XIII Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla. 'Pasión y ley' Cía. Antonio 'El Pipa'

Text : Estela Zatania
Fotos: Manny Rocca

The sculptor: Antonio ‘El Pipa’. The passion:
Lola Greco. The law: Ma. José Franco. The tradition: Juana
la de ‘El Pipa’, Enrique ‘El Extremeño’.
The workers: Manuel Tañé, Pascual de Lorca, Juan Moneo.
Musicians: Alexis Lefèvre-violin, Nacho Gil-sax and Turkish
clarinet, Luis de Periquín-percussion and Hindu tablas, Felipa
del Moreno-cante, Joaquín Flores-palmas.

“Pasión y ley” is the title of the show Antonio
‘El Pipa’ premiered last Februrary at the Festival de
Jerez and presented Monday night October 4th within the Bienal de
Flamenco de Sevilla. Since that debut the work has acquired theatrical
elements that add little to the overall effect, or worse yet, are
confusing or even laughable as is the case of the three-legged statue
or the few lines of dialogue spoken by Juana la del Pipa when she
hands a welder’s helmet to Antonio and admonishes: “let’s
go, it’s time to work”.

The group earnestly and with all its heart wishes the show to be
seen as a “work”, but what comes across is a series
of dances that bear little or no relation to the libretto…it’s
clear that not even Antonio himself buys into it when he goes out
of character to take a bow after dancing soleá. But who’s
keeping track of these things, these people are from Jerez after
all and they come with their compás and with a virtual Kamasutra
of the thousand and one ways of doing bulerías: without music,
with or without cante, “cuplé”, faster, slower,
to guitar or orchestra…

A
fine pretext for some first-class performers to exhibit their habitual
flamenco wares

Enrique el Extremeño is a delight with his outsized red
armchair and his Extremaduran cante tinged with the sound of Utrera
where he’s lived much of his adult life. His rhythmic abandolao
cante offers yet another pretext to dance bulerías and the
charming duo with Juana, where they joke around, singing and dancing
festive cantes, offers wonderful moments that should have been developed
further. Nowadays singers and guitarists are required to interpret
acting roles and we can begin to talk about those of greater or
lesser ability in this respect: el Extremeño is one of the
best.

María José Franco serves up her quality dancing inspired
in the most traditional style, but the same multicolored dress she
wore in Jerez continues to offend the collective sensibility throughout
the evening. Lola Greco is in a class by herself, a free spirit
with impossibly long and flexible limbs she uses to create fascinating
visual effects complemented by her large eyes and expressive face.

Other works fall into the error of too much theater and not enough
flamenco. “Pasión y ley” is far from being the
coherent piece of theater to which it aspires, but it’s a
fine pretext for some first-class performers to exhibit their habitual
flamenco wares within a theatrical context that some audiences can’t
seem to do without nowadays.