“Los caminos de Lorca” Compañía Andaluza de Danza Tuesday, September 21st, 2004. 9:00pm. Teatro de la Maestranza, Seville   Program XIII Bienal de Arte Flamenco Seville

Daily coverage BIENAL DE FLAMENCO sponsored by:

Dance: Ana Moya, Rafaela Carrasco, Manuel Liñán, Lidia Pousa, Estefanía la Mimbre, Violeta Ruíz, Mayte Beltrán, Rocío Martín, Mariana Collado, Francis Núñez, José Antonio Jurado. Narrator: Curro Albaicín. Cante: Vicente Gelo, Manuel Gago. Guitar: Fernando de la Rúa, Jesus Torres, José Luis Rodríguez. Percussion: Raúl Domínguez. Piano: Pablo Suárez. Cello: José Luis López. Recorded music: Miles Davis, Carmen Linares, Enrique Morente, José Luis Rodríguez, Pablo Suárez, Jesús Torres.

Having seen “Caminos de Lorca” in the early days of its Granada premiére two months ago, its inclusion in Seville’s Bienal de Flamenco offered a chance to evaluate the evolution of a daring new work. Despite the absence of dancer Belén Maya, star of the show in its Granada run, the work has improved considerably and the Teatro de la Maestranza is a far more appropriate venue than the historic but austere patio of the Carlos V palace where the show was presented for a month.

An original, entertaining and coherent work

The members of the group have developed an artistic rapport, the whole thing has acquired a certain warmth, and if you make an effort, you can even read between lines to detect director Pepa Gamboa’s contrived goal of producing “a surreal dream about Lorca’s spiritual children” and innocent victims the world over. That ambitious suspicious-sounding goal goes down a bit easier thanks to a generous dose of humor provided for the most part by Curro Albayzín, alumnus of the Sacromonte caves, who plays himself, sort of. Singer, dancer, you-name-it…he narrates the action with verse and chit-chat with the presence and carriage of a perverse cabaret showman from the nineteen-thirties. It’s a bit of genius to have included his character, the best thing in the show, and something that seemed to escape the classy theater-goers of the Maestranza.

Lorca’s famous arrangements of Spanish folksongs alternate with updated traditional flamenco. Given the presence of a competent team of singers and musicians, the inclusion of canned voices and music continues to be annoying, just as the buzz of bombers overhead that sounds between numbers is at odds with the historic reality of Granada’s role in the Spanish civil war where the action is set.

The rich music of María la Canastera for the cachucha, the mosca and alboreá, all Granada specialities, continues to go uncredited on the program, so these words stand for the record. This music is important since it’s not as folkloric as something like Anda Jaleo, nor as flamenco and sophisticated as a soleá, although it incorporates elements of both and personifies the essence of Granada.

The group choreographies lack imagination and look like dance classes, but the solo dances are original and inspired. It would be hard to think of a less likely-looking flamenco dancer than Manuel Liñán who could pass for an adolescent Dennis the Menace, but he’s a first-class dancer and the novel figures he draws with his body are always flamenco, no matter how avant-garde. His co-star is something else – ice lady Rafaela Carrasco. Her product is first modern dance, with flamenco a distant second, and despite the obvious quality of her dancing, her projection is annoyingly cold and robotic.

It sounds like a lot of nit-picking perhaps, it goes along with the job, but overall, this is an original, entertaining and coherent work.

Text: Estela Zatania

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