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Compañía
Manuela Carrasco: ‘Así baila Sevilla’
Theater
Lope de Vega
Saturday, September 23rd. 9:00 PM
Flamenco
marathon: six hours between two shows, between Seville and Cádiz
MINOR
GODS
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Manuela
cuando tú bailas
se viste de grana el sol
y hay una juerga en el cielo
que hasta el mismo Dios bailó
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Manuela when you
start to dance
the sun dresses up in crimson
there’s a party there in heaven
and God himself stood up to dance |
Enrique el Extremeño
sang this por martinetes, making way for the seguiriya of Manuela
Carrasco that ended the first part. She’s been called la diosa (the goddess)
since the day she was the matron of honor at Camarón’s wedding. Today,
after repeating the miracle of the same repetition from one show to another, and
with a serious wardrobe problem, she is the diva. Of baile gitano. Of baile
of veneration.
The curtain opens,
there are eleven musicians lined up and dressed in black, and seven men dancing
la caña. Manuela comes onstage holding an oil lamp, she draws back
and starts to walk, taranto and majesty, stately tangos. She puts
out the light, and the taranto finishes. Rafael de Carmen, winner of the
dance contest in the last Bienal, danced por alegrías much
better on this occasion; Manuel Betanzos and Ángel Atienza were correctly
flamenco in parallel por bulerías, diverging in the second part,
the former por tangos and the latter por garrotín.
Behind him, the
cuadro. Manuela, left to observe the proceedings, watches her bailaores
pass by, one by one, por tangos with verse from the latest by Mercé
and Duquende.
She dances por
alegrías, that slow raising of arms, the exact movement programmed
for the end. Following the difficult zapateado of Alvaro Paños,
there were unscheduled tangos del Piyayo and a moment of wildness por
bulerías, with Rafael de Carmen, Alfonso Losa, and Joselito Romero
taking turns. Three windmills that stopped Manuela with a gesture por soleá…
until the final fin de fiesta, her finger pointing to searches for catharsis.
‘Cádiz
y sus cantes, ¡cosas de Cádiz!’
Hotel
Triana
September 23rd, 2000. 12:00 PM
A
THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
Chano Lobato, veteran
cantaor, was to put the final touch on the series "Territorios,"
dedicated to Cádiz, but this took place at 3:30 in the morning, and he
could only sing a couple of tanguillo lyrics. Prior to that, he had concluded
the first part with ángel and rhythm, soleá por bulerías
and cantiñas to the guitar of Pascual de Lorca. Niño Jero
contrasted, accompanying Juanito Villar por derecho (soleá
and seguiriya). Mariana Cornejo had sung the same palos as Chano,
but with more power, and Carmen de la Jara was rather lightweight with soleá
and colombianas.
There was excess
in the fin de fiesta in number (21 people on stage) and in duration (nearly
two hours). Singers included May Fernández, Loli Álvarez, Encarnita
Anillo, Jesús Bohiga, with outstanding performances from Selu de Cádiz
por alegrías, and, in particular, a woman who isn’t easily seen,
Manuela Fernández "La Carota," por soleá. Always
professional, Juan Villar was the patriarch para bailar. And the great
Chano, in one of his thousand and one nights.
Luis
Clemente
Translated by Norman Paul Kliman
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