A total of 245 applications were received at the close of the registration period for the 17th Concurso Nacional de Arte Flamenco de Córdoba, the triennial event celebrated at the Gran Teatro from April 25th to May 8th. This number represents an increase of nearly 7% over the 230 applications received in the previous edition which took place in 2001.
Of
the 245 individuals, 117 tried out for the singing contest which includes
8 prizes; 80 for dance with 6 prizes and 48 for guitar with 2 prizes at
stake. In the last edition which was the sixteenth, there were 110, 80
and 40 participants respectively in each of the three sections.
In addition to the 16 prizes, there are three special prizes known as
Silverio, Antonio and Paco de Lucía, for the singer, dancer or
guitarist judged to present exceptional qualities.
The great majority of the applicants are Spanish, although as is customary
there are 23 from a variety of countries. Europe is represented by ten
participants from Italy, Turkey, France, Germany, Austria, Slovakia and
Holland. From the rest of the world, there are seven people from Japan,
the country with the most applicants, in addition to Lebanon, Australia,
United States, Mexico, Venezuela and Peru.
Of the Spanish participants, a high percentage is from Andalusia with
representatives from the 8 provinces that make up this autonomous region
as well as Melilla. Sevilla with 51, Cordoba with 47 and Cádiz
with 32 represent the greatest participation. From the rest of Spain there
are individuals from Madrid, Barcelona, Tarragona, Cáceres, Badajoz,
Murcia, Castellón, Alicante, Valencia, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Guipúzcoa,
Asturias, Canary Islands and Balearic Islands.
This seventeenth edition begins with the eliminations phase at the Sala
de Telares of Cordoba’s Gran Teatro from April 25th to 29th with
morning and afternoon sessions. Those chosen, pass to the semifinals which
take place between May 2nd and 5th at the Gran Teatro and tickets may
be purchased for 5 euros.
And finally, the Gala Prize presentation which is the grand finale of
the festival, takes place Saturday May 8th and includes the performance
of each award-winner. The show begins at 9:00p.m. and tickets are from
5 to 15 euros.
In addition to the contest per se, there are also a great many parallel
activities. Three concerts including the Ballet Nacional de España
(April 30th and May1st), Grilo with dancers Joaquín Grilo and Pastora
Galván (Thursday May 6th) and Arte que Hace Historia (Friday May
7th), a show including Paco Serrano, Luis de Córdoba, Manuel Silveria,
Antonio Alcázar, Victoria Palacios, Matilde Coral, Juan Carmona
Habichuela y José Luis Ortiz Nuevo.
Complementary activities include four expositions (three photographic
and one bibliographic), the presentation of the DVD of the winning artists,
the projection of the documentary Por Oriente Sale el Sol: La Paquera
en Tokyo and a round-table discussion about the entire event.
