2006 JEREZ FLAMENCO FESTIVAL. JOAQUÍN GRILO

A decade of flamenco dancing

Silvia Calado. Jerez, February 24th, 2006
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

‘A solas’. Joaquín Grilo: baile, direction, choreography. Esther Jurado: baile. Diego Amador (Piano, cante): guest artist. Daniel Méndez, Paco Iglesias: guitar. Carmen Grilo, José Valencia: cante. Pablo Martín: contrabass. Alexis Lefevre: violin. Antonio Montiel: percussion. Daniel Méndez: mandolin. Joaquín Flores, Bo: clapping. 10th Jerez Flamenco Festival 2006. Teatro Villamarta. Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), February 24th, 2006. 9 p.m.

	Joaquín Grilo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

A decade. It's Festival de Jerez's anniversary. And it celebrates with an extensive sixteen-day program which has room for every expression of today's baile. Large-scale performances, up-close-and-personal recitals, alternative shows, training courses, round-tables... will all shape up an essential bill on flamenco's annual agenda. And not only the Jerez natives know that, but also several hundred people coming from all over the world who now fill up the city. You just had to take a peek at the square outside the theater in the afternoon to see the event's success: there was a constant line at the box office.

The inauguration of this tenth edition was assigned to Joaquín Grilo, one of Jerez flamenco's crown jewels... and flamenco's. And he chose the premiere of a show with a storyline entitled ‘A solas’ (‘Alone’). It is not rare in this world of dramatic flamenco dancing for it to be necessary to read the program in order to understand the plot, based on the novel ‘El guardián de la luz’ (‘The Guardian of the Light’) by Sergio Bambaren. In practice, basically, he managed to get across the idea of nostalgia for the past - call it success, freshness, love - and the inevitable arrival of death. And in this conceptual context, in which characters and actions escaped, Joaquín Grilo put in more flashes of bailes than complete bailes with which he captivated the crowd unconditionally. He had sublime moments like the series of ‘patás’ through bulerías and the alegrías, displays not only of technique, art and reliability, but also of such charisma which sometimes leads to something that could be called self-parody. And it's not because last night he decided to play an old bailaor in the show's first piece. It's not easy to explain that instant when something possesses him, when he goes into a sort of trance, when someone pulls on the strings... or drops them.

Joaquín Grilo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

The bailaor, attired in a suit with a golden jacket, also acted as a musician, arranging with his feet's percussion the piece on the piano by his guest, Diego Amador. And the thing is that in general, it's a show with the full presence of music, with sweet, fluent compositions on guitar, percussion and violin. They maintain a uniform color, in tune with the numerous dreamy passages starring dancer Esther Jurado alone (to be noted, the contrabass solo she was graced with by Pablo Martín so that she could glide around the stage) or as the star's dance partner. Cante also played a major role. And in fact, as indicated in the libretto, Carmen Grilo played the role of ‘The Soul of Love’ and José Valencia that of the ‘Specter (The Artist's Ghost)’. Roles aside, the cantaora put her sweet, baroque cante at the service of several numbers requiring a nostalgic climate. Meanwhile, it was José Valencia's turn to be authoritarian and pour out his torrential voice unhesitatingly.

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