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Festival Flamenco de Nimes – 20 ans |
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Text: Estela Zatania THE NIMES FESTIVAL ENDS, NOT WITH A WHIMPER, BUT A BANG On Saturday night the Nimes Flamenco Festival wrapped up the celebration of twenty years of continuity. And what a festival it’s been, from January 7th to 23rd, a wide-ranging program with the best performers and shows, traditional and avant-garde, intimate and large-scale, cante recitals, conferences, courses, exhibits and presentations, artists such as Israel Galván, Mayte Martín, Miguel Poveda, Javier Barón, Andrés Marín, Diego Carrasco and Pastora Galván among others. The final day began early, at eleven thirty in the morning, with an interesting encounter with maestro Antonio Fernández “Fosforito” who, after explaining various aspects of flamenco, fielded questions from the audience. Early in the afternoon, young Granada singer Antonio Campos, a veteran singer for dance in top companies, and now forging a solid career as solo singer, offered an acoustic recital with Daniel Méndez on guitar. The pregón of Macandé, malagueña with rondeña and fandango of Frasquito, then, soleá. Granada singers are equally adept with the repertoires of both eastern and western Andalucía. Mining cante, tientos with a nod to Gaspar de Utrera ending with tangos in the Granada style, martinete, siguiriyas and cabal clearly inspired in Antonio Mairena, bulerías and two encores, campanilleros and an old romance a capella. Campos came well-prepared to this recital, and he was enthusiastically received by Nimes’ flamenco fans.
“ORO VIEJO”. Dance: Rocío Molina, Eduardo Guerrero, David Coria. Guitar: Paco Cruz, Rafael Rodríguez. Percussion: Sergio Martínez. Palmas and chorus: Guadalupe Torres, Vanesa Coloma. Cante: Rosario “Tremendita”. Rocío Molina, the young ballerina, bailaora, artista – because she’s all those things – continues on her journey into experimental avant-garde flamenco. We aren’t likely to again see the traditional dance she does so well and which we found so impressive a few years ago at her first appearance at the Festival de Jerez. Like other geniuses, Rocío Molina no longer belongs to us flamenco fans, because the world requires her services for the greater flamenco good.
So I’m happy to be able to see her in “Oro Viejo”, a work with a loose story line based on allusions to aging and the passage of time, with almost no cante as such, and with the surreal oneiric feeling that runs through everything the girl from Málaga does. Retro details such as the rumba “Ponme la Mano Aquí, Catalina”, hermaphrodite references, especially in the duo by two male dancers, choreographies reminiscent of break-dance, audiovisual moments, a touch of slapstick in the bus scene, the dramatic recorded arrangement of “María de la O”, the contrast of styles in the polo “duo” danced not together but by turns by Rocío and one of the men, accompanied like a caña… Rocío Molina is the Ferrán Adrià of flamenco; like the famous Catalonian chef, she makes use of quotidian elements in absolutely novel and surprising ways, and like the latter, there are great successes, and some not so great, but always that genius is in the forefront. The little jewel which is a guajira without cante, with the amazing Rafael Rodríguez on guitar, shines in one’s memory as the work’s most perfect moment. The voice of Periñaca who died nearly a quarter century ago, is fashionable these days in contemporary works, and is employed here with other historical voices to back up a martinete dance. Rocío, more than dance, what she does is paint images that burn into your retina. Even with high quality elements, she herself is better than this show. The final applause, polite for the others, thunderous for Rocío Molina, says it all. At the Odeón café cantante, the Nimes Flamenco Festival wound up its twentieth edition with an extended fiesta finale, courtesy of guitarists Antonio Moya and Daniel Méndez and their “Cinco Voces” (five voices). Powerful women steeped in flamenco: Herminia Borja, La Tana, María Vizárraga, Mari Peña and Fabiola with dancer Carmen Ledesma, wall-to-wall flamenco, with plenty of classic cante, the ronda of tonás they began with, Fabiola’s siguiriyas, Tana’s mining cante, Vizárraga’s cantiñas, tientos tangos of Mari Peña and the malagueña of Herminia. The very last bit, with all five women in semi-circle singing to Ledesma’s dancing seemed more like an intense religious rite than music and dance, and after nearly two and a half hours, the audience was still sorry to see them go.
More information: Complete Program Festival de Nîmes 2010 Others reviews Nîmes 2010:
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