Lead dancers: Christián Lozano, Úrsula López, Elena Algado, Miguel A. Corbacho. First dancers: Esther Jurado, Óscar Jiménez, Francisco J. Velasco. Soloists: Cristina Gómez, Tamara López, Penélope Sánchez, Mariano, Berna, Jesús Córdoba, Alberto Ferrero, Jesús Florencio, Sergio García. Guest dancer: Primitivo Daza. Cante: Isabel Soto, Manuel Palacín, Jesús Soto “El Almendro”. Guitar: Enrique Bermúdez, Jonathan Bermúdez, David Cerreduela “Caracolillo”. Percussion: Sergio Martínez. Sax and flute: Pedro Ontiveros. Pianists: Juan Álvarez, Juan José Sánchez. Director: José Antonio. Flamenco master and asistent directo: Fernando Romero. Coreography: Javier Latorre. Music coordinator: Mauricio Sotelo.

All the information IX Festival de Jerez

Text: Estela Zatania

The first day of the ninth Festival de Jerez got off to a dignified start with a finely-crafted presentaion from Spain’s Ballet Nacional. Under the direction of José Antonio, with Javier Latorre’s choreography, Manuel de Falla’s music as backdrop and a cast more numerous than that of a full-length DeMille movie, the story unfolds with scenes from the life of Seville dancer Félix Fernández García (1893-1941) who spent his final days in an English asylum for the mentally ill after a disappointing experience in London with ballet master Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes.

This is what we’re told in the program notes, but what the spectator sees is the classic portrait of an unstable artist seeking to find his place in a society that does not tolerate creativity. In four scenes titled respectively “En el santuario de Epson”, “Aires de burlerías”, “En el café cantante”, “Les Ballets Russes” y “En la iglesia de Saint Martín”, the work puts music and movement to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s terrible statement: “Individuality is a monster that must be strangled in the crib so that others need not be made to feel uncomfortable”.

“El Loco” longs to be innovative including moments of modern dance that bring little more than a yawn at this stage of the game, but in the end an old formula that alternates semiclassical Spanish dance with flamenco dance does the trick. It’s a formula that worked for Argentinita, for Pilar López, for Carmen Amaya, Antonio Ruiz, José Greco and so many others, defining “Spanish ballet” for decades, and which works here as well largely thanks to the exquisite production. The dancers are very well-prepared although there are no real stars, the musicians are competent for the task at hand, the lighting, staging and in particular the wardrobe, which not only represents Picasso’s figures, but paints with color just as a painter his paintings (extremely refreshing in this age of black clothing in flamenco works), are all first-class

The work puts music and movement to filmmaker Stanley Kubrick’s terrible statement: “Individuality is a monster that must be strangled in the crib so that others need not be made to feel uncomfortable”.

This choreography of Latorre’s may be his best work to date, and the overall product might be described as a cross between “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Star Wars”, because some details of the staging, wardrobe and even the music have a sci-fi feel with just a dash of “Midnight Express”. There’s very little cante, but when a human voice finally rings out in the Café Cantante scene, and this is no star flamenco singer by any means, it’s a rush of warmth and flamenconess to which the audience reacts immediately. The moment truly drives home the fact that cante is the heart and the soul of flamenco – one wonders how some dancers choose to eliminate cante altogether, and to what end. In fact, the “complete” alegrías, with its traditional sections of ‘silencio’, ‘castellana’ and ‘escobilla’ danced by a woman not identified on the program, turns out to be the most successful number. Might it be because of those one hundred and fifty years the dance has been undergoing choreographic fine-tuning by great dancers? One farruca is sung, and another is not, flashes of garrotín, a sort of buleria waltz and a siguiriya are other highlights that break the relative monotony of the stream-of-consciousness music.

Noteworthy amidst the crowd of dancers is Tamara López, who possesses the extraordinary ability to move in slow motion capturing subtleties that pass unnoticed in real time, and also interesting are the folk style ‘jota’ dance with heeled shoes and danced with bulerías steps, and a version of “La Danza de la Molinera” which updates a classic the dancer Antonio popularised.

In the end four thuggies arrive to wrap up the “loco” in a long piece of white cloth which serves as straight-jacket (just in case someone forgot to read the program notes), and the surprising image of female dancers with white stockings pulled over their faces completes the surrealistic ambience of a work which is both professional and entertaining “despite” the lavish funding behind it.

The destillation and assimilation of a Jerez feeling

At midnight in the wine-cellar of González Byass, Gerardo Núñez, today’s maestro guitarist, offered his recital “Andando el tiempo” with his regular backup Pablo Martín on double-bass and Cepillo doing percussion. In this special setting we were able to fully appreciate the contrasted guitar voicing which Gerardo dominates so thoroughly. His compositions are the distillation and assimilation of a Jerez feeling, although now and again his over-manipulation of the compás, which he has floating over the surface just out of reach of the normal flamenco fan, becomes annoying. Nevertheless it would be no exaggeration to say that this guitarist is the next leap after Paco de Lucía because he exponentially expands the musicality of flamenco, nearly always (but not always) conserving its flamenco identity.

Gerardo Núñez 'Andando el tiempo'