Choreography
Fernando Romero
Dancers
Angel Muñoz
Charo Espino
Ramon Martinez
Guitarists
Paco Pena
Paco Arriaga
Rafael Montilla
Singers
Immaculada Rivero
Jose Angel Carmona
Percussionist
Nacho Lopez
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A Compas!
Sadler's Wells
Peacock Theatre
7 - 12 August 2007
The first thing to say about this performance was that it played to a full house, only part of which consisted of Spanish residents and visitors, and that it was greeted at the end with a standing ovation. This is a well-known and well-loved Company, and its aficionodos were very pleased with its performance.
This reviewer, however, was less enthused. His problem was not with the performances, but rather with the whole enterprise of translating a form of popular "folk" art away from the intimacy of its traditional setting, and onto the elevated stage of such an up-scale temple of "high art" as the Sadler's Wells theatre.
Even in its touristified setting in such Spanish cities as Seville, "flamenco" impresses because of its small-scale intensity. Packed around an open floor, perhaps with a drink or even a cigarette in hand, the watchers are still part of the show - even if not as fully participative as they were in the gipsy revels from which the tradition springs. The possibility, at least, still remains of a spontaneous interaction between the audience around the floor and the performers improvising on the basis of their patterned routines. But gazing up from the stalls of an opera house and through the frame of its proscenium arch, only the most attenuated sense of this communal vitality survives.
Obviously Paco Peña and his distinguished company are conscious of this problem, and a number of determined steps have been taken to address it. The lighting is dramatic, varied, and effective, with its use of silhouettes, spotlights, and changes of colour. Changes in the setting are equally dramatic, with back-projection of bold splashes of painted brushwork (sometimes a la Paul Klee, sometimes a la Howard Hodgkin), toned in with dramatic changes in the colour of Charo Espino's traditional flounced flamenco dress. The program is carefully planned to achieve the greatest possible variety: trios alternating with solos and with male-female and male-male dance duets - musical recitatives alternating with guitar ensembles and solos - a charming duet for guitar and castenets (performed by Paco Pena and the female star, Charo Espino) - and a dramatic change from the guitars in the final piece, Ritmo Nuevo, when the musicians perform an intricately rhythmic number with small steel hammers on iron anvils.
All the essential moves in the traditional "flamenco" game were displayed to perfection: the fluid movement of the hands, with shaped fingers and bent-back wrist, so obviously descended from the mudras of Hindustan - the sharp shifts of mood and tempo - the elaborate and swiftly changing rhythms of the tap-dancing - the abrupt changes of posture from one pose to the next - the accent on the profile - the strong atmosphere of sexual display and competition. All this impressed this reviewer with its sense of rootedness in the folk tradition. In this respect perhaps the most striking piece was Angel Muñoz' solo in the first half, in a piece called Martinete in which he plays the role of the proud and disciplined stallion going through the elaborate paces of the traditional "Spanish Riding School".
Sex, of course, is at the heart of flamenco, and it is a salutory if disconcerting experience to be reminded of a world in which men are men, and woman exists for the sake of man. This is, of course, not at all to say that she is subservient to man: she charms and cajoles, but she also knows how to dominate by the alternating offer and withdrawal of her favours. Charo Espino gave an epic display of this gamut of moods, well set off by the competitive contrast between the two male dancers.
But it has to be said that, as with all folk art, the range of these effects is limited and tends to the repetitious. In the traditional setting this is covered by the atmosphere of sociability and spontaneous interaction between watchers and players. But scaled-up for opera-house performance over two hours before a remote and static audience, the spontaneity has to be somewhat planned, the improvisation has to be somewhat calculated, and the applause has to be somewhat milked.
A tempting way through these dilemmas is to introduce elements of the more highly differentiated style of "classical" ballet - which was the road taken by the other male star, Ramon Martinez. His supple and sophisticated application of these routines was well displayed in Alegrias, almost immediately following Angel Muñoz' more traditional Martinete. The audience clearly more appreciative of Martinez's display, which concluded the first half.
But for this reviewer the honours went rather to Muñoz and the old forms. He came closest to reminding us of what we were missing. Robert Jackson
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