2007 NÎMES FLAMENCO
FESTIVAL. ANDRÉS MARÍN
On the road to the future
Silvia Calado. Nîmes, January 25th, 2007
‘El alba del último
día’. Andrés Marín:
baile, artistic director. José Valencia, Segundo
Falcón: cante. Salvador Gutiérrez: guitar.
Antonio Coronel: percussion. Pablo Suárez: piano.
Musical director: Andrés Marín, Salvador
Gutiérrez. Script and dramatic art: Andrés
Marín, Salud López. 2007 Nîmes Flamenco
Festival. Théâtre de Nîmes. Nîmes
(France), January 25th, 2007. 8 p.m.
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Andrés Marín
(Photo: Daniel Muñoz) |
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Flamenco is now at the theater. And the
change in stages also marks a change in trends. If the
strictest tradition is called on at the Odèon,
the festival’s main stage displays a flamenco which
isn’t more modern, but rather more artistically
elaborate. As Israel Galván had already set a precedent
last year with ‘La edad de oro’, nobody was
frightened off by seeing another cubist-style bailaor.
On the contrary, the crowd welcomed the proposal by Andrés
Marín with open arms, an abstraction which,
in its aims, is reminiscent of the hypothetical night
on which the era of the singing cafés ended.
And to that end, ‘El alba del último
día’ stands firm in a highly-meditated relationship
with cante. Therein lies the secret, in the intense moments
which are led up to when baile and cante reach fusion,
when they bloom into passages of radical tension. The
bailaor-creator’s talent is impressive then. They
aren’t the usual cantes, or the usual lyrics; not
even the cantaores’ disposition on stage is the
usual. Andrés Marín reveals his true self
as a meticulous enthusiast. Segundo
Falcón and José
Valencia interact with the bailaor as characters that
are within the story, not simply as adornments. And on
top of it, they are two privileged voices that skillfully
manage all styles brilliantly.
The music also tends towards purification:
guitar, percussion and piano. Salvador Gutiérrez
faces the toque solo, faithful to the show’s requirements.
And that implies even breaking up some pieces or coming
in and leaving without subjecting the traditional structures,
which isn’t easy. Even so, he works it out with
toque which is forceful but at the same time heartfelt.
The percussion is even used by the bailaor as a visual
element. Antonio
Coronel just as easily comes out to the center of
the stage with a tambourine, as he goes to the back to
get sounds out of some buckets of water. Always with subtlety
and precise elegance. The piano by Pablo Suárez
feeds ambiences and contributes pieces of nice musicality.
The thing is that each element fits into its context perfectly.
Andrés Marín thus practices
baile which is destructured and abstract, extremely neat
in the technique and with twisting esthetics. The complexity
he reaches in his varied repertoire of steps is nevertheless
incompatible with the overperformance and distortion of
conventional baile (since not even his physique is conventional;
it’s even strange at first sight). Sobriety, his
banner. And he wraps up his dance in a like frame lacking
adornment, in which scarcely a spotlight is enough to
project a shadow, a few projected video shows and a platform
to climb onto to dance. There are those who say he copies
Israel
Galván. And he might also have reached similar
conclusions; there wasn’t just one cubist painter.
At any rate, isn’t flamenco an artform which has
been passed down over the centuries through a faithful
imitation of the dogma?
