EVA YERBABUENA. 2004 FESTIVAL DE MONT DE MARSAN

Arte

Silvia Calado. Mont de Marsan, 7th July 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

‘5mujeres5’. Baile: Eva Yerbabuena. Dancers: Compañía Eva Yerbabuena. Soprano: Marta de Castro. Cante: Pepe de Pura, Enrique Soto, Segundo Falcón. Guitars: Paco Jarana, Salvador Gutiérrez. Percussion: Antonio Coronel. Flute: Ignacio Vidaechea. Espace François Mitterrand. Mont de Marsan (France), 7th July 2004. 9 pm.

All this talk of 'arte' in the world of flamenco... but the occasions when a performance truly deserves that label are really few and far between. So much replication of the same approaches, lyrics and forms... and so few taking the trouble to create, to take risks, to move forward. To speak of Eva Yerbabuena, is to speak of 'arte' in its true sense... regardless of the medium of expression she uses - which, of course, is flamenco. The bailaora from Granada reached that higher plane long ago, and ‘5mujeres5’ shows that clearly. The production was premièred four years back now, but nonetheless is still in demand by leading theaters worldwide. And by Mont de Marsan too, naturally...

With the feelings of a woman - and indeed of all women - as her ‘leitmotiv’, Eva Yerbabuena portrays an interior world, aided principally by Paco Jarana's music, by Hansel Cereza's stage design, by the movement of the body of dancers as one, by the voices of the trio of cantaores. Though at times one could almost think she needs nobody else around her, the truth is that every detail is included so as to highlight even the most subtle aspect of her dance, of her expression, of that countenance which moves the audience to suffering, to tears, to joy. Perhaps it's a little premature to apply to her the status conveyed on Paco de Lucía by Tomatito, when he said “on guitar there's Paco de Lucía, and then there's the rest of us”, but you can sense it coming.

Eva Yerbabuena

To use mere words to describe Eva Yerbabuena's dance is a difficult task, but those who don't have the opportunity to experience it in the flesh have a right to have some idea of what it's like. The show begins as Eva Yerbabuena enters, walking silently over to a white sofa from which her dreams begin to be projected. She dances even in stillness. The soprano stirs her into action with her shrill birdsong. Furious foot-stomping zapateados sound in the darkness. Under a bluish light, she joins the vocalists, sharing her magic, her way of causing the stillness of the air to move. She draws asymmetrical forms in the air, performs entrechats, paints criss-cross forms. All visuals. All fantasy. The wailing of the primitive cantes draws her into an uneasy state, a state of suffering. Her movement is almost in slow motion, brimming with emotion. Pepe de Pura sings, accompanied only by the deep booming of the djembe. Segundo Falcón sings... Enrique Soto sings... Her hair is already in a mess, she's moved into another dimension. Her face is as much part of the dance as her arms. The music playing breaks with all expectations. Nobody knows quite how, but the toná ends and a soleá apolá begins... and after that the performance shifts up a gear.

She breaks away from the trio of bailaores, and performs a tribute to Carmen Amaya. She's an honor to herself. She fills the stage with that peculiar stride, with her manner of stopping still, her ‘eruption’, her own distinctive crouch, with the distance she maintains from all that is monochrome and monotonous. Different climates, different temperatures. A dream or a nightmare sequence, a babbling voice begins. The guitar plays mineras and the flamenco turns to more traditional song. Eva dances without her feet, she twists and turns on her chair. “Desde un oscuro rincón de la memoria” - from a dark corner of the memory. Madness to the beat of tangos. The seven members of the dance troupe harrass her, threaten her. She wanders disconcertedly, asphyxiated, allows herself to be pushed around, starts to lose her cool. She screams and is at once free. The seguiriya is the catharsis. And the peak of her performance, where she shows she is truly the most fully-rounded bailaora of her generation. Such subtlety. Such sound, and such silence. Eva Yerbabuena is an artist that requires reading between the lines, the performance is wide open, allowing her freedom to show her cutting-edge outlook and her artistic flair. Sheer ecstasy. And as the Japanese say, better to see it once with your own eyes than hear it a hundred times, so take time to enjoy the encore here in an online video clip... as many times as you want. You'll see it's no surprise that Pina Bausch, the goddess of contemporary dance, has asked Eva Yerbabuena once again to take part in her new creation. It'll be premièred in October at Wuppertal in Germany, Shortly after the dancer presents her latest production ‘A cuatro voces’ at the Festival Bienal de Sevilla. We're talking 'arte'.

revista@flamenco-world.com