On fame and other things flamenco (first part)

Mario Maya. Jerez, February, 2002

(An article presented by the dancer and choreographer from Granada, Mario Maya, at a round table discussion as part of the scheduled programming for the Sixth Festival de Jerez, February 28th, 2002 in the Bodega de San Ginés)

The powers that be, socially determine the direction to be followed by a society in constant flux in which the most important value is the mad pace at which the consumer society changes along with the artistic genre known as flamenco, and where there is a lack of exhaustive reflection upon the problems of our art. The false prestige in our culture of flamenco dance mainly falls upon some very obvious names, giving individuals I will not now mention for ethical reasons, a greater value than they actually possess. Although in actual fact, it should be one's duty to denounce myths because some of those false would-be coins have now become legal currency. People are beginning to admire shit just so long as the shit is sufficiently promoted.

Mario Maya with Miguel Acal (Photo Silvia Calado)

The concept of fame is a slippery one, not easily defined. It presents a confusion of influences and a bombardment of images that diminish the force of reality. Popularity, that common denominator of prestige and fame, splashes us all with its glow. We all pay the consequences of its gratuitous insistence. The famous, to a greater or lesser extent, have their faithful followers and it is of no use to show them their error of judgement or deconstruct their theories.

Most of the time, as you all will have observed, the popularity which appears from one day to the next is the cheap mask of fame. Nevertheless, prestige is earned drop by drop, step by step. It takes time and more time in order for artistic merits to be recognized. The question which remains, and it has no easy answer, might be framed like this: Who gives the seal of approval to fame and outsized popularity? Probably, to some extent or other, an entity as confused and cagey as television and other information media at the service of stupidity and vulgarity, and for whom it is more politically expedient to anesthetize than to edify.

If it isn't shown on television, it never happened. What hasn't been said in the newspaper, has never been said at all. Artists who are not products of the communications media have a hard time making it to theaters and concert halls. The impresario or organizer wants to get the greatest possible return in the shortest possible time and to this end he hires artists with a first last and middle name. What I mean to say is that the silence which falls upon those who do not bend to these forces is the most destructive acid against reality.

Claudiano said that presence diminishes fame, and Horace turned that statement on its head claiming that fame grows with a hidden life. In my opinion both of them were speaking more of prestige, that quiet embellishment, for according to Victor Hugo fame is nothing more than the small change of glory.

For my generation, knowing about cante and flamenco dance required going through the school of many moonless nights and above all, having a real love for flamenco. Having had the opportunity to know, to see dance and hear sing those unique artists, always of course, without forgetting the daily rigor and sacrifice of dance discipline. That and none other was my school, where I learned about dignity and about respect for the maestros that preceded me. Today's youth no longer cares about these things.

We now live in a global consumer society which is becoming more competitive all the time and has nothing to do with the deeply-rooted art of flamenco. For this reason society promotes and creates dancers straight out of the laboratory who persist in a continuously banging percussion where the melody and spirit of each dance is cancelled out by the mechanical effect of cuts and closings accompanied by karate shrieks after each desplante. But that's not all. They go on with their fake exits and allusive fade-outs, spurred on by a spurious percussive 'cajón' whose overbearing loudness and strength renders any sort of subtlety useless, and all for the sake of applause.

Once upon a time there was in Cádiz a gypsy cantaor who was known as Enrique el Mellizo. And it is said that he often visited the church to hear the religious liturgical chants. And that with great love and a better ear, based on the tone of B major with a dominant C, he fashioned the malagueña which today bears his name. And as a preamble for tuning, he took a small part of the Gregorian chant, passing through the Dorian scale to the high eighth of that tone.

This is but a small example of the influence of popular religion which formed the hub of the atavisms and superstitions of an uncultured society that made use of brotherhoods and Holy Week processions as the ideological instruments of a church that was on the verge of losing its influence in a large sector of society. But a new and vast religious devotion once again came into being where, in a certain sense, the liturgical chants were influential and played an important role and in turn, martinetes, tonadas and their derivative the saeta. This, as prototype cante jondo, had repercussions in Andalusian society and went on to become cultural entertainment for the masses.

The gypsies of lower Andalusia created an even more sublime interpretation of the Christian liturgy and popular Andalusian song, offering the creation of this verse of saeta:

¡Oh, pare de almas
y ministro de Cristo,
tronco de nuestra madre iglesia santa
y árbol del paraíso!

Oh father of souls
and minister of Christ,
trunk of our sacred mother church
and tree of paradise

(End of the first part. Second installment coming soon...)

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