BIENAL DE FLAMENCO DE SEVILLA
2008
ISRAEL GALVÁN, ‘EL FINAL DE ESTE ESTADO DE
COSAS’
Israel and the crowd
Silvia Calado. Seville, September 24th, 2008
‘El final de este estado de
cosas’. Israel Galván: baile
and choreography. Pedro G. Romero: artistic director.
Txiki Berraondo: stage director. Alfredo Lagos: guitar.
Diego Carrasco, Fernando Terremoto, Juan José Amador:
cante. Bobote: baile, clapping. José Carrasco:
percussion. Orthodox. Eloísa Sánchez: violin.
Proyecto Lorca. 15th Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla 2008.
Teatro de la Maestranza. Seville, September 24th, 2008.
8:30 p.m.
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Israel
Galván
(Photo Daniel Muñoz)
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Now more than Israel
Galván’s dance digressions, what’s
surprising are the relationships he establishes with the
audience. A few years ago, the lack of understanding was
notorious. There was even manifest scorn. Uncomfortable
agitation. No organizer back then would have ever thought
of placing him in a venue like the Teatro de la Maestranza,
nor much less featuring him in a cycle, as occurred in
the previous edition of the Bienal. What times they were.
And the paradox is that the more radical
his expression gets, the more sinister and painful it
becomes, the more those in the crowd start to like him.
It isn’t the first case of a ‘freak’
artist accepted by the masses. Dalí, for example.
Do people say, “Let’s see what new extravagance
he thinks up”? Do people say, “Let’s
see what new madness our crazy friend does”? And
look how up-to-date I am; I’m going to see Israel
Galván, now then, decked out in my attire for going
to the symphony.
Israel Galván
(Photo Daniel Muñoz) |
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I don’t think he wants to act either
crazy or modern. I want to go on believing, like when
I saw ‘Los zapatos rojos’ – and even
earlier -, that what he does up on stage is absolutely
sincere. And that’s why the bursts of laughter caused
by ‘El final de este estado de cosas. Redux’
last night bothered me so much. Hey, the world is ending.
Well, olé, olé and olé. Look at what
destruction, what anguish, what perversion, how bad this
faith business is. Lady, I’m in the throes of death.
Hey, bury me! Well, olé, olé and olé.
And look at what a funny little kick the horseman of the
Apocalypse does. ‘Arsa y toma’.
This show is truly terrible. And seriously,
you don’t have to dig very deep here to read the
‘text’ the way he gives it to us to read.
In fact, I think it’s quite univocal. Agony, perversion,
greed, destruction, violence, no faith and death, death,
death. And less now that the show has been revised and
synthesized, the superb face-off becoming starker between
the bailaor and the musicians, with himself and with the
audience... Although, now that I think of it, perhaps
those bursts of laughter and that pleasure are part of
the show itself and of the very end of this state of things
… the worst part.
| ‘Tiempo
pasado’, Leonor Leal, Ana Morales,
Juan Campallo…
Teatro Alameda, 11 p.m.
'Tiempo pasado'
(Photo Bienal de Sevilla © Luis Castilla)
More than the title of the
show itself (‘Tiempo pasado’ or
‘Past Time’), that of the series
it’s included in (‘El flamenco
que viene’ or ‘The Flamenco to
Come’) defines what was performed at
the Teatro Alameda by Leonor Leal, Ana Morales
and Juan Campallo, among other rising artists.
A collective show directed by Juan Dolores
Caballero in which several young flamencos
displayed their ways of understanding today’s
baile, toque and cante.
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And tomorrow…
(Foto Bienal
de Sevilla
© C. Corrales) |
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• ‘Kahlo Caló’,
Amador Rojas
Teatro Lope de Vega, 9 p.m.
• Miguel de Tena / Javier Conde
Cuarteto
Teatro Alameda, 11 p.m.
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