Marco Flores – De Flamencas – Festival Flamenco de Nimes

Text: Estela Zatania
Photos: JeanLouis Duzert

Saturday, January 19th, 2013. 8:00pm. Teatro de Nimes (France)

FOUR SHOWS WRAP UP THE NIMES FESTIVAL 

The closing day of the Festival de Flamenco de Nimes there was a very complete and surprisingly varied program, and not even the freezing rain outside made a dent in the audience turn-out.

At five in the afternoon, at the Paloma Club for alternative music, we attended the recital of young Huelva singer Rocío Márquez who four years ago made an impressive sweep of the prizes at La Unión.  She came to Nimes with her guitarist Alfredo Lagos, a beloved veteran of this festival, to lay out her particular retro version of cante, taking us back to the times of Pepe Marchena with the exquisite melisma that characterizes her delivery, a way of singing that is making a comeback.

Next up, a diametrically opposed style of flamenco in an intimate bar and restaurant in the old town.  Diego Carrasco, an artist whose presence at the Festival de Nimes is always a given, presented his new recording, “Hippytano”, the first record from the creative Jerez man in eight years.

Shortly afterwards in the theater, the main performance of the day, “De Flamencas”, was held.  A well-rounded show that is receiving deserved praise thanks to its carefully-crafted production and the high artistic quality of the performers, all women except for Marco Flores, main dancer in addition to choreographer and director.

But “De Flamencas” is much more than a show featuring women.  It’s good singing, guitar and dancing.  It’s the updating of flamenco dance duets, an area of this genre that had nearly fallen into disuse and was in need of new forms.  It’s being brave enough to open a show with marianas, a nearly obsolete song-form, possibly not previously danced.  It’s knowing how to make the most of abandolao compás, alter ego of bulerías, or giving an original spin to fandangos de Huelva.  It’s also the updating of liviana and serrana rounded off with the famous siguiriya of the “cuco” in the voice of young singer Fabiola Pérez, full of flamenco undertones and power.  And that granaína by Mercedes Cortés, or in fact, anything she interpreted.  Four women dancing a nana is not something to be seen every day either, and they managed to pull it off.  Marco Flores had the good taste to build his show on a solid framework of cante.

The two female guitarists, Antonia Jiménez and Bettina Flater, have worked out some terrific accompaniment with interesting harmonies and evocative dissonances.

And Marco.  Few of today’s dancers combine elegance, subtlety and flamenco essence better than the young man from Arcos.  His cantiñas, and the dramatic soleá show he has a highly refined sense of what he looks like at any given moment, as if he had an internal mirror that makes it impossible for any movement to be messy or out of place.

Ninety minutes non-stop, perfect transitions, clean staging and a Marco Flores who is better than he was yesterday, not as good as he’ll be tomorrow, because he is an artist who continues to grow.

At half past ten at the Café Cantante Odeón, Ana Pérez, a dancer from Marseilles who lives and works in Seville, presented an ambitious work backed-up by the guitars of Manuel Gómez and Pepe Fernández, the percussion of Javier Teruel and experienced veteran singers José Amador and Pepe de Pura.