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May
4th, 2000.
Teatro Villamarta. Jerez.
Waving the flag of women
Difficult
equilibrium in a day without symmetry, in which three bailaoras of very different
origins were supported by the performance of distinguished cantaores.
Each one of the
women carried their shawl as a sign of their style, Maria del Mar raised in the
young Jerez (Beatriz in the shady tone of the three-colored badge), and Manuela
with the head held up high. Impressive woman.
Maria
del Mar Moreno
Maria del Mar Moreno
was the youngest artist of the day and the only one from Jerez. She appeared on
stage emulating Lola Flores with "La Salvaora", swirling around the
cantaor (flamenco singer), and there was also a taste of the renaissance tablao
(flamenco dance stage) in the piano solo with an air of "seguiriya" which Jose
Zarana performed.
From this point
on, the Teatro Villamarta was able to enjoy emotive moments of cante in the "ronda
of tonas" presented by Antonio Malena and Luis Moneo, which was prolonged by the
"seguiriyas". María del Mar followed them closely with her body moving
to each syllable, each split second, and she finally left a demonstration of her
strong personality in the dancing "por bulerias", which had a brief introduction
"por romances". The bouquets of flowers offered by a group of Japanese women now
covered her who had been the partner of Antonio el Pipa on so many occasions.
Beatriz
Martin
Once again an incredible
head to head between the cantaores, performed "por martinetes" for the dance of
the woman from Granada Beatriz Martin. Antonio Malena, making his second appearance
of the night accompanied David Lago. Malena´s gypsy echoes are going through a
sweet moment, which was appreciated by the crowd, even in the "seguiriyas por
lo jondo" in which he kept always one eye on the dancing of Beatriz, and in which
he exaggerated a bit in the end. The two cantaores sang "bulerias" worth listening
to, with some lyrics from tangos. They raised their spirits to get down into the
"solea", and there stood Beatriz motionless until she started the dancing "por
bulerias" following the cante of her two amazing cantaores.
Manuela
Carrasco
The sight to be
seen when the curtains rose after the intermezzo was quite impressive: fourteen
flamencos "por fiesta" forming a semi-circle within enormous, traditionalist scenery.
Manuela Carrasco knows what she is doing. She performed first with four pale bailaores
to continue later alone, marking her territory.
The guys performed
"tangos corales" (uprightly), a "garrotin" ("Well dressed!" shouted
El Extremeño), "bulerias" of difficult equilibrium (perfect those by Loza,
very much acclaimed) and "bulerias de pañuelo rojo" by Rafael de Carmen
(whose combination of flexibility, delicacy and energy had already been one of
the highlights of the previous day in the show of Carmen Cortes).
The venerated Manuela,
who believes and states that "the gypsy is touched by God", has given everything
she's got in her racial dance over hundreds of stages all over the world. Yesterday
she brought along as cantaores Enrique el Extremeño, Juan Jose Amador and
Pepe de Pura, and the first thing she did was to raise her hands in slow motion,
marking each step, as usual, very well, and ended with passionate movements, thus
revealing the reason for her nickname "la diosa" (the goddess).
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