FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2009. MERCEDES RUIZ, ‘MI ÚLTIMO SECRETO’

The secret: dancing

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 11th, 2009

Festival de Jerez 2009. Reviews index

Mercedes Ruiz. Photo gallery, by Daniel Muñoz

Mercedes Lúján • María José Pérez

Soraya Clavijo, ‘Por la carreterita vieja’

And tomorrow… Carmen Cortés • Carmen Iniesta

‘Mi último secreto’. Mercedes Ruiz: baile, choreography, artistic director. Vanesa Reyes, Carmen Herrera: baile. Londro, David Lagos: cante. Santiago Lara: guitar, musical director. Javier Ibáñez: guitar. María López: violin. Juan Díaz: cello. Paco Lobo: contrabass. Perico Navarro: percussion. Javier Peña: clapping. Javier Latorre: special choreography collaboration. 13th Festival de Jerez. Teatro Villamarta. Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), March 11th, 2009. 9 p.m.

Mercedes Ruiz (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

The business about the secret had created certain expectations. Mercedes Ruiz promised to reveal it only on stage, where “another side of me which not even I myself knew” would see the light. But after seeing the show, the truth is that we can’t say what exactly was so previously unseen that she wanted to make public at last. What was seen at the Teatro Villamarta was a continuation of the Jerez-born bailaora’s work, but it was more elaborate, more calculated and more formalistic than her previous shows. And what she showed above all was a bailaora who is purer and purer and more and more convinced of her lexicon, but without giving up her recurrent references. In view of that reality of the bailaora, her audience surrendered to her without further ado.

She opened the show by listening to her own voice under the light bulb of ‘Santo y seña’. “I’m a bailaora who’s in front of you and she has something to tell you”, she said while she threw together cuttings and cascades of castanets to the sound of the percussion piece by Paquito González. The specific collaboration of two bailaoras breathed certain dynamics and freshness into the first scene. Some farruca lyrics by David Lagos, accompanied by Javier Ibáñez, served as a hinge. In that style, which she’d already done last year in ‘¡Viva Jerez!’, she delved deeply into the neatness and sobriety of her steps and movements. She was wearing trousers. She tautened the rests. She projected metal coldness. She listened to Londro and Santiago Lara, her musical half. She received applause.

Mercedes Ruiz (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Lagos announced blackberries. Londro announced flowers. And by the time the lights came on, the guitars and box drum formed rows in the middle of the stage. Without moving away from those two meters, the bailaora concentrated the bulería por soleá, a baile attentive to the cante, the very sparks of the gathering, the low arm movement, the arched back, the sensationalist phrasing of tips and heels. Scarcely a string introduction, and the bailaora came back out on stage with a shawl. The granaína as a landscape on which to sketch diva-like poses full of plastic art, before the two bailaoras decorated it once again. Both of them took care of closing the number por rondeñas and, following an atmospheric guitar passage, the close came early. And to do so, she chose a number with a bata de cola also very close to her second solo last year. If they were cantiñas back then, now they’re the first cousins from Madrid; that is to say, the caracoles. Decked out in blue, attentive to her figure, movement around stage and body shapes, she finishes with the opposite of what’s expected: with an elegant decrescendo in which the lights, music, cante and baile fade out. Mercedes Ruiz left without revealing any secret … and with a standing ovation from the theater.

Mercedes Ruiz, 'Mi último secreto' Photo gallery, by Daniel Muñoz Click the image to view photo gallery

Mercedes Luján • María José Pérez Palacio de Villavicencio, 7 p.m. Mercedes Luján (Photo Daniel Muñoz) The ‘Los conciertos de Palacio’ Series was closed with female toque and cante. The first half of the evening starred guitarist Mercedes Luján, from between Murcia and Jerez. And although her performance is still green - in fact, it was her first solo recital -, she showed self-confidence on stage, an attitude to build her discourse and interesting handling of her right hand. She began her recital with a soleá dedicated “to the people who lost their loved ones in the attack on March 11th”. And she ended it with bulerías by Moraíto, whom she had previously called to ask him permission. “Would you mind if …?”, she asked him. “Niece, I wouldn’t mind, I’d love it”, he responded. And she did her utmost to perform the loan … or so it seemed, since once again the unwise use of the box drum in these concerts without mikes drowned out a great deal of the recital. María José Pérez (Photo Daniel Muñoz) On the contrary, the performance by María José Pérez already had the ocher color of a state of ripeness. The Almería-born cantaora has already taken the reins of her solo career and, with her first album already in hand, she came to prove it to Festival de Jerez. The accompaniment by Granada-born Miguel Ochando contributed greatly to the recital being as smooth as silk. She began with a precious granaína y media, in which she displayed surprising control of her voice. Listening to her is a real acoustic experience. She continued with a hybrid between alegrías and soleá which, with lyrics by Ortiz Nuevo, opens her first solo album. A real oddity. The seguiriya revealed other deeper inflections in her. And she finished por bulerías. After some unsuccessful parts and a saucy reference to ‘Mi niña Lola’, she re-directed them towards a brilliant finish in which she stuck in fandangos and displayed distinction on stage learnt beside Mario Maya who, by the way, is centering a congress these days at the Andalusian Flamenco Center.

Soraya Clavijo, ‘Por la carreterita vieja’ Sala Compañía, 24 horas Soraya Clavijo (Photo Daniel Muñoz) Fernando de la Morena’s huge trilla opened ‘Por la carreterita vieja’ by Jerez-born bailaora Soraya Clavijo, a traditional show seeking the idiosyncrasy of flamenco lands such as Seville and Jerez.