: cante on video. Alfredo Lagos:
guitar. David Lagos: cante. Bobote, Eléctrico: clapping
and jaleos. Mercedes Bernal: Gastor hornpipe. Pedro G. Romero:
artistic director. Seville’s 14th Bienal de Flamenco
2006. Teatro Central. Seville, September 15th, 2006. 9 p.m.
Israel Galván (Photo:
Daniel Muñoz) |
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Israel
Galván returns to the bullring. Even if the ‘Arena’
experience is being faced for the second time, the show once
again confronts spectators. It jostles them, touches them,
forces them, pleases them, confuses them, horrifies them,
amuses them. And that can only be achieved by a genius when
making full use of his artistic freedom. The second ‘Arena’
offered by Seville’s Bienal, following the premiere
two years ago at the Teatro de la Maestranza, adds not only
the maturity of experience and the constant transformation
undergone by the artist, but also a second stage perspective.
The Teatro Central, the ring earmarked in Seville for the
avant-garde, places the show up close for the “picador”.
The bullring sensation increases. And the sensation increases
of the crowd... who are discussed during the show in the audiovisuals
that sew together the pieces. The sentence: “The one
that kills the bull is the crowd”.
6 bulls 6. Six bulls which killed bullfighters
lend their names to the six choreographies. Between them,
videos of the lower tiers of seats and within, those of Enrique
Morente singing lyrics by José Bergamín.
Verses made from inside the bull, from its solitude. Stillness
and omen of death. ‘Bailador’, with live cante
by Miguel
Poveda and guitar by Alfredo Lagos, alludes to the silence,
to the non-movement. Voice, guitar and bullfighter, deep and
free. Silence in the ring of light. ‘Granaíno’,
the second bull, is that of the fine balance between life
and death. Weeping which sways. Israel Galván and the
iron rocking chair. In the back, amidst shadows, the percussion
quartet with disturbing music by Francisco Guerrero. Defiance
of gravity in the dance. Floor, air. All possible tension.
‘Pocapena’ is the third. A traditional
flamenco group plus the bullhorn ‘bagpipe’. Destructured
alegrías. And a lot of joking around in a baile alluding
to the source and teases it insolently. David Lagos, on cante.
Note how his voice grows. ‘Burlero’ is the party.
Diego
Carrasco is the representative who dishes out wit around
the stage. Blood red, party red. The group, on clapping. Sun
and shade. Israel-style kicks por bulerías. All the
art of flamencura. “A bullfighter scared to death is
the one that fights the best, because he’s killed his
shadow and just his light remains”. Morente said. ‘Playero’
is the plaintive bull. The bailaor is the bull. And he dances
his pain by head-butting the barrier. Diego Amador, on piano
por seguiriyas (more or less). Essential dance. ‘Cantinero’,
the last bull. Baile of knives. The sharpened metal of a requiem
of pasodobles and sevillanas. Violence and cynicism. Death
and circus. Silence in the ring. Israel Galván remains
alone. The Granada-born artist sings. “...his soul falls
to his feet”. And me in the crowd, too.
La Susi & Potito.
Hotel Triana, 11:30 p.m.
Potito and La
Susi
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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And flamenco took a seat in Triana.
El
Potito and La Susi. Two cantaores with muddy
zest and a Camarón-style form came to inaugurate
a new stage with more bearing. Wedged between
the hundred-year-old neighbors’ courtyard,
it promises magical nights in the coolness of
the last nights of summer. Kicking things off
was Potito, who despite being a cantaor from Seville
and with a lot of character, hadn’t sung
at this festival since the talked-about year of
1992; that is, when he was still a boy. Now he’s
a man... and his father’s just died. And
he dedicated the tangos to him, to Changuito.
He tackled them firmly, with plenty of compás
and musicality, determined in this terrain which
is so much his own. He didn’t want to stop
appearing also deep, serene, nearly patient. And
he did so by starting off unaccompanied por soleá,
por fandangos... Full of voice and attitude, backed
on toque by Pedro Sierra and Miguel Iglesias,
and accompanied by his audience, he made it clear
that he’s the kind of cantaor who can’t
be forgotten for fourteen years. La
Susi, the living portrait of a red bata de
cola, opted to go deep. And it wasn’t entirely
the right decision. The performance took a turn
downward: from cantes fragüeros to levantinos,
from the malagueña to the soleá.
And she frustrated an audience that needed her
energy, her guts, her flurry, her festive cante...
which can be as serious as any other. The hurricane
was only unleashed in the grand finale por bulerías,
with no microphone and the beat clapped out, side
by side with El Potito. What two minutes they
were. |
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And tomorrow...
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Pastora
Galván
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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Teatro Central. ‘La
Francesa’, Saturday, September 16th (9 p.m.).
Pastora
Galván makes her solo début
with a show choreographed by Israel Galván
and directed by Pedro G. Romero, about the stereotype
of the bailaora that has historically been put
together in French literature. Pedro Sierra, responsible
for the music, lets on that “I see Pastora
just like Israel when he did ‘Los zapatos
rojos’. I have the feeling that starting
here, her career’s going to skyrocket just
like her brother’s”. And let nobody
be deceived, as the star puts it: “I’m
flamenca and my brother... is a genius”.
Hotel Triana. ‘Amador,
Amador’, Saturday, September 16th (11:30
p.m.). Juan José, Raimundo, Ramón,
Diego... get together once again following their
reunion
at Mont de Marsan 2006. But this time in Triana,
the cradle of the family. And so they display
in the opening por seguriyas which all of them
sing and play. And the thing is that, as Juan
José Amador says, “the flamenco training
we take from our elders is guitar. At an Amador’s
house, there’s always a guitar in the way
on the couch”. Though there must be a lot
more than guitar.
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magazine@flamenco-world.com
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