2007 NÎMES FLAMENCO FESTIVAL. PEPE TORRES / CANCANILLA

Discovering tradition

Silvia Calado. Nîmes, January 24th, 2007

Related activities: La Moneta, maestra

‘Soirée découverte de Málaga à Morón’. First part: Cancanilla de Marbella (cante) & Antonio Moya (guitar). Second part: Pepe Torres (baile), Moi de Morón, Juan José Amador Jr. (cante) and Javier Heredia, Rafael Rodríguez and Paco Iglesias (guitars). 2007 Nîmes Flamenco Festival. Odéon. Nîmes (France), January 24th, 2007. 8 p.m.

The ambience is now ripe. After three evenings at the Odéon, flamenco has taken its seat in the beautiful Roman city of Nîmes. Veteran cante from Jerez, young baile from Granada... and two discoveries for night three. One, an long-time cantaor, though not very long-winded in performances, Cancanilla de Marbella. Two, a new-generation bailaor from Morón, Pepe Torres, who wants to go beyond Son de la Frontera. But a priori, they didn’t awaken even half as much enthusiasm as Fuensanta la Moneta did when she shook things up and filled the venue to the brim the night before.

	Pepe Torres (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Cancanilla de Marbella appeared accompanied on toque by Antonio Moya, a usual at the festival, a ‘Nîmes local’ from Utrera. They got down to business por soleá. His voice natural, keeping tempo and climate. The guitarist, providing just the right sound for such a traditional offer; neither more nor less. They wove the tientos over a slow fire. “Pastora sang por tientos and also por bulerías. And La Macarrona danced until daybreak”. The Málaga-born cantaor’s voice shapes up and takes off, boosted by the olés from fellow artists who are amidst the crowd. A falseta announces the tangos. His voice, not very broad but efficient to the ear, holds the lyrics, adding bits of flavor to cantes such as those by Titi de Triana. The seguiriya, dedicated to María Peña -“who sings and dances wonderfully”- takes on its gloomy look. The toque turns deep. The cante, dramatic. And from the “special days of Santiago” to the bulerías, which he performs seated, standing, with and without a mike, dancing and hitting it off really well with the audience.

Pepe Torres, until now better known as a member of the group Son de la Frontera, is starting to make his name stand out. The Morón-born bailaor proclaims traditional baile, feeding especially the spread of Farruco’s school. He combines the picture with sensationalist flurries in his footwork, placement of his arms at a medium height with a sudden leap, contained strolling around with an abrupt call to the ground. He chose a limited repertoire upheld with a traditional attitude por alegrías and por soleá, accompanied by the voices of Moi de Morón and Juan José Amador (Jr.) and the guitars of Rafael Rodríguez and Paco Iglesias. In between, Javier Heredia called on Funi style, half singing and half dancing, longer than he should have. And then the star bailaor, as is necessary, finished things off with a fiesta por bulerías which was joined - and how nice it is to be colleagues in the times we live in - by Cancanilla and Antonio Moya. They enjoyed themselves and the audience enjoyed themselves, now ready to attend tomorrow’s first encounter at the Théâtre de Nîmes.

Cancanilla (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

La Moneta, maestra More and more, flamenco festivals are strengthening their program of related activities. And the courses are what arouse the greatest interest, since they offer students a unique chance to learn from the artists who they had admired on stage the night before. In this edition of the Nîmes Festival, Fuensanta la Moneta inaugurated ‘school’ with a master class on baile por seguiriyas. About fifteen students appeared at the theater’s dance studio around two o’clock in the afternoon, ready to soak up art from the Granada-born bailaora. One of them, Cèline, explains that “most of us are daughters of Spaniards who emigrated to France in search of work in the sixties or are descendants of Republican exiles from the Spanish Civil War. And studying flamenco at the different schools there are in the cities in the south of France, we approach the culture of our family’s homeland”. The teacher has arrived. Before getting down to business, they warm up and stretch out. And next, “we’re going to do a series of steps”. After half an hour, several steps have been spun together, not without difficulty. Take note of the teacher’s advice, which she dictates with the same momentum as when performing: “Don’t hurry it”. “Listen to it, please”. “Nooooooo, elaborate on it”. Ahead of them, they have two hours to at least absorb the keys and discipline of this dance form. And a few more days to grasp the teachings of other maestros: Andrés Marín, on baile; and Diego Carrasco, on compás. Fuensanta la Moneta's course (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)