'EVA' – Eva Yerbabuena Ballet Flamenco. Veranos de la Villa. Madrid. Baile Flamenco

SINCERELY,
TRULY YOURS…EVA

Text: Manuel Moraga
Photos: Rafael Manjavacas

“It’s not easy to do away with a child”
says Yerbabuena, and that’s why all her babies are still
alive. At the Veranos de la Villa she presented “Eva”,
a reflection on the timelessness of flamenco in which the
dancer leaves no doubt about her devotion to the art, the
constant searching, discipline and sincerity.

Actor Javier Bardem says that ninety percent of his work
is done at home, and the rest in front of the camera. Creativity
requires discipline: rehearsal, study, constancy, intellectual
curiosity… Like all good actors and actresses, Yerbabuena’s
discipline consists of searching for her own self in order
to know who she is, and that is one of life’s most difficult
challenges. Eva is unique in that she expresses herself with
each centimeter of her body, each bone and muscle, hence,
each movement…it’s ‘all about Eve’.

It could never be any other way, because Eva is incapable
of untruth. Nothing she does seems phony. But her dance is
not truth, but rather sincerity. The concept of “truth”
is a universal value, while sincerity is a private, personal
and non-transferable sort of truth. Eva Yerbabuena’s
dance springs from the gut. It is the result of the search
for her own artistic and personal being. Eva speaks straight.

Genius is never content to rest. Quite the contrary in fact
– it tries always to fill the creative void, but never
quite manages to hear the sound of that stone tossed into
the abyss. That’s Eva. A non-conformist.

Yerbabuena doesn’t dance from the outside in. Her expression
is introspective, and the result is a centripetal vector.

And she is always a woman dancing. It’s not feminine
dance, but feminity. Not coquettish, but spirited, tender,
sweet, maternal… Each of Eva’s poses is symbolic,
the concept of woman

These
are the sensations that la Yerbabuena transmitted to me in
“Eva” after not having seen her in a long time.
Eva Garrido adores this art in all its manifestations, because
we all know that flamenco is finite but unlimited: there are
many facets to flamenco. Enrique Soto, Jeromo Segura and Pepe
de Pura are three different kinds of singer, nearly opposing
textures which reconcile within the dance. The same thing
occurs with the dancers and with the forms that make up “Eva”,
from the danced granaína to the guajira, passing through
soleá, siguiriya or tonás.

The granaína is a free terrain Eva jealously guards
for herself. As the cante, Yerbabuena’s dance is free-form.
She expires with the cante and dances through to the last
flourish. The soul of flamenco.

The soleá is not solemn but sincere, and Eva dances
in slow motion. In the siguiriya she dances the silence. The
guajira is a prodigy of scenic compositions, and generally
speaking, everything is traditional although nothing seems
quite the same.

The line from the bible tells us “the truth shall set
ye free”. Yerbabuena’s freedom doesn’t seem
to spring from a divine source, but rather is the result of
the intense search for inner truths: a demanding discipline
in search of its identity, truth and sincerity. “Eva”
is Eva.