2009 Jerez Festival. Carmen Cortés. Review and photos

FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2009. CARMEN CORTÉS, ‘MUJERES DE LORCA’

Theater-dance-heel

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 12th, 2009

Festival de Jerez 2009. Reviews index

And tomorrow… Carmen Cortés • Carmen Iniesta

‘Mujeres de Lorca’. Carmen Cortés: baile, choreography. Trinidad Artíguez, Virginia Murcia, Tamara González, Laura Cantero, Carmen Lozano, Fernanda Borria, Silvia Rincón: dance corps. Guadiana, Charo Manzano, Salvador Barrull, Carmen Carmona: cante. Jesús de Rosario, Iván Losada: guitar. Cepillo: percussion. Fernando Bernués: director. Tomás Afán: dramatic art. Faustino Núñez: musical director. Federico García Lorca: dramas. 13th Festival de Jerez. Teatro Villamarta. Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), March 12th, 2009. 9 p.m.


Carmen Cortés (Photos Daniel Muñoz)

The critics don’t need to say it. The crowd has already spoken. Out of all the shows which have been put on at the Teatro Villamarta in this Festival de Jerez, ‘Mujeres de Lorca’ by Carmen Cortés was the only one which didn’t make the audience applaud to the beat. Something that we were beginning to take for granted and which, as was proven last night, has its minimum requirements. And this show, which the Catalan bailaora has been performing for at least three years now, neither drew a large enough crowd nor enthused the one that was there.

The show, which had already been performed at Bienal de Sevilla 2006, is based on several female characters from the plays of Federico García Lorca: ‘La casa de Bernarda Alba’, ‘Yerma’, ‘La zapatera prodigiosa’, ‘Mariana Pineda’, ‘Doña Rosita la Soltera’ and ‘Bodas de sangre’. And it deals with them in six passages in which the dramatic language is laboriously assembled with those of dance and music, the latter section highlighted by Guadiana on vocals and Jesús de Rosario on toque. And the veteran bailaora isn’t always the only one to take up the limelight, but rather she shares it with a dance corps consisting of seven women. However, it’s her baile which specifically focuses attention on the show’s evolution. The artist has ways of moving around which bear a very personal trademark. She simplifies the technical to the max and magnifies the dramatic and temperamental expression. But perhaps her current dilemma isn’t so much that (de)limitation, but rather facing the audience in a solo situation, in the midst of veneration towards the older maestros and fascination towards the freshness of consolidated or blossoming young talents.

Compañía Carmen Cortés (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

And the theater doesn’t seem to resolve it. Less so, when the idea is not to go deeply into a single text by the writer from Fuentevaqueros, but rather several ones. Which perhaps involves a clear risk of remaining on the surface. Precisely the forms are the most eye-catching part of the show, because of a poetic mountain of flamenco shoes and the repetitive play on that element is done in every scene. Shoes, shoes, boots… and little shoes.

Technical Days. Baile Figures: Mario Maya
Andalusian Flamenco Center, March 10th to 12th

Belén Maya and Israel Galván (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

At the same time as the already complete activities program of Festival de Jerez 2009, on the last three days the ‘Technical Days. Baile Figures: Mario Maya’ are being carried out. Researchers, analysts and, above all, dance artists close to the bailaor and choreographer have brought together their viewpoints at the Andalusian Flamenco Center. And there, the sessions on theory have been intertwined with the commented projections of audiovisuals of his most outstanding shows. One of the most interesting round-tables was the one starring Belén Maya and Israel Galván, who were dancers of the Compañía Andaluza de Danza (Andalusian Dance Company) when he was its director and are now two of his artistic ‘heirs’. And it isn’t because they duplicate his work, but rather because they apply to their respective shows much of the criteria which they learned from him. Belén Maya recognizes that “until recently, I hadn’t begun to understand what he was saying and why he was saying it”. And she points out aspects like “the concept of the measurement of time, he looked after the lighting to the max, the transitions, the wardrobe details … and I’ve taken in all that information little by little”. Israel Galván recalls that in his early days as a teenager, “Mario Maya was a shock. When I saw him in videos, I was impressed by his transgression with his body. And then when I started working with him when I was eighteen, it was another shock to run into the discipline he imposed on me”. In that stage, the Sevillian bailaor says that “he made me work from head to toe”. As a result, he recognizes that “coming out on stage bearing his mark gave me a lot of confidence; I set foot on stage differently”. Belén Maya, who joins her professional relationship with her personal relationship with her father, pointed out that “shows like ‘Camelamos naquerar’ and ‘¡Ay!, jondo’ marked me due to their tone of protest, for being brave, for being political, for being modern … And I’ve always wanted to do that; not dancing for the sake of dancing, but rather colliding”. Just like Mario took his own road, a different one from that of his maestra Pilar López, Maya and Galván were ready to take their own. And they coincide in a common feature: “Every bailaor who has ever been in Mario Maya’s hands has a bonus in concept”.

Further information

Special Feature. Reflections by Mario Maya

And tomorrow …

· Jesús Aguilera, ‘Momentos flamencos’. Sala Compañía, 7 p.m.
· Antonio Márquez Company, ‘Antonio’. Teatro Villamarta, 9 p.m.
· Pepe Habichuela & Dave Holland. Bodega Los Apóstoles, midnight

“In my professional life I’ve always been instilled with love and discipline for the work of the dance greats, and Antonio was the maestro of maestros”. With this declaration of intentions, Antonio Márquez summarizes his tribute to legendary figure Antonio Ruiz Soler which he will present on Friday at the Teatro Villamarta. With ‘Antonio’, the Sevillian dancer and choreographer recovers 18 of the “most emblematic” pieces which the tributee left as a legacy to Spanish dance and flamenco dancing. Characterized with a wardrobe inspired by the 1940’s, Márquez himself plays the role of Ruiz Soler in his early years, while veteran dancer Paco Romero brings the artist to life towards the end of his existence. The next-to-the-last day of the Jerez festival is completed with ‘Momentos flamencos’, by Jesús Aguilera, in the evening at the Sala Compañía. The bailaor, who has been trained as an artist together with Cristina Hoyos and María Pagés, will have guitarist Pedro Sierra as guest artist, who will back a show “conceived for the audience to enjoy and feel freely what flamenco is, without a storyline or any kind of rhetoric”. Then late night at the Bodega Los Apóstoles, Granada-born guitarist Pepe Habichuela and English bass player Dave Holland will stage their session between flamenco and jazz which they have been performing at diverse stages throughout Spain. The experience, which will soon give rise to an album, also has the collaboration of guitarist Josemi Carmona.