The tenth edition of the Bienal de Arte Flamenco ('Biennial of the flamenco art') took place last September in Seville. Aficionao's correspondent in Seville, José Carlos Morales, reports in two parts about this prestigious festival. In the first part, that appeared in Aficionao 51 (November 1998), we could read about the grand opening and about the singing in the Biennial. In the second part the guitar and the dance get a chance.

Guitar
One of the evenings that were dedicated to the guitar was reserved for Tomatito, who filled the Lope de Vega theater with his show 'Tomate and friends'. The theater was crammed with people who wanted to see a guitar and a guitar player, that remind you of Camarón. Although Tomatito himself was the continuous thread, every time other 'friends' came to frame his play with singing and dancing.
The largest hall of the Biennial, the Maestranza, was crammed at 'Locura de Brisa y Trino' of Manolo Sanlúcar, supported by the exceptional and intelligent singing of Carmen Linares.
For the compositions of Manolo Sanlúcar traditional palos don't suffice. He jumbles them, in a wonder of guitar performance and musical illusion. The accompaniment of Isidro Muñoz, a second guitarist, is necessary to simplify the complicated music. Carmen Linares is experienced enough to sing texts which are difficult to fit in perfectly, and summons the memory of Lorca in her own unique way.
Of course Paco de Lucía wasn't absent. Many colleague guitarists went to the Maestranza to listen to Paco's play. The curtain opens, Paco starts to play, alone, but bit by bit more members of his group join him, until it's complete. Paco de Lucía, Ramon de Algeciras, Viejin, Duquende, Grilo, Ruben Dantas, Carlos Benavent and Jorge Pardo together received
the biggest applause to sound at the Biennial 1998. Olé, Olé, Paco! The master himself mentioned after the concert: "it is an enormous pleasure to be back in Seville again."
A man that should be mentioned is José Maria Gallardo. Although he's in fact a classical guitarist, he has great knowledge of flamenco music, which was noticeable in his piece Banderillas de Tiniebla ('Arrows of the darkness'), which was inspired by Lorca. the atmosphere was lugubrious, yet sensitive. A shiver went through the hall.

Sara Baras

Dancing
At the tenth Biennial there was more than enough dancing, which showed the tendency that the importance of dance within flamenco is increasing. There was e.g. the performance 'Eva' of Eva la Yerbagüena, a night to enjoy. The show started with music of Pizarro on CD (quite old fashioned). Eva comes on, starts to dance alone and is later surrounded by her extensive
group, consisting of the indispensable guitarists Paco Jarana and Salvador Gutierrez, three male dancers, four singers, two percussionists, a saxophone and a flute. This team put down a night of dancing without a single break. La Yerbagüena herself, who danced many different things, moved the audience, that filled Lope de Vega till the roof.
Solo por Arte! - this was the name of the performance of Javier Baron, which appeared to be complete from head to tail. Isabel Bayon, the dancer from Seville, was very much present in it. The highlight of the evening was the Soleá por Bulería which was danced by Javier Baron with José Antonio. Flamenco and dance united,  the temperature in Lope de Vega rose. It
was magnificent, touching, with as masterpiece, the hand movements of José Antonio.
Maria Pagés was allowed to display her skills for two nights. 'El fantasma del museo' (the ghost of the museum) is a choreography of her own hand and shows a masterly piece of fusion. She works with several styles of music and cinematographic elements, one by one as flamenco. Witty was the intervention of Manolo Marín, as the crippled guard of the museum. Fernando Romero shone in his role as a young man hopelessly in love and formed the foundation of the performance, together with Maria Pagés.
With 'Cadiz, La Isla' Sara Baras (from Cadiz) with her own group pays homage to Cadiz. Her dancing is full of power and was almost male, but still testified of good taste. On this night a few gypsies sang a brilliant interpretation of the cante jondo. One of them, Chano Lobato, continued, after finishing the obligatory repertory, with some unplanned singing. The 10 year
old son of Rancapino, who sang something during the fin de fiesta, received a standing ovation.

Hotel Triana and the Concurso
Very Biennial are the performances in Hotel Triana. These are always late at night, when a second performance has been planned at night. You could say that a performance at Hotel Triana is like a flamenco pilgrimage, in which you descend into the territory called Triana.
There were performances of the Gitanos del Sacromonte with Toni Maya, Gente de Lebrija performed with Concha Vargas, and there was a performance of Ginesa Ortega, which fell through because of the rain. All these performances were pure and genuine.

The last week of the Biennial was mainly reserved for the youth (which means, artists under 30). Three winners emerged - Paco Javier Jimeno received a Giraldillo for guitar, Melchora Ortega for singing and Rafael de Carmen for dancing - but in the last two categories the level was so low that Seville frowned and wondered if these were really the best young flamenco
artists of Spain. Especially when you consider that the last edition yielded winners like Terremoto Hijo and Israel Galván. Maybe more talent will present itself at the eleventh Biennial, in the year 2000, when also flamenco is ushered into a new millennium.

José Carlos Morales
photos:Uwe Ehrich

(English translation Carmen Morilla, 08 March, 1999)