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FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2007. EVA YERBABUENA
· CHICUELO · MARÍA JOSÉ FRANCO
Partial soleá eclipse
Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 8th, 2007
‘El huso de la memoria’.
Baile, choreography, artistic and stage director: Eva
Yerbabuena. Guest artist: Patrick de Bana. Special
collaboration: Aida Badía and Eduardo Lozano. Dance
corps: Mercedes de Córdoba, Choni, María
Moreno, Mariano Bernal, Eduardo Guerrero, Juan Manuel
Zurano, Alejandro Rodríguez. Guitar, composition,
musical director: Paco Jarana. Guitar: Manuel de la Luz.
Cante: Enrique Soto, Pepe de Pura, Jeromo Segura, Rafael
de Utrera. Percussion: Pájaro. Sax-flute: Ignacio
Vidaecha. Stage design: Óscar Mariné. Lighting
design: Raúl Perotti. Shoes: Begoña Cervera.
11th Festival de Jerez. Teatro Villamarta (Jerez, Cádiz),
March 8th, 2007. 9 p.m.
Eva Yerbabuena (Photo:
Daniel Muñoz)
Every night at the Teatro Villamarta
ends in an ovation. But there’s an ovation language.
Not all applause means the same thing. There have been
all kinds: enthusiastic, affectionate, polite, emotional,
cold, familiar. And the one Eva Yerbabuena received last
night, with the theater unanimously on its feet, clapping
for several minutes, got across recognition. The crowd
wanted to clearly state that she’s the top figure
in today’s flamenco dancing.
Eva
Yerbabuena came to Festival de Jerez with her new
show ‘El huso de la memoria’, which premiered
last October at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela.
And now with experience and certain touch-ups for the
better... still. The bailaora’s presences on stage
have been relocated, so that the show’s dynamics
are perfectly balanced. The first one, the mirabrás
with a bata de cola, her challenge in this show. And she’s
already overcome it. The bata and she, she and the bata
are already one. And at the same time, they’re memory...
and foam from a slow tide, which hardly splashes, but
has the immense sea behind it. The second one, the lullaby
with Patrick de Bana, now coming earlier in the program,
anchoring the show’s development in a lapse of spirituality.
It seems like stillness, but it’s slowness. Never
before had dancing been done so slowly.
The third and definitive one,
the soleá.
Making use of her memory, stringing along
recollections, it was inevitable... no matter how much
you resisted. Eva Yerbabuena is soleá. That’s
the space of trance, the one which condenses her being
as a flamenco bailaora. And at the same time, it’s
a novel and poetry, history and esthetics. And at the
same time, it’s spirit and cheering, a confession
and feeling.
Though this time the soleá wasn’t
a total eclipse, but just partial. And the thing is that
the show as a whole has enough weight to be worthwhile
by itself. Eva Yerbabuena has done a really complete job
in directing, planning and choreography, with regards
to staging a personal flamenco ballet from her time, exquisite
in its forms and what is harder, in the background. The
three-dimensional nature and elegance of the group’s
movement is the base to make up pictures such as the prelude
‘Taca-taca’, the farruca by the bailaores
‘A las cinco de la tarde’ and the impressive
‘A galera’, a danced percussion piece which
puts Córdoba-born Edu Lozano and La Yerbabuena’s
boundless musical creativity in the foreground. And speaking
of the music which can be heard, another “A”
for Paco
Jarana, who has once again created an outfit tailored
to the script. The score has passages of refined beauty,
like the lullaby. And the cante is right in its place.
Four contrasting voices, four visions, four channels to
guide the movement. The saetas sung ‘up front’
by Pepe de Pura are tremendous, face-to-face with Aida
Badía’s spiritual dancing. The passages by
both are chilling. And even more chilling when Aida turned
into Eva and Pepe into Enrique Soto; she, overcome on
the way to the voice, at the beginning... or at the end.
The perfect epilogue for a well-rounded job.
Click
the images to enlarge |
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| Pepe
de Pura & Aida Baida
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
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Eva Yerbabuena
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
Eva Yerbabuena
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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| Eva Yerbabuena
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
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Eva Yerbabuena
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
Eva Yerbabuena
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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Bordón y cuenta nueva Series.
Chicuelo
Chicuelo
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
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Chicuelo
closed the guitar series ‘Bordón
y cuenta nueva’. The Catalan guitarist
took over the stage in the late evening, when
the clerestory of the room of columns was
still filtering sunlight. He warmed up solo,
showing himself his own and flamenco. Next
with a box drum, violin and cante on stage,
he broadened the palette of colors of his
discourse, por alegrías, bulerías,
fandangos and rumba, among other styles, remixing
contents off his album and loans he has made
to cante. Miguel Poveda, who the final song
por tangos was dedicated to, couldn’t
resist taking part in the grand finale, sharing
another instant of art with he who has been
his squire so many times.
CD:
Chicuelo. Cómplices
DVD
+ BOOK: Chicuelo. La guitarra flamenca de
Chicuelo (DVD + BOOK) |
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Solos en Compañía
Series. María José Franco
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María
José Franco
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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The day’s formal schedule,
since the informal one went on until the wee
hours at peñas and bars, finished at
midnight with the performance by María
José Franco at the Sala Compañía.
The Jerez-born bailaora put on her show ‘De
grana y oro’, a personal work in which
she mixes her solo performances with her first
exercises moving the group, with cante, toque,
clapping and violin live. She had two outside
factors against her. One, dancing after Eva
Yerbabuena. Two, opening with a farruca on
the same stage where the night before it was
done by its inventor. Such is chance. After
displaying her curve por tangos, surrounded
by veteran singers, and her resoluteness por
soleá. And meanwhile, a triangle of
bailaoras, emulating Sara
Baras with trousers and canes. The conclusion
is that María José Franco’s
potential is huge, due to her knowledge, physique
and obstinacy. The good luck here is that
chances are given to young people who want
to fly solo. Though patience is necessary
to keep them afloat, the maestro said. |
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Presentation of the books ‘Todo
sobre flamenco’ and ‘Flamenco’
Activity continues at noon
at the Bodega de San Ginés. Following
the presentation a few days ago of José
Luis Navarro’s book ‘Tradición
y vanguardia. El baile de hoy. El baile de
mañana’, the authors of two books
aiming to spread flamenco universally were
gathered at the presentation table. ‘Todo
sobre flamenco’ by Silvia Calado
is a book published in Spanish and English
which, as the author explained, “springs
from detecting, as an enthusiast and as a
journalist, large gaps of information. In
flamenco people are like ashamed to ask, and
my challenge has been to combat that impenetrability
with a very practical, very synthetic book
at the reach of any reader”. Moreover,
German journalist Kersten Knipp presented
his work ‘Flamenco’, also an informational
book published in German with which he aims
to correct “the confusion of the German
public, who know very little about flamenco”.
The show focuses on subjects like history,
foreign influences, families of musical styles,
the role of business and Spain’s cultural
context.
Silvia Calado
and Kersten Knipp
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz)
BOOK:
Silvia Calado. Todo sobre flamenco
BOOK:
José Luis Navarro. Tradición
y vanguardia |
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Y mañana... Israel Galván,
‘Arena’
Cante, baile and contrasts.
The festival reaches its next-to-the-last
day with a varied lineup. The most traditional
baile of artists such as Carmen Ledesma, who
will be at the Sala Compañía
in the evening sharing the bill with Pilar
Ortega, is not incompatible with the most
radical avant-garde of ‘Arena’
by Israel
Galván. The Sevillian bailaor explained
that “the idea is to dance, not give
a message in favor of or against bullfighting.
I wanted to show my vision of it, which has
philosophy, art and also something really
beastly”. While he goes on upholding
shows which are already finished, he’s
already underway with his next project, ‘Apocalipsis’.
The show will premiere at the upcoming Bienal
Málaga en Flamenco 2007, but a preliminary
sketch in the shape of ‘work in progress’
was given at a dance festival in the French
city of Brest.
Pilar Ortega · Carmen Ledesma. Sala
Compañía (7 p.m.)
Israel
Galván, ‘Arena’. Teatro
Villamarta (9 p.m.)
Melchora
Ortega · Mariana Cornejo. Bodega
Los Apóstoles (midnight) |
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