Marco Flores, the power of subtlety – Festival de Jerez

Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: Ana Palma

XXI FESTIVAL DE JEREZ
Marco Flores «Tránsito»
Thursday, March 2nd, 2017. 7:00pm. Sala Paúl, Jerez de la Frontera

 

Special 21 Festival de Jerez – All the information

 

Dance: Marco Flores. Cante: Mercedes Cortés. Compás: Ana Romero. Guitar: Jesús Núñez.

Small surprises, courtesy of the Festival de Jerez.  At the Sala Paúl, one of the secondary venues of the program, devoted to experimental or small-scale shows, Marco Flores, the dancer from Arcos de la Frontera, presented his work “Tránsito”, and along the way gave a masterful lesson in the possibilities of flamenco dance when left to an interpreter of great sensitivity who understanda the power of subtlety.

With such a talented dancer, librettos are simply superfluous.  No questing for identity, no inner journey…just great flamenco.  Because Marco is one of the best there is.  Because his overwhelming elegance, crystal-clean technique, strength and unrelenting good taste come together in a way that have people commenting at the exit door “what a dancer!”

The title of the work, “Tránsito” (transit), is vague enough to permit any number of interpretations.  Flamenco has that scope, and the ability to be equally coherent via an aggressive approach, or subtle understatement, the latter option often being the one that does the most “damage”, because what flamenco followers most want is to feel the pain duly filtered through art, no matter what it takes.

The voice of Mercedes Cortés is another element that hurts good.  At first, she appears not to be enough singer for the level of Marco, but no.  She’s perfect, and quite moving when she sings the old classic “Te he de querer mientras viva”, with a delivery that is a mixture of flamenco and lyrical song.

Although it sounds incongruous, Marco dances the trilla.  And it works.  Bulerías, siguiriyas cabales… A suite of abandolao forms, the new pretext for bulerías. Flores uses his chest to play muted percussion, he drags himself across the floor on his knees… With his arched back, and arms that speak volumes with each movement, his forms and aesthetics are reminiscent of that male figure, provocative and sassy, who appears dancing on Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters for the Moulin Rouge.
 
The power of subtlety.

 

Photo gallery – Marco Flores «Tránsito» by Ana Palma

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