Andalucía, el Flamenco y la Humanidad

Wednesday, September 13th, 2006. 10:00pm. Teatro Lope de Vega

Special 14th Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla. Reviews, programa, photos...

Choreography, stage director and director: Mario Maya. Dance: Belén Maya, El Grilo, Rocío Molina, Rafaela Carrasco. Cante: Fernando de la Morena, Capullo de Jerez, Rocío Bazán, María José Pérez, Segundo Falcón, La Tremendita, Marina Heredia, Carmen Linares, Juan Moreno “El Pele”, Guillermo Cano. Guitar: Alfredo Lagos, Juan Carlos Romero, Paco Cruzado, Miguel Ochando, Emlio Maya, Chaparro, Francisco Javier Jimeno. Corps de ballet Álvaro Méndez, Moisés Navarro, Fernando Jiménez, Raimundo Benítez, David Forte, David Pérez, Eva Esquivel, Conchi Maya, Silvia Lozano, Anabel Moreno. Percussion: Antonio Coronel. Santo Pitar verdiales group. Chorus: Children’s Choir of Almonte. Additional music: José Antonio Rodríguez, J. A. Amargós. Lyric of Andalusias’s national anthem: Blas Infante.

Text: Estela Zatania

On Wednesday September 13th the two-year countdown finally ran out and the fourteenth edition of the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla kicked off. This year devoted to dance, there seems to be a certain desire to compete with the annual Festival de Jerez which always centers on dance.

Shows which open and close any major festival are often excessively grandiose and contain little artistic content of value. The title Andalucía, el Flamenco y la Humanidad, and a total of 48 performers on stage, suggests the typical noisy incoherent chauvinist orgy, but we were in for a pleasant surprise. Through a series of ten well-constructed and seamlessly linked scenes, dancer, choreographer and director Mario Maya reiterated the Andalusian National Anthem, or at least its lyrics, in a diversity of musical languages corresponding to the provinces of Andalusia, a premise which was the basis for a CD produced by the Agencia Andaluza para el Desarrollo del Flamenco.

Belén Maya and the corps de ballet

Ten well-constructed and seamlessly linked scenes

Without any single performer assuming a truly central role, the show is a voyage through the fertile mind of Mario Maya. No one on the current flamenco scene knows how to move people and theatrical elements around a stage to greater effect: it seems like the natural extension of the dancer’s geometrically oriented concepts which revolutionized the face of flamenco dance over thirty years ago. Everything is a visual delight without being excessively showy. The negative space between bodies, or bodies and walls, curtains, floor, etc., are given the same importance as the dancers themselves, each detail is meticulously worked out, and the ten hours of daily rehearsal which some members of the group have reported, yielded results – the coherence is nearly perfect.

There are some high-octane names such as dancers Belén Maya, Joaquín Grilo and Rocío Molina, singers Capullo de Jerez, El Pele and Carmen Linares, and guitarists José Antonio Rodríguez and Alfredo Lagos, but the show itself is the absolute star at every moment. The transition between scenes is carried out with the ingenious use of simple movable terraced platforms that present, for example, the splendid Jerez group, one of the most exciting moments, with artists Capullo de Jerez, Fernando de la Morena, Joaquín Grilo and back-up already in place and in fully operative fiesta - no shuffling of feet as the musicians find their places.

Another noteworthy scene is the Seville segment with soleá de Triana and of el Arenero. This is interpreted by Rafaela Carrasco, a dancer who sometimes projects the personality of a comic book vampire lady, but on this occasion she has been duly toned down by the wise guidance of Mario Maya. Segundo Falcón and young Rosario la Tremendita back her up with a mysterious vocal play without ever straying from classic flamenco – innovation without assaulting the senses. Rafaela also shines in the scene devoted to Córdoba with fandangos de Lucena and el Pele doing the vocals.

No one on the current flamenco scene knows how to move people and theatrical elements around a stage to greater effect than Mario Maya

Rocio Molina

Huelva’s fifteen minutes of fame come with the voice of Guillermo Cano who has adopted an Arcángel look, and the guitars of Juan Carlos Romero and Paco Cruzado. The irresistible coup de grace – you really do try to resist the sentimental ploy, but the task is above and beyond anyone’s willpower – is the appearance of the children’s choir from Almonte, wee kiddies with angelic voices, well instructed with overlapping harmonized melodies.

Also worthy of note are Belén Maya and young Rocío Molilna, now the owner of a newly svelte form, who continues to surprise with her oniric style that makes the most of serpentine movements and the hypnotic play of hands arms setting off face and head.

Maybe the bad news should have come first, but it’s this: the completely unforgiveable and unfortunate king-size blunder of not including any flamenco from Cádiz, the very birthplace of flamenco. Mario Maya who has been based for years in Granada, an area which has rarely been acknowledged for its contribution to flamenco, has suffered the ostracism of localism which still infects this art, so the omission is unfathomable. If only in purely musical terms, alegrías or cantiñas would have provided the sole relief from the Andalusian cadence, not to mention the deliciously pungent aroma of sea and salt spray.

Rafaela Carrasco, Rosario la Tremendita

If the exclusion of Cádiz is baffling, the inclusion of Brooklyn is quite beyond the pale in Dos Barrios. A worn-out West Side Story aesthetic broadcasts to the spectator that this number, shoe-horned into an otherwise cohesive show, is from one of Mario’s former works. The genius ought to have known that the artist must never fall in love with his own work.

The bottom line however, after the final curtain, is strongly positive. Andalucía, el Flamenco y la Humanidad is a perfectly enjoyable total theater experience that defends traditional flamenco without promoting any political agenda beyond that expressed by the verse of Blas Infante which is repeated throughout. It is unfortunate that the show is too expensive to be exported except in reduced format.

More information:

Special XIV Bienal de Flamenco. Program, reviews, photos