LORCA & GRANADA 2011. EVA YERBABUENA, ‘FEDERICO SEGÚN LORCA’
The wall and the stars
Silvia Calado. Granada, July 23rd, 2011
Translation: Joseph Kopec
‘Federico según Lorca’. Eva Yerbabuena: direction, original idea, choreography. Paco Jarana: musical direction and composition, guitar. Juan Diego: voice-over. Manuel de la Luz: guitar. Enrique el Extremeño, José Valencia, Pepe de Pura: cante. Manuel José Muñoz ‘Pájaro’ y Raúl Domínguez: percussion. Mercedes de Córdoba, Lorena Franco, María Moreno, Eduardo Guerrero, Fernando Jiménez, Alejandro Rodríguez: dance. Asime Can Ozozer: special figuration. Set design: Vicente Palacios. Wardrobe: López de Santos. Lighting: Fernando Martín. Lorca & Granada 2011. Auditorio de los Jardines del Generalife. Granada (Spain), from July 20th to August 27th, 2011
For the first time, Eva Yerbabuena tackles the challenge of facing Lorca’s subject matter and the assignment of creating a show to remain on the bill for over a month at the Generalife Gardens Auditorium, spectacular in itself. And obviously, neither the challenge nor the assignment is an easy matter to work out. The Granada-born bailaora and choreographer, unlike her predecessors, hasn’t wished to do a dance-theater-flamenco version of a specific work by Lorca, but rather to fantasize -with the quality characterizing her creation and her performing- about what she understands to be Lorca and the man who was behind the writer. That abstraction is the key to the show, for better and for worse. For better, because it allows the creator to freely interpret the universe of an artist she recognizes as both close to her and a stranger. For worse, because the show lacks enough and/or solid stage-seats communication.
The show is worked out as an extensive collage of uneven scenes in which the staging pivots on a stone wall which gives expression as it is closed, is opened, is lit, is projected, is looked upon, is touched. But the string of the proposal isn’t physical, but rather emotional. The preponderance of the introspection in this show subjugates the intensity curve in favor of a monochrome tone which is only broken in specific snapshots: the presentation of Eva Yerbabuena’s body and eyes upon the stone wall, the tangos (trianeros) at the tobacco drying shed… And the soleá. The bailaora resumes her emblematic baile, the one which blazes a trail of emotion wherever it sprouts. Here, she captures Bernarda Alba’s oppressive spirit naturally. The recycling of resources is recurring. There are solutions from past shows such as ‘A cuatro voces’ – where she had already bordered on Lorca – and above all, from ‘Cuando yo era…’. The collective folk fiesta, a certain underlining of some of the dancers’ individualities, the tense dance loops, the influence-tribute to the body and visual language of tanztheater… She also benefits – and grows – in the music, Paco Jarana being more and more consistent in the concept of soundtrack in what he composes and directs, simply using guitar, percussions and vocals.
And unintentionally, the show is completed off-stage and is exposed to the alluring landscape. When the bailaoras make the metal bowls sound, the Albaicín’s bells answer. When the guitar strums and hushes, the silence is flooded by cicadas from the garden. When the breeze blows, it choreographs locks of hair and costumes. When the venue’s lights are still on, the village men and women from the meadow chat away, as if giving the poet motifs. And when you look up, the stars throb as if they wanted to compete with Yerbabuena… and with Eva.
View of Granada from Auditorio del Generalife (Photo Daniel
Muñoz) |
Photo gallery, by Daniel Muñoz.
Eva Yerbabuena, 'Federico según Lorca'
© Daniel Muñoz
