Text: Sara Arguijo
Photos: Flamenco Heeren
Dance: Alberto Sellés Cante: Manuel Romero Guitar: Miguel Pérez Palmas: Roberto Jaén Lugar: Centro de Iniciativas Culturales de la Universidad de Sevilla. Series: Flamenco a 21 Grados 23 de julio
Cádiz in a finger-snap
At 24, Alberto Sellés moves the air of the bay with his arms, and conjures up Cádiz with a single finger-snap. His masculine, visceral and precise style again enthralled the Seville audience that received him in the series Flamenco a 21 Grados, organized by the University off Seville along with the Fundación Cristina Heeren, where he was an advanced student.
We knew his presence in the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía was not incidental, nor was it an accident that he won the prize for best newcomer at last year's Festival de Jerez for his show Las Campanas del Olvido with which he triumphed at the Teatro Central. Nor was it any accident that José Luis Ortiz Nuevo chose him to form part of Divino Tesoro, the project based on young talents which he brought to the Maestranza theater. But this Thursday, with a greatly reduced format and the problems that come with an open-air stage, the great-grandson of Aurelio de Cádiz once again left no doubt that despite his youth he is a mature artist with character.
Sellés is energetic, passionate, creative and sensible. He has strong feet, but above all, ideas in his head. Whether Levante forms, tangos or soleá por bulerías, the dancer managed to put just the right expressive level, being profound, serene or solemn depending on what was required.
However, without a doubt, more than the perfection of his forms and his turns, what we most appreciated were those arms which so many male dancers ignore. His way of containing emotion with a mere turn of the wrist. Or of catching our interest with the finger-snaps of his long fingers.
Clearly Alberto Sellés has a long ways to to, and a lot to do if he hopes to escape being the eternal promise of what might have been. But he's sharp and has an edge. We need to keep an eye on him.
