XIII Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla. 'A cuatro voces' – Eva la Yerbabuena

Dance: Eva Yerbabuena, Mercedes de Córdoba, María
Moreno, Sonia Poveda, Asunción Pérez Choni, Estefanía
Cuevas, Luis Miguel González, Juan Manuel Zurano, Eduardo
Guerrero, Amador Rojas. Alejandro Rodríguez, Eduardo Lozano.
Guest singers: Enrique Soto, Segundo Falcón, Pepe de Pura.
Special guest singer: Miguel Poveda. Guitar: Paco Jarana, Manuel
de la Luz. Percussion: Antonio Coronel, Efraín Toro. Sax-flute:
Ignacio Vidaechea.

A novel beginning, a young boy collecting oranges that
have been strewn across the stage while the off-stage voice advises
us to please turn off our cell phones “because I might get
my hopes up” sets the tone for the avant-garde, grim and somewhat
presumptuous work by Granada dancer Eva Yerbabuena. Can a German
choreographer (Pina Bausch) understand and communicate not only
the complex rhythms of flamenco, but the extrovert Andalusian personality
which embraces love and death with the same passion? Could the circumstance
of not having been raised in Andalusia have deprived Yerbabuena
of the capacity to express emotions other than the darkest? More
to the point, has Eva María Garrido García “La
Yerbabuena” ever gotten drunk?

The evening of Saturday September 18th we attended the Teatro de
la Maestranza to receive a fresh dose of the extraordinary dancing
of this extraordinary woman, but the goals expressed in the program
and reflected in the title of the work, namely “to pay tribute
to four of our greatest poets via dance” was already suspicious.
Just days ago José Menese offered his cante recital with
verses taken from classic poetry, but the poetry was the last thing
we heard. On this occasion, being a dance show, the work of applying
the words of Vicente Aleixandre, Miguel Hernández, Blas de
Otero and García Lorca to serrana, siguiriya, toná,
fandangos, soleá por bulería, tientos, tangos, bulerías,
alegrías and soleá seemed to be an exercise in how
to produce flamenco for yuppies.

The corps de ballet is highly polished
and professional – it’s clear Yerbabuena is the demanding
force behind this

Yerbabuena is as much an actress as a dancer and a large portion
of the show is pantomime with modern dance, and plenty of theatrics.
The numbers flow seamlessly one into another without clear endings
that beg applause: for this, thank you, Eva. We see the unsettling
image of singer Pepe de Pura singing on his knees, but in general
there is a dearth of cante, just as in Joaquín Grilo’s
work a few days ago. Despite the presence of a first-rate team of
singers (Enrique Soto, Segundo Falcón, Pepe de Pura, Miguel
Poveda), the human voice is used as a mere decoration instead of
being at the heart of everything, a concept that contradicts the
very spirit of flamenco and which might be partially responsible
for the work being a little undigestible.

There are some lovely moments and the corps de ballet is highly
polished and professional – it’s clear Yerbabuena is
the demanding force behind this. The magnificent soleá she
danced in “La voz del silencio” comes to us in a new,
lite version with the addition of four male dancers. A rain of paper
leaves accumulates on the stage and street-sweepers arrive to push
them to one side of the stage, and then the other…fascinating…while
we hear sweet free-form music that doesn’t corresponde to
any recognizable flamenco form.

She becomes a man in a woman’s
body and the gender confusion lends its own mystery.
.
The
wardrobe is rigorously black and white with the exception of two
light-colored dresses used by Yerbabuena, and the contrast works
well although a bata de cola would have been nice. Wearing a rumpled
black Mao suit, Eva does a masculine bulerías dance, almost
rivaling Farruquito, including her famous and fascinating “slow-motion
camera” effect…she becomes a man in a woman’s
body and the gender confusion lends its own mystery.

Death is never far from the surface, from the first number where
a pair of men’s shoes are symbolically caressed, to a fall
to the floor by Eva who is then dragged off like a dead bull from
the ring. The dancer’s alegrías promises relief from
the dense atmosphere and this turns out to be the main dance. Here
she is wonderful – those impossible contorsions, elegance
personified and always the touch of darkness the lady paints –
but the dance doesn’t come close to matching the above-mentioned
soleá.

Soleá sung without music to finish off, and the dancer stands
motionless, front and center, listening, staring out at the audience,
and fwe hear her recorded voice: “This is my place and I wouldn’t
trade it for any other. I got swept away. I have no regrets”.
Nor do we regret having attended this premiere, but the day Eva
Yerbabuena decides to put her faith in flamenco and in her own,
considerable resources, it will be an important event.

Text: Estela
Zatania

More information::

Interview
with Eva la Yerbabuena