Compañía de Mario Maya. “Un, dos, tres, faaa...” Teatro Villamarta, Jerez de la Frontera. Saturday, February 28th, 2004. 9:00 pm

Guest artists: Belén Maya, Rafaela Carrasco, Alejandro Granados. Bailarinas: Coral Benítez Oroz, Mariana González Gollado, Mayte Beltrán Hernández, Estefanía Martínez Puyol, Rocío Martín Pérez. Bailaoras: Anabel Álvarez Moreno, Silvia Lozano Cervera, Lucila Guiote González, Sandra Guerrero Toril, Esther Vélez Carvajal. Bailaores: Raimundo Benítez González, Iván Vargas Heredia, Miguel Ángel Becerra Delgado, Juan Carlos Simón Burgos, José Manuel Galván Jiménez. Cante: Antonio Campos, David Lagos. Guitar: Emilio Maya, Marcos García, Jesús Torres.

The decade of the seventies was one of change and evolution for flamenco and that was when Mario Maya did for flamenco dance what Camarón and Paco had done for cante and guitar. He popularized shows with political protest themes and introduced new concepts of staging and choreography. On February 28th, the Day of Andalucía, his show “Un, dos, tres, faaa...” nearly filled the Villamarta Theater in Jerez and we could see that his avant-garde leanings are still intact.

The show began with a long statement by Mario while members of the numerous group sat listening on the floor, with occasional snippets of dance used to demonstrate the main dances of soleá, siguiriya and bulerías. This dance school ambience set the tone for the work, with somewhat irregular results. Much of the show is danced to canned music from old Diego Carrasco recordings, while two guitarists and two singers sit watching and waiting for their cue.

Mario’s daughter Belén, and Rafaela Carrasco dance an alegrías duet and show off their control of the bata de cola, an accessory that is coming back into fashion after years of neglect thanks in large part to the efforts of maestras like Matilde Coral, Milagros Mengibar and Merche Esmeralda. A group dance, once again with Diego Carrasco’s recorded voice transmits little and the choreography broadcasts that it was set for a dance class – fourteen or fifteen people dance straight at the audience and fail to interact with their fellow dancers.

Relief comes with Rafaela Carrasco’s solo in which she dances free-form malagueña much as Manuela Vargas did her free petenera de Pastora, putting movement to a cante that has no rhythm, and ends in abandolao, or folky waltz-time. It is an unusual dance with strange abstract postures but which is well-received by the audience. Another group number bears flashes of Mario’s earlier work with images that suggest social oppression.

Fresh original dancing which is also strictly traditional

And suddenly soleá apolá and caña with a completely orthodox dancer who needs neither theatrical tricks nor plot to express his considerable art and who brings us back to the flamenco that was waiting in the wings for its moment. Alejandro Granados has been catching people’s interest for several years now and like Farruquito and a few other exceptional artists, delivers fresh original dancing which is also traditional. His way of moving is completely original and his dance is impressively masculine as well as minimalist, and thanks to his surprising compás, he manages to stir up the crowd with the most subtle gestures carried out at precisely the right moment. He projects flamenconess, sensitivity and intensity but he also has an exquisite sense of humor he offers with a deadpan expression. Flamenco, when the quality is high, is irresistible.

Another group dance with recorded music is followed by an original bulería, “Dos barrios, Sacromonte y el Bronx” effectively mixes two radically different aesthetic concepts. Mario offers a bit of his trademark footwork seated in a chair, and daughter Belén dances a piece to recorded piano, perhaps too cerebral a number after the spontaneity and measured intensity of Alejandro Granados.

Overall this is a dignified show but which overdoes the use of canned music and whose most powerful draw is in its contrasts: avant-garde with traditional, experienced veterans and young hopefuls, solo dances and groups and above all, the power of authentic flamenco pitted against “transflamenco”.

Afterwards, in the café cantante series at the Bodegas of Gonzalez Byass, another key figure of the era known as the ‘transition’. Lole, of Lole and Manuel, started out with a group of traditional Arabic musicians, and then with guitar she recalled some of her most successful songs in addition to offering samples of work in progress, all with her fragile voice and sweet personality.

Text : Estela Zatania

 

Theater Villamarta Program
De Peña en Peña Program: Trasnoches, De Peñas, Peña de Guardia
Other shows(Gloria Pura, Bordón y cuenta nueva, De la Frontera, Café Cantante, Sólos en Compañía)
Courses and workshops

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