2006 JEREZ FLAMENCO FESTIVAL. MERCHE ESMERALDA/ MANOLO MARÍN/
RAFAEL CAMPALLO/ ADELA CAMPALLO

Apotheosis of baile

Silvia Calado. Jerez, February 27th, 2006
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

Merche Esmeralda, Manolo Marín, Rafael Campallo, Adela Campallo: baile. Javier Patino, Juan Campallo, Luis Miguel Manzano: guitar. Juan José Amador, Jesús Méndez, Charo Manzano: cante. José Carrasco: percussion. 10th Jerez Festival 2006. Teatro Villamarta. Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), February 27th, 2006. 9 p.m.

Unanimity is seldom beheld. And before the gala joining Merche Esmeralda, Manolo Marín, Rafael Campallo and Adela Campallo on stage, it's there. The audience and critics alike enjoyed themselves before this unusual display of monumental flamenco dancing, reeled off in a gala without further embellishment than apt lighting, impeccable sound quality and a correct backgound. Entitled Gala de Andalucía and with some additions to the group of artists, it has already delighted crowds in New York and London as a main event of Flamenco Festival USA and Flamenco Festival London 2006. And it was a really good choice to share it with Jerez. Neither props nor a plot. Two couples. Two generations. Seville. And Merche Esmeralda's marvelous soleá in a bata de cola

Rafael Campallo y Adela Campallo
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Martinete for the introduction. An overhead spotlight for each. Four touches to display four personalities. And a closing as one, with what joins them. Next, a duet. Adela Campallo flaps her wings, with a lovely picture of an impeccable hairdo and light-colored dress bursting with tiny frills. Rafael Campallo comes out to match her and her elegant movement. A dance for two, face to face. Fluently. Knowing how to be in a neither romantic nor sugary duo. Obvious complicity before the voice in off of La Macanita and Niño de Pura's toque. They just stand firm before the crowd to finish off. The box drum solo could be done without. Javier Patino sketches out the alegrías on the guitar. And Rafael Campallo comes back out on stage. Clean, precise, flirtatious... and with that pinch of cockiness that makes baile a shared act from the stage outwards. An olé for those sybaritic finishing touches of scarcely a turn of the head, following the greater skilled madness.

The eye of the hurricane is located here in the middle of the gala. Merche Esmeralda, enthroned on a rush-bottomed chair. Charo Manzano sings at her feet through soleá. A shiver comes over the theater when she starts take-off. Slowly. Ever so slowly. She tangles her upright head with her arms, making a thousand filigrees with her hands. Impressive. What a beautiful woman. What beauty in her winding, unhurried movement. She and the black bata de cola with white polka dots are as one, the way the Sevillian canons dictate. The train doesn't move; the train levitates. Only she kisses the floor with the extreme arch of her back. Delicatessen. And through bulerías, she wants to dish out wit and tradition, close and abrupt flamenco which is being left in the distance with the passing of time. “Art and majesty”, as the cantaora says. Adela Campallo had the difficult task of facing the audience following the maestra's appearance. But, thanks to the difference, she managed to pass the test with flying colors. Old-fashioned Jerez cante. Jesús Méndez through seguiriyas. The Sevillian bailaora relaxes her arm movement, the language of her hips, her beautiful figure. And when landing, when striking and being vehement, she closes the circle as a complete bailaora and in full swing of maturing.

Merche Esmeralda (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Manolo Marín (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Maestro Manolo Marín, who has forged an entire batch of bailaores at his school in Triana, makes his appearance warmed by a solid ovation. He offers some sketches through tientos, a few lessons on an ageless artform. Poise, rest, wisdom. To the sound of the tangos, Merche Esmeralda comes in. And together they enjoy and have the crowd enjoy sensual, savory tangos simmered on the Triana shore of the Guadalquivir. She's in command, eating up the stage, helicoidal, shrinking her height to put herself at the same level as her partner and to turn even more canastera. The theater boils. And still remaining is the grand finale, choreographed like the initial martinete, since that's what maestro Marín wanted to get away from the typical ‘casual’ festival. It's now time for the individual ‘patás’. Adela opens and finishes off by bringing out her brother. Manolo Marín remembers Enrique el Cojo. And Merche Esmeralda closes by polishing the craftiest and most streetwise flamenco. The two couples withdraw amidst applause. Absolutely the entire theater rises to a standing ovation unanimously. A night of confirmation. Long live flamenco!

From dramatic baile to temperamental baile Fuensanta la Moneta (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)       And that wasn't all that happened. The day started off around noon with the gathering at Bodega de San Ginés with artists performing tomorrow and the round-table on dramatic flamenco dancing participated in by theoretician José Luis Navarro, lyricist and scriptwriter Juan José Téllez and choreographer and bailaor Javier Latorre. They conversed, from experience and study, about the vicissitudes of this facet inaugurating ‘Quejío’ by Salvador Távora, stressing deficiencies, especially on behalf of the choreographer: “You've got to have desire, information, training, a team and seriousness, which is what usually doesn't work”. Téllez also lodged an interesting complaint: “Why aren't flamenco shows revived?”. Concluding with that question in the air was the debate, which was followed just a few hours later on the program by the recital of Fuensanta la Moneta at Teatro de Guadalcacín. The involvement of the pupils from the courses didn't seem to make a handicap out of the distance to this venue. With the theater full - about two hundred seats - the Granada-born bailaora had the chance to display three baile solos, accompanied by three cantaores and two guitarists, little involved in the story. La Moneta needed to stroll through the soleá and the fandango abandolao as a warm-up to reach the seguiriya at her prime. It was then that her feline genius gushed forth, her Manuela Carrasco-style stamp, that temperamental dancing she can do just with her eyes.

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