All the information IX Festival de Jerez

Dance: Antonio Márquez, Sara Calero, Maite Chico, Mercedes Burgos, David Sánchez, Rocío Chacón, Johana Flores, Virginia Guiñales, Silvia Velis, Nieves Portas, Carmen Alférez, Marta Toca, Aranzazu Gómez, Jairo Rodríguez, Elías Morales, Daniel Fernández, Javier Sánchez, José Antonio Torres, Rubén Martín, Juan Francisco González, Francesco Bucci. Cante: Johana Jiménez, Guitar: Diego Franco. Flute: Pedro Esparza. Percussion: Javier Fernández. Choreography: Antonio Márquez, Currillo. Music: Manuel de Falla, Maurice Ravel.

Text: Estela Zatania

Tuesday, March 8, twelfth day of the Festival de Jerez, we were treated to a recital by guitarist Juan Manuel Cañizares (Sabadell, 1966) at the Sala la Compañía. The ten years the musician spent alongside Paco de Lucía have done him no harm and he is an inspired and original composer. The program included a variety of themes showing diverse contemporary influences, with backup provided by the second guitar and bass of José de Lucía and the percussion of Antonio Granjero.

A wardrobe full of color, lots of innocent gags and a highly professional corps de ballet

The next to last night of the Festival at the Villamarta theater brought quite a different offering from what we’d seen to date. Antonio Márquez is a dancer who unabashedly delights in his admiration for the most traditional kind of Spanish and flamenco dance which he infuses with a freshness and vitality that are hard to criticize. His “Three-cornered hat” [Sombrero de tres picos] with music by Manuel de Falla is a faithful adaptation of the version popularized by legendary dancer Antonio Ruiz, or simply “Antonio” as the man who practically invented the Spanish dance repertoire as we know it today came to be known. With a strictly traditional wardrobe full of color, lots of innocent gags and a highly professional corps de ballet, the show charmed even young avant-gardists who happened to be in the audience.

After intermission, another classic dance, this time with Antonio Márquez on his own for a zapateado in full traditional attire. Immediately following, was one of the most interesting moments of the entire festival. The complete group, some twenty dancers, appeared from the rear of the stage with dimmed lights, no music, voice or percussion of any kind, but only the most absolute silence, danced a molasses-slow solea without so much as a shoe scuffle, not to mention heelwork. Ten men and ten women moving like a single individual with no compás other than that of their own movements – it was a magical moment that seemed to highlight the innate beauty of flamenco. Not even a smoke machine gone amock sending its discharge into the audience and setting off a massive attack of coughing in the front rows could spoil the effect. I think it was at that precise moment I realized Márquez is one of the best choreographers of the Spanish and flamenco genre. And how nice it was to feel the depth and mystery of that dance without having to intellectualize or untangle metaphysical riddles. Flamenco has its own mystery and you have only to let it manifest itself.

Everything works and it’s impossible not to get carried away by the rich visual banquet

The rest of the show consisted of Ravel’s “Bolero”, 17 minutes of assorted comings and goings of dancers, different combinations of individuals and fascinating formations, somehow a perfect choreography despite some old cabaret tricks like series movements a la Radio City Music Hall, or blinking strobe lights, but everything works and it’s impossible not to get carried away by the rich visual banquet. Thundering applause, professional bows (something we haven’t since in many years), a final fiesta bit of alegrías, Márquez’ astonishing pirouettes and a long footwork solo made up the spectacular curtain call gambit.

A few people complained about the perpetual smile pasted on all the dancers’ faces, a detail Márquez insists upon according to what we’ve heard, but it’s no easier to justify the cold, depressing image of expression-free dancers, a gloomy black wardrobe and insufferable scripts as we’ve seen over the course of this and other festivals.