Maestro Carrete sponsors the
presentation in Madrid of the lineup
for Málaga en Flamenco 2007
The veteran bailaor and a verdiales gang
offered a sneak preview of the festival, which is to be
held from August 25th to September 30th throughout the
province of Málaga
S.C. Madrid, May 31st, 2007
Málaga
en Flamenco 2007. Full schedule of performances
Málaga en Flamenco 2007
begins the promotional tour of its lineup in Madrid. And
it does so with a live excerpt from the program, consisting
of “49+2 shows”, as its director, José
Luis Ortiz Nuevo, likes to say on account of the idea
of the number 7, reasoning which gives “the festival
a mark, a personality and criteria”. It is precisely
on the 7th day of the 7th month of 2007 that the premiere
is scheduled of the show ‘Yo no sé la edá
que tengo’ by maestro Carrete
and Ortiz Nuevo himself – as a comic - at Málaga’s
Teatro de la Diputación. And some alegrías
were taken from that show for a recital at the Madrilenian
tablao Casa Patas, illustrating the presentation ceremony
of the Málaga festival’s second edition.
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Maestro Carrete (Photo
Daniel Muñoz) |
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Highlighting maestro Carrete in the program
is no coincidence. And the thing is that Festival Málaga
en Flamenco aims to “develop the potential of everything
flamenco that Málaga has”. Therefore, there’s
even a ‘quota’ of local artists on the bill.
And one of them is this veteran bailaor who flabbergasts
anyone who watches him. The missing link might be seen
in him between break-away artists such as Vicente
Escudero and Israel
Galván. Perhaps. And the thing is that the
way he has of clipping baile – in the bullfighting
sense of the word - turns out to be pure avant-garde.
Describing it is complicated, but imagine
his face shaded by a Córdoba hat, his boots so
bright that they’re dazzling, his gnarled fingers
stretching out, his slender body arching backwards and
once he’s touched the sky... after pum-pam!, a furious
stroll and riling things up. He has the virtue of making
what he dances as important as what he doesn’t dance.
The guest artists at the ceremony, among them, Cañizares,
Serranito and Enrique de Melchor, give him olés
for the stances and smiles for that little danced mischief
which he himself laughs at. And then Laura Roman’s
voice and Juan Requena’s guitar go silent, and Ortiz
Nuevo’s word begins to the beat. “Come on,
Carretillo, dance on top of the wheat”, he says
his mother used to tell him. And his feet used to be like
a thresher. Carrete dramatizes the verse, eating up the
stage. The final push includes surprising juggling, where
he might just as easily do heel tapping with his knees,
as with the tips of his boots. Something extraordinary,
as was reflected on the faces of young bailaores Manuel
Liñán and Marcos Flores.
That wasn’t the end of it. They
also brought a complete gang of verdiales from Málaga
to the tablao to perform their pre-flamenco fandangos
to the beat of the tambourine, guitars, mandolin and violin.
Their hypnotic sounds and the family photo closed the
invitation ceremony to one of the most talked-about flamenco
events of the year ending in 7. Check out the program.
Panda de verdiales (Foto Daniel
Muñoz)
