FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2010. RAFAELA CARRASCO, ‘VAMOS AL TIROTEO’

From the inside to the outside

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 5th, 2010

‘Vamos al tiroteo’. Baile: Rafaela Carrasco, David Coria, Ricardo López, José Maldonado, Pedro Córdoba. Cante: Antonio Campos, Gema Caballero. Guitar: Jesús Torres, Juan Antonio Suárez ‘Cano’. Piano: Pablo Maldonado. Cello: José Luis López. Director: Rafaela Carrasco. 14th Festival de Jerez. Teatro Villamarta. Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), March 5th, 2010. 9 p.m.

Rafaela Carrasco (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

The applause meter reached its peak. It reached that level which, fueled by foot stamping, clapping and even olés to the beat, is only achieved two or three times throughout the festival. Rafaela Carrasco got it just right in Jerez with her ‘Vamos al tiroteo’, a show in which she gives her personal look, and that of her crew of musicians and bailaores, at the repertoire of folk songs recorded by Lorca and La Argentinita in 1931. The starting point isn’t original a priori, but the creativity is which the Sevillian bailaora and choreographer applies to it. And the first key lies in the music, since Jesús Torres, Cano, Pablo Suárez and José Luis López have built a soundtrack which could be called original, leaving the slate recording as inspiration. Even the cantaores - both brilliant - give the songs their own edge, and if Antonio Campos turns ‘Anda jaleo’ into a petenera, Gema Caballero takes ‘Las morillas de Jaén’ to slow tangos. Although the musical part has an entity of its own and could be listened to as a concert, of course it’s conceived for and through baile... as she understands baile.

She understands it as a vision of sound and esthetics which has been her trademark since she made her début on this very same stage with ‘La música del cuerpo’. Compared to that first creative offer of hers, with ‘Vamos al tiroteo’ she’s lost in bravery and subtlety, but she’s gained in connection to the receiver. Here, she doesn’t head inwards nor does she force perception; here the message offered is complete, easy and direct. That’s what happens when you begin with a well-known outside reference, and not personal motivation. But maybe that ‘click’ was necessary in her career, that opening up and approaching, that letting herself be applauded, without betraying her artistic principles too much.

Rafaela Carrasco Company (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Rafaela Carrasco (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

Students on stage Final of Javier Latorre’s Choreography Workshop Sala Paúl, 7 p.m. For the first time, they also felt the tingling of being in front of an audience. At the Sala Paúl, the pupils of Javier Latorre’s Choreography Workshop presented the result of six days’ work to shape a group choreography. The show surprised and thrilled those present, due to the mastery of the one directing them and the discipline of those performing the piece. Twenty people with twenty levels, twenty ages and nearly twenty different nationalities. Final of Javier Latorre's Choreography Workshop (Photo Daniel Muñoz) “It means giving the usual course a little step further, since apart from working on baile, it tries to show the students how a choreography is set up, the wealth of geometry, the intensities, the closes, the group movement, the musical treatment… None of them had done a group choreography before and they’ve achieved it with discipline and devotion. They’re going to feel the thrill and pressure here of coming out on stage and facing the audience”, Latorre explained beforehand. And it was he himself who first preached with an example, extraordinarily returning to the stage, with a sensitive solo por tientos, wearing jeans, glasses and to the sound of a recording played and sung (!) by Chicuelo. Karen Lugo por martinete and, in a pair, Carlos Carbonell and Chiqui de Jerez each gave friendly touches to extend the length and warm those who had the courage to forget about the mirror and face a jam-packed... crowd.