SEVILLE'S 2006 BIENAL DE FLAMENCO
ANTONIO GADES COMPANY, ‘BODAS DE SANGRE’ & ‘SUITE FLAMENCA’

Temporal. Timeless

Silvia Calado. Seville, September 21st, 2006
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Antonio Gades Company. Soloists: Adrián Galia, Stella Arauzo, Joaquín Mulero, Antonio Hidalgo, Marina Claudio, Cristina Carnero, Cristina Villaplana, Carolina Pozuelo, Maite Chico. Dance corps: Lola Guzmán, Marta Martínez-Rey, Ana Oca, Loli Sabariego, Miguel Lara, Cristian Martín, Elías Morales, Antonio Mulero, Antonio Ortega, Jairo Rodríguez. Musicians: Gómez de Jerez, Enrique Pantoja, Manuel Chacón, Juañares (cante). Antonio Solera, Jesús Heredia, Paco Cruz (guitars). Choreographies, lighting: Antonio Gades. Music: Antonio Gades, Emilio de Diego, Perelló y Monreal, Felipe Campuzano, Antonio Solera. Artistic director: Stella Arauzo. Technical director: Dominique You. Seville's 14th Bienal de Flamenco 2006. Teatro Lope de Vega. Seville, September 21st, 2006. 9 p.m.

Compañía Antonio Gades (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Time betrays itself at times. And no matter how many years go by, it's always present. ‘Bodas de sangre’ premiered in Rome in 1974. Thirty-two years later, it's still current. Last night, the re-founded Antonio Gades Company once again brought alive the award-winning show based on the drama of the same name by Lorca, with adaptation for ballet by Alfredo Mañas and with choreography and lighting by Antonio Gades. And it keeps on working, shaking up, pleasing. The story is told with such simplicity, so univocally, with such scantiness of resources, with such appropriate dramatic art, that it will always be immortal. The slowed-down fight, the pas de deux in the love scene, the group pasodoble in the wedding... will always be fundamental. Anyone who was lucky enough to see the show with Antonio Gades in this world will of course make comparisons about the way of upholding it on stage, in the performances. One of those lucky ones spoke, nostalgically, of the lack of strength. If you then compare it to the film by Carlos Saura, you can see that lack, more so if you focus on Antonio Gades himself. But the thing is that geniuses are few and far between. And congratulations are in order for this effort for the work of a genius of such an intangible artform as dance to continue in force. More so when no later choreographer has done without at least some brilliant detail of those which revolutionized the way of facing dramatic flamenco dancing.

Other times, time goes by irremediably. ‘Suite flamenca’, a summary of flamenco styles without a storyline, smacks of the past. The gap between the way of dancing flamenco back then and the ways now is unfathomable. Of course, it's necessary to know where we come from in order to keep on advancing, and more so on the living ‘screen’ of a theater. But a spectator from this time isn't used to such disciplined strictness, the nearly robot-like sobriety of the male baile, to such a simple combination of steps, to so much symmetry. There's been a world of difference in the leap from that era to this one. Not long ago Pilar López, Gades' maestra, said something to the effect that with the quantity of steps young people used now in a single baile, she would have made a few shows. The suite juxtaposes solo, duo and choral pieces, bulerías, tangos, tanguillos..., inheriting from classical ballet the taste for the dancers' clone-like motion. Of the solos, the farruca stands out which is performed by bailaor Adrián Galia (what a role), that rectilinear, still farruca which he inherited from Los Pelaos. The last link in the mythical Madrilenian family of bailaores, Toni el Pelao, told me recently that Pilar López couldn't manage to convince his Uncle El Gato, who used to sell pieces of cloth back then at Arco de Cuchilleros, to do the farruca for Antonio. And she was able to do so with her checkbook, taking him to perform in London. The so valuable farruca still continues to bring the audience to their feet even today, just like the way of structuring a show, lighting and moving the group which has been standard for years. And the thing is that quality is definitely timeless.

* Antonio Gades Company returns to the Teatro Lope de Vega on Saturday, September 23re with the show ‘Carmen’.

Ediciones Bienal: El Carbonerillo. Obra completa (3 CDs)   Photo: Daniel Muñoz     Recovering the historical memory of flamenco is another of the challenges put forth by Seville's Bienal. And in this fourteenth edition, it carries out said proposal with the release, in collaboration with Seville's Peñas Federation, of El Carbonerillo's record legacy, when it is the 100-year anniversary of his birth. The triple CD includes the recordings on slate records which the Sevillian cantaor did for the record companies Regal, Odeón and Parlophón between 1929 and 1932, once remastered by the label Fonotrón, which then took care of compiling and ‘cleaning’ the complete work of La Niña de los Peines. In total, there are over sixty cantes, which the controversial artist performed accompanied on guitar by Niño Ricardo, Miguel Borrull and Sabicas, among others. As Manuel Bohórquez, the cantaor's biographer and flamenco critic, explained, “it represents a really important period in Seville's cante, with figures like Juan Mojama, Manuel Vallejo, Pepe Pinto... He didn't have the artistic stature or the recognition from cantaores such as Antonio Chacón, but he was a genius who was born with the gift of getting across pain, feeling, lack of affection”. Online store CD: El Carbonerillo. Obra completa (3 CDs)

And tomorrow...   El Pecas, Belén Maya and José Luis Rodríguez (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)     Belén Maya, ‘Dibujos’. Teatro Central, 9 p.m. Bailaora Belén Maya, together with guitarist José Luis Rodríguez, presents the show ‘Dibujos’, a summary of baile solos with which she covers her artistic career. The artist commented that it was “a really fun show which has been put together over time with numbers that came out of choreographing guitar solos, plus other elements which have been added”. Though the show has already been put on at events such as the past Jerez Festival, it announces novelties such as the premiere of some jaleos, changes in wardrobe and the inclusion of El Pecas and La Tremendita on cante. Taking advantage of her appearance at the Casino, Belén Maya announced some of her upcoming projects. On the one hand, a show in collaboration with dancer Juan Carlos Lérida which will premiere next April at Seville's Flamenco Thursdays. And on the other hand, a show in which she wants to involve “five bailaoras that I like, but who accept that another five men choreograph for them”. For the time being, Rafaela Carrasco and Rocío Molina have confirmed, “and I want to have Isabel Bayón and Pastora Galván”. And the thing is that, as she confesses, “I'm at a time when I feel like dancing with people, ‘Dibujos’ is going to be the last show I do solo”. Though she recognizes that she'd really like to “dance in a room for myself, to take company you've got to be really prepared mentally, that's why I'd rather ask for collaborations”. .

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