2003 FESTIVAL DE JEREZ
Rafaela Carrasco: Body Music / Mercedes Ruiz: Drawings in the Air (Villamarta Theater)

Front and back of a début

Silvia Calado Olivo. Jerez, March 3rd, 2003
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Rafaela Carrasco

2 for the price of 1. The night offered a double feature... with logic: the presentation of the respective first solo shows of two young bailaoras. And that's where the similarities ended. Rafaela Carrasco brought a show that exuded work and thought, true to the words with which she presented it the previous day: "I've tried to work with silence, to make a head, a hand, a foot, or a regard sound, seeking for the dancing, far from being wrapped up, to bare itself a little more". Accompanied by a corps of two bailaoras and three bailaors, she applied said concept to the three movements of her first creation. Games of silent moments, passing contact, percussion... and corporal esthetics, in the first number, with a five-four rhythm. Rafaela Carrasco, a dancer led by the bow of the cello (José Luis López), in the second. The identification of each dancer with each instrument, in the following one: one, Indian tabla (Sudhi Rajapopal); the other, contrabass (Luis Escribano); one, cello; the other, guitar (Arcadio Marín). Gradation of dance to flamenco dancing. And global confluence. A triptych of male dancers, striking and at the same time silent, provides the show with continuity. Originality both in the group movement and in its relationship with the music. The director and choreographer of the work performs a solo, as smooth but more flamenco, which progressively becomes an intertwining of dialogues. The piano (Pablo Suárez) takes the floor to move three bailaoras in light flamenco dresses with a train who, with the greatest delicacy, converge into the star. Everything intimate, everything sensitive... and the mirror warping and she with metal castanets and the cantaor who adds a sweet touch and the music jazzing up. "A modern zambra", she said it was. The end, with three couples, offers three interrelated modes of pair work, to the beat of tangos. One more touch of cante to remind us of the reason for this work and everything growing intensely to seek the exit. Impeccable. The ovation was instantaneous. A curious point: the silence ended up confusing the crowd.

	Mercedes Ruiz

Following the break, Mercedes Ruiz offered the other side of the coin. The Jerez-born bailaora displayed a collection of four dances which, even though it had been christened, could be considered neither a show nor a premiere. Of course, she danced well, it was agreed... but that shouldn't be enough when you're dealing with such an auditorium. Backed by cantaors Mercedes Cortés, David Lagos and Londro; by the guitars of Patino and Santiago Lara; and by the percussion of Antonio Coronel, she performed the repertoire she usually includes in the galas of the winners of the 'Young Performers Contest' of Seville's 2002 Bienal, whose dance prize she holds. She started off with a zapateado, dedicated to Antonio Gades, then performed some alegrías in a flamenco dress with a train, went on por seguiriyas and finished off por bulerías from Jerez, each with musical interludes between numbers (one por tangos by the cantaora and the other por vidalita, dedicated to Antonio Chacón, by David Lagos), hindering any possible common thread, if not in the story or concepts, at least in the rhythm. In her way of execution she proved, as characterizes her, vigorous, sharp, strong, postural, a bit archaic and very precise. Of course, and bearing in mind that she was playing at home, the audience bowed at her feet. And it fell to her lot as it's done in this land... The also native cantaora Melchora Ortega had also attested to it in her evening recital at the Bullfighting Museum, the one she went to feeling "free" for not having to be bound by a microphone.

Popularizing, what flamenco is

Round table at the San Ginés Winery

"And do you all know how to distinguish the styles?" Yes sir, you who applaud so much... Don't get offended or worried, boasting of such a skill has no importance. That was more or less what the four participants at the round table responded to such an ill-advised question by the given spontaneous participant gathered in the morning at the San Ginés Winery to talk about the popularization of flamenco. The writers and journalists Juan José Téllez, José Manuel Gamboa and Juan Vergillos, moderated by Daniel Muñoz, the director of Flamenco-world.com, clearly coincided in that the relevant thing is to manage for rational, contrasted, reflective knowledge with a theoretical base of this art and its circumstance to reach enthusiasts all over the world. And that road is being opened up by means of modern journalism and social sciences, following a stage of authoritarian "impenetrability" with intentions more dissuasive than attractive and/or educational. Recent works of authors present at this very interesting discussion, such as the record-book 'Cante por cante' and the book 'Conocer el flamenco' - by Gamboa and Vergillos, respectively - marked the path to take. Down with feudalism in the knowledge of flamenco!

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