2006 JEREZ FLAMENCO FESTIVAL. PEDRO SIERRA/ LA TOBALA

Bugs, unplugging and other flamenco things

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 8th, 2006
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

Second interlude of Festival de Jerez's tenth edition. While Teatro Villamarta works to put together ‘Carmen’ by Aida Gómez, the flamenco activities are split up between the related stages. The engines were revved up at noon at Bodega de San Ginés with the round-table ‘La construcción del personaje en el baile flamenco’ (‘Character Building in Flamenco Dancing’) with the appearance of Merche Esmeralda and Israel Galván. The bailaora explained how she worked on characters such as ‘Medea’ for the Spanish National Ballet, reading the work deeply, understanding it as a woman: “Playing her wore me out so much, especially because I couldn't manage to understand how she could kill her children, that it took me at least an hour to recover”. On the contrary, in the version of ‘The Sheltering Sky’ by Paul Bowles, she had to do the opposite exercise; “break away from Medea, from that character of a strong, temperamental woman, and play the role of a weak woman”.

La Tobala and Pedro Sierra (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Israel Galván's explanations about how he tackled the role of Gregor Samsa in his transformation into an insect were surprising. As he went along reading ‘The Metamorphosis’ by Kafka, “I saw the insect dancing. I wasn't seeking to be an actor, but rather to translate what happens to him with my baile. Nor did I watch a Channel 2 documentary, but rather I played a game with videos by several bailaores: I turned off their sound and put on music by Ligeti. I tried to imitate Vicente Escudero, who I saw as the stick-shaped bug; Mario Maya, the mantis; and Enrique el Cojo, the beetle”. That character has affected the Sevillian bailaor so much, he assures that “I haven't been able to get that bug off me, since it isn't that playing characters takes away my personality, it's that it's added to you, it sticks to you”. To which he adds one difficulty: “I didn't want to play a nice insect; it's hard to be up on stage trying to rub the audience the wrong way”.

La Tobala (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The first ones he rubs the wrong way are his parents, orthodox bailaores: “When I dance, my mother covers her eyes”. They also suffer because of the critiques he receives, “but when I get a good review, they say people are crazy”. Merche Esmeralda came out to defend her round-table colleague, and with a gesture of admiration, assured that “I cover my eyes when I see a soleá danced in bad taste, but not before creativity if it's done well and intelligently”. A character they'd like to play? Merche Esmeralda admits she's intrigued by dancer Anita Delgado, who married the Maraja of Kapurtala. Israel Galván has in mind a Japanese ‘butoh’ dancer who dedicated a dance to La Argentinita. Though a great role is the one he had to play when he won the ‘Giraldillo’ Award: “I saw the contest as tricking the jury; you don't dance for the audience, you dance to win”.

But there was no dramatized flamenco on the agenda today. The following show was that of Pedro Sierra and La Tobala, tackling the challenge of performing without a microphone at Palacio de Villavicencio. The pair split up the performance into two parts. The first was for the concert guitar of Pedro Sierra, who tried performing several songs off his new album ‘Nikelao’ without any mediation whatsoever. In compositions of his own such as the seguiriya and the soleá, he captured a discourse which balances innovative harmonization work with traditional toque sounds. The granaína and the farruca were as soothing as they were technically skilled. With that proximity, in such a direct way, the details which are lost on a big stage and with amplification are magnified. And it's a real treat simply to hear how the notes fade naturally. For the second part, the guitarist played the role of accompanying La Tobala's cante. La cantaora opted for a range of solemn styles, though she only reached the fullness of her discourse in the final tangos. Until then, she reviewed tonás, Córdoba alegrías and mirabrás, malagueña followed by different abandolaos styles and seguiriya. The artist moderately defended herself from the troubles for an instrument such as the voice caused by an up-close performance, backed by a trio on clapping. Pedro Sierra made it clear that in both registers he is one of the highest-level guitarists on today's scene.

Pedro Sierra (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

With just enough time to stroll from the Alcázar to Calle Francos, the crowd moved on now after nightfall to Sala La Compañía. Presenting their shared show there were young bailaores Manuel Liñán and Marcos Flores, precisely entitled ‘2 en compañía’ (‘2 in Company’). The show, premiered at Madrid's Sala Pradillo, combines solos with duos, within clean, minimalist esthetics. And closing the day was the pianist with the stage name La Reina Gitana (The Gypsy Queen) at Bodega de Los Apóstoles at the beginning of the late night.

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