2003 FESTIVAL DE JEREZ
Mayte Martín and Belén Maya: Chamber Flamenco (Villamarta Theater)

Mayteandbelén. Symbiosis

Silvia Calado Olivo. Jerez, March 8th, 2003
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Translation: Joseph Kopec

Don't anyone get scared. Don't anyone think a new fusion invention is coming. Calm down, think metaphorically. Go a little bit beyond the word, look on the back, since 'Flamenco de Cámara' ('Chamber Flamenco') is just an evocative name, which cries out for sobriety and simplicity, which confirms the banishment of ornamentation, of everything that is contingent. That's what Mayte Martín and Belén Maya offer, that was it in 'Mayte + Belén' and that's it in this show whose premiere the Villamarta Theater had the privilege of hosting. As their success at last year's festival caught them by surprise, they recognized feeling greater responsibility this time... that perhaps explains the perfection with which they performed the staging of this new exercise in symbiosis.

Mayte Martín and Belén Maya

The opening was bloodcurdling. Belén Maya in a white flamenco costume with a train. Mayte Martín stood waiting for her in the middle of the spotlight, letting herself get wrapped up in the smooth wave of flounces. Soleá. Silence. Spirals. Homage to La Toná (Belén knows why). The cantaora was accompanied by Juan Ramón Caro on guitar por guajiras. She came and went swinging, from the inside out. Cante song, sugar and spice. And both kept toying with the garrotín, given an added air of distinction by the value of the unusual. She, like a little bird. The old revitalized. The base enlarged. With the entire company now gathered (José Luis Montón on guitar, Olvido Lanza on violin and Susana Medina and Ana Cali on palmas), the cante started to converse with the movement por tientos, to inspire it. Belén Maya displayed all the nuances of her particular way of understanding flamenco dancing, one of the scarce individualities of the moment. The foreshortening, the arm, the shoulder, the extreme restraint in the use of the foot (only when she must emphasize), the head always firm - helm -, the sensuality without eroticism, the music, that moving of each note...

Belén Maya

Mayte Martín and Belén Maya

José Luis Montón stayed alone on his bajañí to give respite without causing breaks in the show's cohesion. And to do so, he took one of the complete compositions from 'Manantial' (Warner, 2002), the album on which he converses with Armenian violinist Ara Malikian. And the climax came, here, in the middle of the work. And it was por alegrías, like a year ago. Belén Maya chose yellow for her second flamenco costume with a train. It's complicated to describe what happened, since there was not only exceptional dancing with a train, exceptional cante por cantiñas and exceptional musical accompaniment - special mention to the introduction of the violin in silence -, but also what many of those attending branded as "good vibrations". The complicity between Mayte and Belén burst into laughter... and the whole auditorium took part in it. Belén, now extroverted, provoked Mayte... she wanted to play with the costume, hang it up in the air again, catch it perhaps with her fingertips, she wanted to wrap it around her body. "Oh, Lordie, Lordie, Lordie!". The descent begins to close the circle in the same tone it was started with. Thus Mayte sang por seguiriyas, reminding of an affected insult. Power sets with delicacy. Emotion with emotion. Sobriety, in crescendo. Just what is necessary, also in the lighting. And the company returns with a miner air, por taranto to tie beginning to end. Respect, touch, introspection. Her and her.

Ssssshhhhhhh. By the way, the day (already day 10) started off with a round table on flamenco bibliography, stretching after the siesta with an acoustic show by Granada-born cantaora Carmen Carmona at the Bullfighting Museum, the stage occupied by Elu de Jerez a day earlier, and finished with the Sevillian multi-instrumentalist Diego Amador at the Apostles Winery. The singing café thus concluded its premiere festival, with hopes of continuing in the coming years.

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