Cordoba: On the 7th Day... — Flamenco Australia Magazine

Dear Paul and Esteemed Friends,The 7th Day of the 30th Edition of the Córdoba Guitar Festival was yet another special day as all of Spain continued to celebrate their World Cup victory. I briefly watched celebrations in Madrid on TV that had not stopped since they began. In fact they only intensified and became more organized. In fact I am writing this article on the 8th day of the Festival and the celebration continues… but in Córdoba there was a different kind of scene. The customary colloquialism, “Que pasa tío?” was replaced by the glow of pure joy.I arrived early in the doors of the Palacio de Congresos at 9:30am for the first day of class with Manolo Sanlúcar. I sat in the patio of this 8th Century work of art and played until many old friends began arriving and the reunion began. Manolo Franco, Paco Serrano and José Antonio Rodríguez and all of the students were brought together in a long conference room on the 4th and highest floor with Maestro Sanlúcar. He read each student’s name and assigned them to one of four levels, and then he addressed the entire group. The lecture was profound, and inspiring, and with a sober and commanding presence the Maestro had every person listening to every nuance so intently, one had completely forgotten about the World Cup. This was the World Cup, of Flamenco Pedagogy, and performance…The level is extremely high again this year. The majority of these players are professionals and young aspiring professionals, from Spain. There are two student concerts, on one July 15th and the other on July 22nd, and the competition performances on the 18th and 20th, are going to be of an extremely high level, like the World Cup.Then the evening brought the captivating Eva Yerbabuena Flamenco Company to the Stage of the historic Gran Teatro. The program was titled “Por qué lluvia.” The curtain rose and the stage was filled with singers, and dancers, frozen, without movement. The scene was set in the calle in front of a rustic, yet grand and majestic puerta. The costumes were later extremely traditional, but at this time, all were dressed as if in the street. The backdrop upon which the scene was cast was at times translucent. (Later under different lighting, the entire group of singers, and instrumentalists were visible.)Then in this silence Eva Yerbabuena came dressed like a child, a maiden, a virgin, to the stage down the center aisle through the crowd, as if she was sleepwalking, or hypnotized. She ascended the steps placed at the front of the stage and then fell into a fetal position as the others were frozen. They began to writhe, and tremble, and shake violently… and then her condition seemed to infect several others and they began to show symptoms of her infection. The next scene, called “Tremelo” featured modern dance movement that continued as a theme to the show, which juxtaposed the traditional flamenco art with modern dance… as if in a struggle of traditional flamenco versus the modern conceptualism. The compás was absent, building tension and anticipation, and then the stage exploded into a display of compás, soniquete, duende, and passionate modernism that continued until the work closed as it opened and the protagonista walked off the stage the way she entered.The cante was powerful and authentic with the four cantaors, Enrique el Extrameño, Pepe de Pura, Jeromo Segura, and José Valencia. The guitarists, Paco Jarana and Manuel de la Luz were extremely strong accompanists and supported the dominating dance performance on par with the level of the bailaors and bailaoras. They were Mercedes de Córdoba, Lorena Franco, Eduardo Gurerro, and Fernando Jiménez. They were all equal to their leader until Eva unleashed a fury of footwork that had her levitating and moving across the stage for several phrases until she brought the crowd to a roar with her thunderous and agile remates. The percussionists, “El Pájaro” and Raúl Domínguez were equally impressive.Tonight I will go the see “La mujer de la guitarra flamenca” Celia Morales at 21:30. Hasta pronto! Corey