FESTIVAL DE JEREZ 2011. MERCEDES RUIZ, 'PERSPECTIVAS'

A bailaora’s beyond

Silvia Calado. Jerez, March 10th, 2011

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'Perspectivas'. Mercedes Ruiz: idea, dance, choreography. David Lagos, Melchora Ortega, El Lavi: cante. Santiago Lara, Paco Lara: guitar. Perico Navarro: percussion. Javier Peñas: clapping. Santiago Lara: musical direction. Francisco López: script, stage direction, lighting. 15th Festival de Jerez. Teatro Villamarta. Jerez (Cádiz, Spain), March 10th, 2011. 9:00 pm

Mercedes Ruiz (Photo Daniel Muñoz)

The idea of taking a step further had been going around in Mercedes Ruiz’s head for some time. And she understood that what she needed was an outside point of view. So she put herself in the hands of Francisco López, with an extensive career in stage directing in poetry and in flamenco, with shows such as 'El Loco' by the Ballet Nacional de España (Spanish National Ballet) and '¡Viva Jerez!'. And judging by what was seen last night at the Teatro Villamarta, they’ve achieved the aim together. 'Perspectivas' gives the Jerez-born artist a new way to lay out her baile and her shows, but without transgressing what she is as a bailaora. Now then, don’t expect her deep seguiriyas and get ready to be surprised... a lot.

The show is structured in four sequences, which are spaces more open than the styles. The canonical structures stretch, overlap or transgress, although the expressive nature each style requires continues intact... even enlarged. That’s how the main episode is conceived, where Mercedes Ruiz invents herself in a “caña grande”, in which, with a bata de cola and shawl, she deploys a mighty battery of bailaora weapons, with scarcely a sound of footwork. Her hands are what work, as if saying that other forms are possible... or that the same forms can be reconsidered. A conclusion which other colleagues of her generation have already reached.

It’s no coincidence that you can read in huge letters the word: LIVE. Nor is it a coincidence how the cantes and music are strung together, in a continuous flow whose internal substance ends up not being perceived just in the function. Santiago Lara, just like the bailaora, has self-published his sound, which he performs together with Paco Lara’s matching guitar. And the cante, with the words well-uttered, marked musical taste and a role beyond vocals, glitters with the greatness of David Lagos as the core, but also puts Melchora Ortega back on the map, as versatile as ever, and confirms the stakes generalized by El Lavi. The Jerez-born artist came to pay a bright tribute to Carmen Amaya, dressed in green with a short jacket, alternating small cymbals and castanets. And here the stress fell on nerve, speed and precision. On the backdrop, the mythical bailaora’s arrival in Spain was shown, footage which was set in one of the white frames of a Mondrian, whose fragments gave different color backgrounds throughout the show, in a solution pending perfecting technically and artistically. 

Mercedes Ruiz (Foto Daniel Muñoz)

 

If the unpredictable had already been a key factor, it became even more relevant in the final stretch, where she brought out her other self to shine. That intimist bailaora we used to know turned into a determined artist and a bit brazen, not just able to be flirtatious, but also to take the singing voice. Tangos, rumbas, tanguillos and great-grandmothers’ songs intertwine in a final sequence in which, dressed in a lamé pantsuit, wearing a hat and with virtuoso footwork, she takes full command of the stage. With one ovation after another in the theater, she was satisfied and happy, outgoing and thankful for what life has given her since, when she was that little girl who could be seen in the black-and-white photos in the background, she dedicated her existence to art.

Festival de Jerez 2011. Mercedes Ruiz, 'Perspectivas'
Photo gallery, by Daniel Muñoz