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“From
here on in, I’m at peace with my past”
by Manuel Moraga
photos: Rafael Manjavacas
He belongs to that new generation of
maestros who in no time at all will be carrying
the full weight of flamenco dance. In Manuel Liñán
we find a strange combination of maturity, intellectual
curiosity, creativity and non-conformity. His
aesthetic ideas may or may not be to everyone’s
liking, but what is certain is his artistic integrity.
On stage there’s not one loose end, and
yet, he manages to come across as warm and emotional.
He develops a sort of choreographer’s dance
that leaves a good impression even on the most
jaded observer. Now, with his career in full swing,
Manuel Liñán invites us to a very
special ceremony: a visit to his most distant
past, a time when social morés tried to
mold the ingeniousness of a free spirit.
 “1980”
is a trip to your infancy. Just where do your
memories take you?
I couldn’t tell you the exact age, but I
remember going to primary school, from the first
year when you begin to study. From then on I’m
sure there are memories. Then a flash of this
or that, but I don’t exactly know where
they belong.
Were you happy?
I didn’t have a bad or unhappy childhood,
but what I can tell you now is that I didn’t
have a fair childhood. In any case, until now
I hadn’t realized that I could have developed
that period much more and been much happier.
What was missing?
I was missing naturalness, I mean, all my feelings
should have been much more natural. I needed to
be accepted by society… And all that made me
feel different, when in actual fact I don’t
believe human beings are different from each other.
But I didn’t understand that until now.
Is “1980”
a kind of coming to terms with your past?
Yes, it’s something that was niggling me
all along. Back then I was feeling things I wasn’t
able to explore. Children are the most innocent
beings, and those feelings couldn’t be expressed
at that time. That’s why I’m expressing
them now.
“I had to feel
lonely in order to be free”
“When I was small
they put stones in my pockets so I couldn’t
walk”. Those are words of your own you dance
to with a soleá that isn’t from this
show, but that idea…how does it relate to what
you express in “1980”?
Well, those words were about loneliness, but the
truth is, when I was a child I came to understand
freedom after having known loneliness. I had to
feel lonely in order to be free. In that sense,
that sentiment is part of my life.
Do you like being alone,
or is it just that you have no choice?
For me it’s a necessity. I need to be alone
much of the time because I think that’s
when you get to know yourself, what you’re
really like, and what everyone else is like.
Is loneliness the road
to happiness?
It’s very important to me to know who I
am, to really know myself. And loneliness helps
me reveal my own self.
What kind of things
did you play when you were a child?
Everything. I played football because if I didn’t,
I wasn’t normal, but I also played volleyball…lots
of things. The problem is society has norms, rules
and regulations, and as a child you have to adapt.
If not, they make fun of you and it hurts. I also
played with elastic bands, blind man’s bluff,
circus games… But there were games where I had
to hide myself in order to play.
“Count to ten,
then run and hide in a dream…trade soldiers
for dolls…put love before money”.
Those sentences appear in the information that
accompanies the show…are they yours?
Yes
They’re very
nice.
(He smiles…)
 What
did you have against toy soldiers?
Just that you couldn’t play with anything
else. If you were a boy, you had to wear blue
and play with soldiers. And if you were a girl,
you had to wear pink and play with dolls. That’s
why I think society is so poorly informed regarding
this, and many other things as well. I think we
need to loosen the reins beginning right in infancy,
starting with what a child wants to do or play
with. “To fight for the girl I long for”,
I also say that in that text… It’s that
society already has a set of norms and people
try to push you into a niche.
“When I see
things clearly, I don’t care about the consequences”
Was it that you needed
to call attention to yourself?
I needed people to know how I really was. I needed
people to know I didn’t like football, and
that I wanted to dance. And I would have liked
people, especially my friends, to have known this.
But actually very few people understood me. And
that was hard.
Do you have any friends
from back then?
Yes, one. A neighbor of mine.
If you had to give
a title to that part of your life you bring out
in the show, what would it be?
Art is a man’s best friend.
Has art helped you
grow and develop intellectually and emotionally?
Of course. I think art was my safety valve at
that time. That’s where you could say everything,
that’s where I understood who I was and
felt understood, flamenco backed me up…art made
me strong to be able to develop what I truly felt.
Love, anger, naïveté
confusion… Was there any of this in those
years? More anger than love perhaps? More love
than confusion?…
At that time there was love in what I did. Now
I think there was also some anger at not being
able to do what I wanted.
And all this we’re
talking about, how do you deal with it in “1980”?
The main thing, by not limiting the show and not
limiting art. I’ve taken advantage of some
childhood memories related to the world of bullfighting,
because my father was involved in that. Bullfighting
made its mark on me. It’s also an important
part of my culture. And humility and freedom.
I dance a soleá with bata de cola because
I feel like it. And what I mean to make clear
is that there are no barriers in art, and what
we ought to do is enrich one another without putting
any limits. I’ve tried above all to enjoy
what I do, to do now what I wasn’t able
to do before.
Was it a necessity
to delve into your infancy?
Yes, because in my recent work I saw feelings
from my childhood surfacing. Things I had locked
up in my mind. That’s why I finally decided
to make room for all this, to work it out of my
system.
Then is this your most
wide-open show?
Yes, because I did whatever I felt like doing,
however I felt like doing it. It was all quite
clear. For me, it’s perfectly natural to
dance with a bullfighter’s cape or a bata
de cola, but from other perspectives this show
will be seen as taking more risks than others.
But for me certainly, it’s freer, more artistic.
 Of
everything included in “1980”, what
was the most difficult thing to get right?
The soleá with the bata de cola. I discovered
a whole new world, a different technique, a new
way of dancing. All that is enriching. As an artist
I always have intellectual curiosity and when
I think of having always to dance wearing trousers…
I don’t know… I felt I had to open other
avenues and investigate other elements, like the
bata de cola. I also want to learn to play castanets
and develop them. The hardest thing was the soleá
Pepe de Jun choreographed it, he’s also
from Granada, and this soleá is little
heard. But that dance with the bata de cola is
what I feel the most, because it’s something
I’ve only now discovered, and that motivates
me.
“I’ve
tried above all to enjoy what I do, to do now
what I wasn’t able to do before”
Knowing Manuel Liñán’s
stage presence, I suppose the show is anything
but simple.
Yes, it’s very elaborated. I also include
a zapateado to handclaps: I developed the whole
dance based only on percussion. There’s
also a granaína with bullfighter’s
cape. The soleá is very special, because
it reflects on my childhood and on freedom. There’s
also an off-stage voice. Every detail is looked
after, very developed and done with great care.
Yes, the show is characteristic of my way of doing
things.
What are the colors
of your childhood? What are the colors of the
show?
My childhood is in white, because despite everything,
it was one of the best times of my life, you aren’t
aware of what’s happening in the world.
As a child you’re more spontaneous, more
natural. The show is colored black, white and
crimson… I’ve also brought back the traditional
men’s costume of the high pants and vest.
I’m actually basing some things on flamenco
of the past.
Would you say you dance
in this retrospective show as a ‘naif’,
or as an adult?
I’m dancing as an adult, but it’s
true that when I think of my childhood, it brings
back memories of Sacromonte, the way the old ladies
danced, their gestures… I was like a sponge
back then…there were so many things I learned,
that without trying, it’s inside of me today.
And I put it on stage and try to reflect it in
my dance. That essence has been very important
for me.
What’s the ultimate
idea, the conclusion of “1980”?
That a human being is a free spirit, that art
progresses and we must reflect on the norms that
we ourselves set up in society. That we should
let ourselves be carried away more by those feelings
that we had when we were children.
You seem straightforward
and sincere. Has that caused you pain at times?
No, because when I see things clearly, I don’t
care about the consequences or what others might
think.
Is “1980”
a turning point in your career?
It’s a show that was waiting to be presented.
Like a debt with my infancy. In order that my
whole life and career might make sense, I had
to put that part of me in order. From here on
in, I’m at peace with my past.
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