MÁLAGA EN FLAMENCO 2007
ISRAEL GALVÁN, ‘EL FINAL DE ESTE ESTADO DE
COSAS’
Israel strikes again
Julián Benavides. Málaga, September
29th, 2007
Israel Galván,
‘El final de este estado de cosas’. Baile,
choreography and stage director: Israel Galván.
Artistic director: Pedro G. Romero. Guitar: Alfredo Lagos.
Cante: Diego Carrasco, Fernando Terremoto, Juan José
Amador. Baile, clapping and compás: Bobote. Percussions:
José Carrasco. Poet: David Pielfort. “Orthodox”:
Marco Serrato (bass), Ricardo Jiménez (guitar),
Borja Díaz (drums). ProyectoEle: José Manuel
Gil, Carlos Cansino, Miguel Hernández, Vicky Noguero,
Jesús Romero, Diego Vargas, Raquel Vela. Proyecto
Lorca: Antonio Moreno (percussions), Juan Jiménez
(saxes). Festival Málaga en Flamenco 2007. Teatro
Las Lagunas (Mijas), September 29th, 2007. 9 p.m.
Israel Galván
with 'El final de este estado de cosas' (Photo Israel
Galván Company) |
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Sevillian bailaor Israel
Galván has managed for each and every new show
of his to be looked forward to, which occurred once more
with this premiere in which he displays his personal vision
of the biblical Apocalypse, which lured his followers
and many of his colleagues to the Teatro de Las Lagunas.
As in other cases, his baile seduced everyone; the show
as a whole is something else, which is harsh at instants,
but moreover long and with an extensive build-up of pictures.
He relies on resources of the most diverse conditions
in them, nearly all of them having an impact, though some
of them seemed to hold up the show’s continuity:
a heavy metal band to shake up consciences through distortion
(Terremoto
fought with them in the saeta) and a contemporary group
to cause restlessness within a gloomy atmosphere.
Other components of the show do offer
more dynamism, as was the case of the verdiales gang,
a top-notch instrumental group that offered some really
intense moments, a duel with cante flamenco which it ended
up converging with, and the transit to a tarantella which
would drive the bailaor mad. A similar appraisal has to
be made of the contribution by Proyecto Lorca, which added
chromaticism in an interesting game with cante. Lastly,
the poetry recited by David Pielfort didn’t leave
the crowd indifferent, either. Israel’s restlessness
goes from the religious to the social and the global.
In the latter aspect, the letter received from Beirut
and the video projected by his Lebanese student dancing
in front of a real recording of the war in her country
was a direct wake-up call to consciences.
And as always, first-rate cante and toque
for his baile. An environment in which Israel displays
his best forms, more brilliant if possible on this occasion.
Nobody like him can trace the game with the times of a
Diego
Carrasco, translate Terremoto’s jondura or adapt
to the canon marked by Juan
José Amador. All of them strung together by
the inspired guitar of Alfredo
Lagos. From the initial collection of Christmas carols
to the batch of bulerías beaten out amidst coffins,
with the seguiriya in between which the bailaor would
perform on a mobile, unsteady platform, a dramatic metaphor,
perhaps, of the futility of things until their extreme
expression in the baile with, on or inside the coffin.
Inspired baile, full of surprising, unforeseen instants,
of a thousand games satisfying in their plenitude: that’s
the Galván school and concept, which seems to destructure
the classical forms while still remaining flamenco. That’s
what stays on the retina. But also his other shows, which
will go on rolling around in your brain even though they
might have been hard to stomach on stage.
