“The best Spanish dancers of the next few years
will come from this company”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, July 2004
Photos: Daniel Muñoz

He is starting to prepare his farewell as a dancer. Joaquín Cortés has begun a new path as a director and producer which, for now, he will share with his role as head of the dance company. “He has new ideas in mind” of which he still doesn't want to speak, since now is the time to present Gitana Cortés Company proyect, a firm bet in support of the young talents of Spanish dance “with my help, but without me taking on the headlights”. The company, composed by twenty-five 'bailaores' (flamenco dancers) selected in a casting of over four hundred candidates, held its premiere in March in Milan with the socially charged show ‘De amor y odio’, “a Spanish style musical” which has been performed since then in Russia, Belorussia and Portugal. And, as Carmencita, one of the 'bailaoras', says: “no one has remained indifferent”.

Joaquín Cortés

Why? Because of the poster promoting the show -a 'nude' by photographer Jean Baptiste Mondino-, and “because we are speaking about feelings, about the coldness of a world in which there is war, violence, stress... more hate than love”, as the bailaor born in Cordoba explains. Raquel, one of the company's more veteran dancers, resumes it all when she says that “it is a show based on hat is going on in the world: love is in a small part of our hearts, but war is imposing itself. And Joaquín Cortés wanted to tell us about it in his own, personal way”.

As usual in his shows, Cortés uses the language of fusion. Flamenco dance cohabits with classic ballet and modern dance, with choreography by Joaquín Cortés himself, by Cristóbal Reyes and by Juan Carlos Lérida. The musical section includes pieces written by Montoyita, interpreted by nine musicians on scene, as well as 'sampled' sounds performed by a DJ. The bailaora Vera León concludes that “it is not a conventional show, it is an avant-garde superproduction; I think there has never been flight scenes in a flamenco company as happens in this show”.

One must remark that Joaquín Cortés doesn't dance in this show, except for when he happens to feel for a “guest performance”. In the spectators seat, he admits to be “tremendously nervous; I get like a sort of Parkinson in my knee... But one has to know how to accept the passage of time and to learn to enjoy the pleasure of watching a marvellous performance. All of this is part of the process of maturing as a person and as an artist”.

Joaquín Cortés wants the company to “fly on its own, with my help and my support, but without me in a leading role”. And he predicts that from this proyect will come “the best Spanish dancers of the next few years”. Cristóbal Reyes, uncle of the artist and teacher of flamenco technique in the company, is convinced that “this is an opportunity for the surging in the next five or six years of another Joaquín Cortés, another Sara Baras...”.

Anouncing his retirement

“I want to retire soon”. He doesn't put himself a date, he will stop dancing when he feels is the right time, as he says that he wants to “take a break and to start up new companies”. For this new period which begins, he has put himself the goal of “reeducating the dance of the bailaores, since without good teachers and good choreographers, we still run the risk of staying behind”. He is committed to “giving a different image dance”, which is what he has tried to do in over twent-five years in the business. In this way, he will continue in a search from which have emerged shows such as ‘Pasión Gitana’, “the Spanish show seen by most people in the world”, ‘Soul’ or ‘Live’, a performance with which he is continuing a world tour in which the next stop will be the City Center of Nueva York.

Joaquín Cortés with Gitana Cortés Company

All of this is possible without public or private funding, although not without some difficulties. “If I had a sponsor, I would set up not one, but three companies like this one, because with the market that I have opened, the problem is not finding a place to perform, but to maintain a team of up to sixty people”. Joaquín Cortés remarks that he has never felt backed up: “I have emerged with my own effort. I feel like we all have to help each other, and we have to give way to these new talents that arrive full of excitement and hope, showing great and wonderful energy and with an enormous will to get better each day”. And, at the same time, he says he is “giving impulse to dance, the 'poor child' in the world of culture”. He stresses his defence of this art of dance by saying that “we have to support in Spain dance and flamenco, because the excellent recognizemente we receive outside of our contry is amazing”. In this sense, he congratulated Paco de Lucía for the Premio Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes 2004, the first one granted to flamenco. “The fact is that Paco de Lucía will remain in history. Finally justice is being done!”.

Joaquín Cortés with Cristóbal Reyes and Gitana Cortés Company's bailaores

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