SINCERELY, TRULY YOURS...EVA

Text: Manuel Moraga
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas

Coverage of the Festival Flamenco USA is sponsored by Arte Fyl Dance Shoes

“It’s not easy to do away with a child” says Yerbabuena, and that’s why all her babies are still alive. At the Veranos de la Villa she presented “Eva”, a reflection on the timelessness of flamenco in which the dancer leaves no doubt about her devotion to the art, the constant searching, discipline and sincerity.

Actor Javier Bardem says that ninety percent of his work is done at home, and the rest in front of the camera. Creativity requires discipline: rehearsal, study, constancy, intellectual curiosity... Like all good actors and actresses, Yerbabuena’s discipline consists of searching for her own self in order to know who she is, and that is one of life’s most difficult challenges. Eva is unique in that she expresses herself with each centimeter of her body, each bone and muscle, hence, each movement...it’s ‘all about Eve’.

It could never be any other way, because Eva is incapable of untruth. Nothing she does seems phony. But her dance is not truth, but rather sincerity. The concept of “truth” is a universal value, while sincerity is a private, personal and non-transferable sort of truth. Eva Yerbabuena’s dance springs from the gut. It is the result of the search for her own artistic and personal being. Eva speaks straight.

Genius is never content to rest. Quite the contrary in fact – it tries always to fill the creative void, but never quite manages to hear the sound of that stone tossed into the abyss. That’s Eva. A non-conformist.

Yerbabuena doesn’t dance from the outside in. Her expression is introspective, and the result is a centripetal vector.

And she is always a woman dancing. It’s not feminine dance, but feminity. Not coquettish, but spirited, tender, sweet, maternal... Each of Eva’s poses is symbolic, the concept of woman

These are the sensations that la Yerbabuena transmitted to me in “Eva” after not having seen her in a long time. Eva Garrido adores this art in all its manifestations, because we all know that flamenco is finite but unlimited: there are many facets to flamenco. Enrique Soto, Jeromo Segura and Pepe de Pura are three different kinds of singer, nearly opposing textures which reconcile within the dance. The same thing occurs with the dancers and with the forms that make up “Eva”, from the danced granaína to the guajira, passing through soleá, siguiriya or tonás.

The granaína is a free terrain Eva jealously guards for herself. As the cante, Yerbabuena’s dance is free-form. She expires with the cante and dances through to the last flourish. The soul of flamenco.

The soleá is not solemn but sincere, and Eva dances in slow motion. In the siguiriya she dances the silence. The guajira is a prodigy of scenic compositions, and generally speaking, everything is traditional although nothing seems quite the same.

The line from the bible tells us “the truth shall set ye free”. Yerbabuena’s freedom doesn’t seem to spring from a divine source, but rather is the result of the intense search for inner truths: a demanding discipline in search of its identity, truth and sincerity. “Eva” is Eva.