19th Concurso Nacional de Artes Flamenco de Córdoba. Estreno 'DE FLAMENCAS' de Marco Flores

XIX CONCURSO NACIONAL
DE ARTE FLAMENCO DE CÓRDOBA
MARCO FLORES, “De Flamencas”
Friday, November 26th, 2010

Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: José Carlos Nievas

Dance, production, director and choreography: Marco Flores. Cante: Mercedes Cortés, Inma Rivero. Guitar: Antonia Jiménez, Betina Flater. Dance: Guadalupe Torres, Vanesa Vento, Lidón Patiño.  Palmas: Ana Romero. Special collaboration for Fandangos choreography: Olga Pericet.

The rain hasn’t let up here in Córdoba, and the flow of quality flamenco either.  Last night, Marco Flores, the dancer from Arcos de la Frontera, and Córdoba’s favourite dancer right now thanks to his spectacular triumph in 2007, proved to be more than worthy of those honors.

Nowadays, “premieres” are very highly valued.  I can’t understand why, since a premiere is, by definition, a work which is still green, no matter how much it has been rehearsed.  Nevertheless, the talent of Flores, his knowledge and good taste, made the world premiere of “De Flamencas” the resounding success we’ve learned to expect from everything he does.

It’s sad that in the year 2010 it continues to be necessary to defend the relevance of women in flamenco, but we can be grateful to this dancer for having had the valor and inspiration to do just that.  The tradition of women in dance is as old as flamenco itself, ever since the first female moved in rhythm to the sound of a voice, although in times past it was linked to dubious environments due to social customs that tended to keep women at home.  In cante, until about four decades ago, it was unusual to see a professional female singer who was not single, homosexual, or a widow, with the great Pastora Pavón being the exception that proves the rule.  But that taboo lost steam with Spain’s political opening of the seventies, and nowadays female voices abound.  Nevertheless, guitar is still not gender-blind; with the fingers of two hands you can count the number of professional female guitarists, and if you talk about accompaniment, just one hand is more than enough.

Marco Flores’ idea was as simple – or as exotic, depending on your perspective – as surrounding himself with a company made up exclusively of women.  But “De Flamencas” is much more than a social statement about women in flamenco.  It is a solid, excelent and admirable work that eschews the tiresome fad of explicit story-telling, offering high level dancing, cante and guitar.  Flores possesses the wisdom to find that difficult balance between traditional flamenco, and a contemporary approach to please today’s audiences.  Like other dancers who have managed to pull it off, such as Andrés Marín or Javier Barón among others, the show is based on the richness of cante.

The voices of Mercedes Cortés and Inma Rivero serve up a wide array of vocal tapas and main dishes…geographically diverse tangos, siguiriyas, serranas, tonás livianas, a sampler of abandolao cante (will a brilliant choreography that successfully combined flamenco moves with folkloric and classical ones), fandangos de Huelva with some lesser-known styles, alegrías cantiñas, media granaína and malagueña, nanas and the soleá Marco danced with the intelligent tasteful serenity that characterizes him, once again demonstrating that this isn’t about muscles, ladies and gentlemen, it’s about art.

Dynamic guitar-playing, artistically powerful singing and dance.  Two female guitarists, two female singers and four female dancers on a intensely flamenco voyage, a tempest of compás and cante in the lengthy fiesta ending.  This is the way to evolve and innovate upon existing structures with knowledge and good taste. 

Just one complaint: the completely black wardrobe is hard on the eyes, but it’s what they do these days, so audiences just have to ride out the fashion.

Not all the seats were full for this event, possibly due to the inclement weather.  But at Córdoba’s Gran Teatro, there was splendid flamenco weather.