XVI Bienal de Flamenco 'CUANDO YO ERA… ' Eva Yerbabuena'

XVI BIENAL DE FLAMENCO DE SEVILLA
“CUANDO YO ERA…”
Eva Yerbabuena Ballet Flamenco
Tuesday, October 5th 2010

Photos: Luis Castilla / Bienal de Flamenco

SPECIAL COVERAGE: BIENAL DE FLAMENCO DE SEVILLA 2010

“CUANDO YO ERA…” Eva Yerbabuena Ballet Flamenco
Teatro de la Maestranza  2100h
 
Texto: Estela Zatania

Dance: Eva Yerbabuena. Guitar: Paco Jarana, Manuel de la Luz. Cante: Pepe de Pura, Jeromo Segura, Moi de Morón. Percussion: Manuel José Muñoz, alias El Pájaro, Raúl Domínguez. Corps de ballet: Mercedes de Córdoba, Eduardo Guerrero, Fernando Jiménez. Choreography: Eva Yerbabuena. Music director: Paco Jarana.

Some people with limited imagination and criteria, consider art that is melancholic to somehow be important, while happier manifestations are considered superficial.  Over the three weeks we’ve gone so far in this event called the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla, both extremes have been on display.  There have been some dynamic works full of life and color, and others that were dark and brooding.  For the moment, on my personal scorecard, the former are ahead in theatrical, technical and musical quality, and the latter have come off as less efficient attempts to achieve a certain braininess.  It’s the dance version of “neo-jondism” as put forth by Antonio Mairena regards cante; the maestro did not tolerate rumbas or cuplé por bulerías in the festivals where he had influence.

In my opinion, Eva Yerbabuena’s shows suffer from the tireless search for sophistication and intellectualism via melancholy.  “I suffer, therefore I am” is a resort employed in many artistic genres, and it’s a tremendous waste of this supremely talented dancer to have her move around the stage in a nightgown caressing various objects, in this case, a glob of clay, which we are expected to see as charged with significance.  In “Cuando Yo Era…”, the pretext of a potter’s wheel is presented as the work’s central concept, and we see Yerbabuena manipulating clay (it reminds you of Demi Moore’s famous scene in “Ghost”), feeling it’s erotic texture, punishing it…  At times, the wheel is a merry-go-round, melancholic of course, but there are also moments of physical struggle with the clay which were unintentionally comical.

The work begins with the “execution” of two kneeling men, a dramatic representation that is never quite related to the rest of the show.  Following this, the dancer interprets what could be taken as a version of her famous soleá, updated and accelerated.  In a scene that depicts a local fair, one dancer does a Charlie Chaplin impersonation to bulerías, but again, you fail to see the connection.  Bulerías in minor key with a decidedly retro feel, and an old-style rumba danced by the other female in the group occupy another segment and you start to forget about Eva’s depression and her problems with the clay.  When the lady returns peering into fun-house mirrors that distort her image, she dances tangos de Triana (quite the rage in this Bienal), and many people must be thinking the same as me: “Eva, yes, just dance, it’s what you do best”.

When the voice of Moi de Morón delivers bulerías a capella for Yerbabuena in the essential compás of romance, the clay episode is forgiven and forgotten, and I don’t know how a tribute to Paquera fits in with “Soleá de mis pesares” sung by Jeromo Segura, but he did a fine job of it.  A strange pseudo African pseudo Brazilian dance with two bare-chested men would have made sense had I read the program notes, but it’s my belief that the artistic act must be self-justifying and self-sufficient, with no need for words, and this dance was not, although afterwards you understood it to be a prologue to the carnival scene.  It’s here the best moment of the show unfolds.  The exotic Africanism overlaps with the familiar sound of fandangos de Huelva, a terrific piece of work by music director Paco Jarana producing the uneasy feeling that had not been achieved through pottery.  After this, the serranas sung by a barefoot Pepe de Pura for the straightforward contemporary dance of Eva is superfluous, and it all ends with Yerbabuena mistreating a glob of clay.

If Eva Yerbabuena needs to communicate feelings of loneliness, disorientation, depression and other negative emotions, she has the best possible tools in her own body without looking beyond flamenco where she is tops.  For modern dance there are specialized artists.