FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2007. MERCEDES RUIZ
What a generation
Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 6th, 2007
‘Juncá’.
Mercedes Ruiz: baile, choreography, artistic
director. Nano, Carlos Carbonell: baile. David Lagos,
El Londro, Jesús Méndez, David Palomar:
cante. Santiago Lara: guitar, music. Javier Ibáñez:
guitar. Jesús Lavilla: piano. Perico Navarro: percussion.
11th Festival de Jerez. Teatro Villamarta (Jerez, Cádiz),
March 6th, 2007. 9 p.m.
Mercedes Ruiz (Photo: Daniel
Muñoz)
Mercedes
Ruiz grows up in Jerez. And growing with her is her
new show ‘Juncá’, to the point of being
one of the ones getting the warmest welcome at this festival.
Left behind was that ‘dress rehearsal’ which
was displayed at the last Bienal de Sevilla. The Jerez-born
bailaora has taken the show back up with momentum to put
it on ‘terrific’ in her hometown, the city
which it is moreover inspired by. And the thing is that
‘Juncá’ is a tribute to the flamenco
in her neighborhood of San Miguel; that is to say, to
historic figures such as La Paquera, Antonio Chacón,
Manuel Torres and Lola Flores. But from the viewpoint
of today’s flamencos. And the thing is that a generation
of artists comes together in this show who guarantee that
which is so high in demand; for flamenco to continue advancing,
but without losing sight of memory.
On the baile side, Mercedes Ruiz unites
restlessness and local technique in a dazzling way. She
has the capacity and good taste to relish the arm movement,
containing her feet until just the right moment. She interrupts
the cante very few times with heel tapping, which she
uses wisely and powerfully when it’s necessary.
The rest is arm movement, stance, movement in the air
and complete complicity with the cante. And the stress
has to be made here, since the four cantaores she had
with her foretell a long, healthy life for the vocal front
of this artform. Each one a world apart; David
Lagos, El Londro, Jesús Méndez and David
Palomar managed to balance their knowledge and personality.
They offered instants of genuine pleasure which the crowd
awarded with olés and cheering. What a generation.
And the same applies to guitar. Santiago
Lara is the author of the show’s music, which
gives it support and a common thread when silence doesn’t
come into play. He isn’t just an accompanying guitarist,
but something more... He’d already proven it a few
days ago at Bodega de Los Apóstoles with the live
show of what will be his first album, ‘El sendero
de lo imposible’. The ‘group’ was completed
with Jesús Lavilla on piano for the zambra by Lola
Flores, which the star danced in a red bata de cola to
the winding cante of Cádiz-born David
Palomar. Moreover, both the percussion and the second
guitar were well-measured and timely. And there was adornment
of male baile to open and close the show, following the
‘alianda’ by La Paquera. With regards to the
technical elements, everything was up to the grandeur
of the Teatro Villamarta, although the lights were wrong,
inasmuch as they played with the blinding spotlight aimed
at the crowd, who took advantage of the withdrawal by
Málaga-born David Lagos – by the way, chilling
– to complain. But the episode was a mere anecdote,
since what was experienced at the theater was pure pleasure.
And that spread to the stage, where a grand finale worth
remembering was offered.
Mercedes Ruiz on 'Juncá'
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
And tomorrow... Toni el Pelao &
La Uchi
The premieres by young artists
cause expectation, but so does the fact that
for the first time, representation from the
only family of bailaores flamenco has ever
known comes to Festival de Jerez. Toni el
Pelao and La Uchi appear at Sala Compañía
as the main event on the night of Wednesday,
March 7th, when the Teatro Villamarta –where,
by the way, El Pelao danced fifty years ago
as La Chunga’s dance partner –
will be closed in order to set up Eva Yerbabuena’s
show. There, in the intimacy and solemnity
of what used to be Compañía
de Jesús Church, the veteran maestros
present their show ‘Puro flamenco’,
accompanied on cante by Talegón de
Córdoba and Yeye de Cádiz, and
on toque by Juan Serrano and José Amaya.
Alluding to the series ‘A-compás-a-dos’,
the bailaores in this family coming from Jerez
will kick things off with the caña,
a picture-perfect baile they perform as a
pair, old-style. Solo, the bailaor will perform
the mythical farruca which has been the family
trademark since it was created as a baile
by his uncle El Gato, who bequeathed it to
Antonio Gades, universalizing it. As El Pelao
related at the press conference, “Pilar
López took him to London and gave him
a suite and five hundred thousand pesetas...
back then!, to set up the farruca for Antoñito”.
And the thing is that these two artists summarize
the memory of nearly a century of flamenco
art, including the great world tours and the
golden age of tablaos, where they forged their
art to the beat marked by guitarists of the
likes of Paco de Lucía and Paco Cepero
and cantes such as those of Camarón
de la Isla and La Paquera de Jerez.
Toni el Pelao
and La Uchi (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
José Méndez • Diego Agujetas.
Palacio de Villavicencio (7 p.m.)
Toni el Pelao & La Uchi. Sala Compañía
(9 p.m.)
Domingo Patricio Trio. Bodega Los Apóstoles
(midnight)
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