2003 FESTIVAL DE JEREZ

Mercedes Ruiz and Rafaela Carrasco
share the stage to present their first solo works

Carmen Jiménez

The night of March 3rd, 2003 at the Villamarta Theater in Jerez is reserved for two young creators: Rafaela Carrasco and Mercedes Ruiz. Both are to premiere their first solo work. The former presents the show 'La música del cuerpo', in which feelings of love and solitude are channeled by means of body language, and where the Sevillian allows her personality to be made out. The latter will make a show, in her native land, of a work entitled 'Dibujos en el aire', which counterpoises tradition and modernity.

	Rafaela Carrasco (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Rafaela Carrasco reaches the 2003 Festival de Jerez with the assurance of having done a good job. The recognition received by 'A Cinco', the first choreography of her work 'La música del cuerpo', in the Spanish Dance and Flamenco Choreography Contest in Madrid - where its sneak preview was held - is a guarantee for a show in which the musical instruments are the base to enrich and develop dance, and where musical silence yields importance to the body's own music. In her first work as director and choreographer, which she defines as "my first baby", the Sevillian captures "everything I've learned in my career". However, she stresses "it's not a commercial work, but is rather a sincere, intimate show, where the three facets of my life are defined: dancer, bailaora and woman".

The show is divided into three different parts, but they are at the same time linked by criteria and ideas. Thus, it plays with three of nature's basic elements: air, water and fire, which end up intertwined with the Andalusian symbols of air, sea and sun; and, at the same time, personalized on stage on the cello, guitar and piano. The final aim is the staging of universal feelings such as love, solitude and dreams.

The show is backed up live by cantaor Manuel Gago, guitarist Arcadio Marín and pianist Pablo Suárez, all under the stage direction of Francisco Suárez. After performing in Jerez, Rafaela Carrasco's group will appear in Madrid's Dance Festival this April and afterwards, in Barcelona on International Dance Day. "Our idea is to take the show to stages all over the world".

Prophet in her land

Mercedes Ruiz (Photo: Javier Hurtado)

Mercedes Ruiz has chosen her native land to present what is her first work as a soloist: 'Dibujos en el aire'. It is a show without a storyline which consists of very different dance styles, where she combines stylistic elegance and precision with body virtuosity. According to the Jerez-born bailaora, this first work "is an attempt to mark my solo career, in which I dance traditional flamenco, because I believe the sources have to be conserved", although she assures that she seeks a balance with more modern aspects "because flamenco is being renewed day by day".

According to her, the title responds to the fact that her way of dancing, "apart from zapateado, is also the work of the body and arms, since I like to feel the space and try to fill it. I wish to transmit what I feel, nothing else". On stage she will be accompanied on the guitar by Patino and Santiago Lara, with cante by David Lagos, Londro and Mercedes Cortés.

After performing at the Festival de Jerez, she is scheduled to leave for Japan immediately to teach classes and dance at Japanese theaters. On April 4th she will be at the opening gala of Madrid's Dance Festival and will leave for France with her group afterwards. She will also present her show in the 'Conocer el Flamenco' ('Discover el Flamenco') series at Seville's Fundación El Monte, on May 15th. Moreover, she will dance in the Andrés Marín Company in the tour of Austria and Germany it has scheduled this year.

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