FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2006

Joaquín Grilo gets the premiere of ‘A solas’
ready for Festival de Jerez 2006

Carlos Sánchez. Seville, November 2005

Following an absence of several years, Joaquín Grilo returns to the Jerez Festival with the premiere of ‘A solas’. The new show by the Jerez-born bailaor is being prepared meticulously, based on the novel by Sergio Bambarén ‘El guardián de la luz’ (‘The Guardian of the Light’). For this project, besides the members of his company, Grilo has the collaboration of the recently-deceased writer and actor Teófilo Calle, theater director Alfonso Zurro, the versatile José Manuel Gamboa, and musicians El Bolita, Diego Amador and Pablo Martín.

Joaquín Grilo (Foto: Daniel Muñoz)

‘A Solas’, in the words of Joaquín Grilo himself, is a “very sentimental and very deep” show. The Jerez-born bailaor's show is based on the novel ‘El guardián de la luz’ by Sergio Bambarén. The book by the Australian writer was adapted to the theater by recently-deceased writer and actor Teófilo Calle.

“Writer and actor Teófilo Calle adapted the book to the theater for me. Then we started changing it around, pulling out details, taking it down different roads. The message I want to give with this show is that the artist is always going to be everyone's jester. We're the ones who make people have fun. But what I try to explain with this is that the artist feels the same in the Court as with a vagabond. The idea is to tell all of this through baile, through a choreography, but as if it was an actor”, Grilo affirmed.

The new show by the Jerez-born artist tries to relate the different stages lived by the main character in ‘El guardián de la luz’. It begins with a certain instant in his life, and thereafter it recalls those moments that marked the lighthouse keeper's existence. All of it with the necessary nuances for the audience to be able to understand the sense Grilo wants to give to this show. “An artist's creation is always alone”, admits the bailaor himself.

To stage the show, the bailaor and choreographer wants to begin with the simplicity and utility of the elements that are going to be part of it. The musicians themselves are elements and characters within the show. The music will be taken care of by José Quevedo ‘El Bolita’, Diego Amador and Pablo Martín. It will also have the voice in off of writer and journalist José Manuel Gamboa. Theater director Alfonso Zurro will be in charge of connecting everything and coordinating this new work which will premiere at Festival de Jerez 2006.

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