2003 FESTIVAL DE JEREZ
Antonio Canales and Manuela Carrasco: Earth and Fire (Villamarta Theater)

What a Meteor Collision

Silvia Calado Olivo. Jerez, March 9th, 2003
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Translation: Joseph Kopec

An alignment of planets, a meteorite collision, a tsunami, even a tremor, are exceptional phenomena of nature. For two flamenco dancing stars to share a show is currently a rarity of the same nature. And without either one renouncing their respective individuality, their particular stardom. 'Tierra y Fuego' ('Earth and Fire') manages to achieve this impossible coincidence. Antonio Canales and Manuela Carrasco, both bailaors, both from Triana, both recognized figures. What happens when such an abnormality occurs? The reality is inverted: the Earth doesn't put out the fire but rather, quite to the contrary, stokes it up. One wants to be what the other one is and vice versa: the Earth burns, the fire seeks the ground.

Antonio Canales and Manuela Carrasco

Both a porta gayola (a pass in bullfighting when the bull enters the ring) with eleven people at the fence. That's how they introduced themselves, face to face, por taranto, the same style which Belén Maya and Mayte Martín had closed with the previous night. With the two-voice cante first alternating and later coming together (a bit of a shrill experiment), they got familiar with each other. She, in white and gold. He, in black. The power overflowing, high voltage, sparks without reaching a short circuit. The dramatic art, nearly excessive. Juan de Juan and Rafael de Carmen, the lead bailaors of one and the other, provide continuity to the tangos with a parallel but personalized choreography. And everything goes on occurring energetically, without a second of respite... until the interlude por fandangos abandolaos which is performed on a red background by the musical personnel (Antonio Zúñiga, David de Morón, José Valencia, on cante; Daniel Méndez, Joaquín Amador and Miguel Iglesias, on guitar; and José Carrasco, on percussion).

Samara Amador, sketching a seguiriya, welcomes Antonio Canales. And he starts dancing, working like a slave. He steps, but he also looks up, taking in air, finishing off without his feet. Silence. Shout. And Manuela's daughter returns with other lyrics by Guadiana to retrieve him, to give him back the shawl. The two pupils each appear now on a chair, por alegrías. They introduce themselves by juggling with their feet, without getting up. The bailaor from Morón displays his dancing electric, dizzying, vital, a little acrobatic, a bit cocky, but aiming at shading a certain restraint, a certain maturity. He from Seville offered, besides power, male composure. The dances turned out to be as prolonged as they were to the crowd's liking, which caused applause, always shocking in the middle of a show. And bulerías... Samara sang and danced, Bobote danced his precise, graceful pataíta. Then Manuela Carrasco burst in por soleá, that dance that makes her important, between the cantaor triangle. Time stopped in her arms, in her hands, in her gait, in her countenance. And also the flurry, the fury, the fire that wants to be earth. A crescendo and then another. Hardly without a rest, she returns and he returns. The second encounter for the very end, por romance, por bulerías. A duel of titans. And Antonio Canales rips off his shirt before Manuela Carrasco. And the aroused crowd cannot believe their eyes...

Specialized Information

The exceptional encounter between both artists, the events at this festival and many other matters will also be given an account of by the specialized flamenco magazines, published on paper, distributed throughout the world. Representatives from three of these publications sat down at the round table at the San Ginés Winery: Kyoko Shikaze, from the Japanese magazine 'Paseo'; Oliver Farke, from the German magazine 'Anda'; and Javier Primo, from the Spanish 'Alma100'. Each of the participants, moderated by journalist Alberto García Reyes, related the genesis, distribution and raison d'être of their media, as well as the financing problems they come across. A common characteristic of these magazines is the creation of a community between the enthusiasts from their countries since, as Oliver Farke pointed out, "the subscribers of 'Anda' are cousins ".

magazine@flamenco-world.com