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Segundo
Falcón takes over from Calixto Sánchez as head of the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco
The singer
from Sevilla will combine his duties with professional obligations
Flamenco-world.com
The Centro Andaluz de Flamenco (CAF)
[Andalusian flamenco center] has a new director. After five years as head of the
organization which is dependant upon the Consejería de Cultura de la Junta
de Andalucía [the cultural department of the Andalusian government], Calixto
Sánchez, the singer from Sevilla, has been relieved of his duties and almost
immediately replaced by another singer, Segundo Falcón. The new director
has announced that for the moment he plans to maintain continuity with regard
to ongoing projects initiated by his predecessor who he has invited to join the
center's board of counsellors. Falcón will combine the stage with his work
as head of the CAF. Paradoxically the incompatibility between these two facets
was precisely the reason given by Sánchez for quitting his post.
The Palacio Pemartín is going
through a time of changes. The singer Segundo Falcón (El Viso del Alcor
[Sevilla], 1971) is going to take charge as director of the Centro Andaluz de
Flamenco (CAF) which is located in the historic building in Jerez. Falcón
takes over from another singer, Calixto Sánchez (Mairena del Alcor [Sevilla]
1946), whose tenure ended after five years due to the impossibility of combining
his artistic projects with his responsibilities at the center which is a branch
of the Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía. Nevertheless,
both cultural advisor Carmen Calvo, and the new director of the CAF have invited
Calixto Sánchez to be a member of the center's advisory council.
Calixto Sánchez (Photo: Anahí Cármody)
Cultural advisor Carmen Calvo, who spares
no praise in speaking of Sánchez, says she is handing over control with
"absolute conviction". And she points out that "the choice is in
keeping with the needs, because an institution such as the CAF requires someone
who is familiar with both angles: minimal administrative knowledge, and a familiarity
with artistic and creative elements". Calvo believes that the new director
"will be confronted with another type of work in which he will have to learn
a different way of dealing with, supporting and spreading flamenco" in a
new era in which the CAF will seek to fulfill more than merely documentary functions.
Continuity
Segundo Falcón seems to have
made up his mind. The singer has set the goal of "trying, by whatever means
it takes, to do away with the concept of flamenco as the cultural poor relative".
For the moment, he hopes to fulfill the objective of "not leaving unfinished"
projects initiated by Sánchez. Falcón expects to accomplish this
without giving up his performing schedule which currently includes accompanying
dancers like Eva Yerbabuena and Javier Barón, at the same time that he
has taken on the task of "devoting the same amount of time to the center
as to my artistic career".
The director of Seville's Bienal Flamenco,
Manuel Herrera, who underlines the "communicative disposition" of the
CAF's new director, hopes to maintain a "close relationship" with other
institutions devoted to the world of flamenco because "this art form needs
a global perspective, and not navel-contemplating attitudes"
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