It has been a long time since flamenco has fully entered universities, and from an academic point of view, a series of initiatives have been developed that have brought the university world into contact with flamenco in many aspects.
In Pablo Olavied … Create Olavid Flamenco Chair Who participated in the mentoring Dancer Eva Yepabuena and researcher Norberto Diaz, The third university festival is being held these days “Flamenco impurities.”
Among the activities, a training course was held this Friday morning at the headquarters of the Andalusian Flamenco Ballet in Cartuja Stadium, in the presence of… Eva Yepabuena and dancer Andres Marin.
About thirty people participated in this meeting, dancers from all over Andalusia, from academies and conservatories and also the staff of the Flamenco Ballet, from cities such as Libreja, Alcalá de Guadaira, Utrera, Los Palacios, among others, and two foreign participants from Argentina and Japan. There are more women than men, and this happens almost always in dance subjects, and with a huge diversity of ages, from a 15-year-old girl to a 56-year-old woman who admitted that she started dancing at 45 for fun. There were those who trained in clubs and at their city’s academy, and those who took courses with teachers and completed a higher dance course. Everyone can participate.
Expect among the participants sitting in a circle when Eva Yerbabuena addresses them: “First, don’t be afraid. We will work with objects, with music and texts. “What I don’t want you to do is dance.”. So the session started strong with the middle of the room filled with stuff.
“Steps are just steps, and if they are not charged with the energy we experienced, they will not arouse emotion in us. “I want to feel your feelings”. “I stood behind him and played his part as a cheerleader in some performance,” Andres Marin recalls being at his side when he saw Yepabuena for the first time. “I danced and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”
But Yebabuena continues to “provoke” the participants: “We will work from silence,” and pays attention to the posture of some: “We do not sit with our legs crossed,” and the boys automatically spread their legs. The dancer continues: “What worries us is where we start, and what I want is to provoke.”
Andres Marin plays music from Sound artist Francisco LopezThen you will place more pieces Thomas Luis de Vitoria and Poland’s Krzysztof Penderecki. Among the observers are teachers from the Seville Institute and other schools. When no student dares to venture out into the middle of the space full of objects, Maribel Ramos, a teacher at the Seville Conservatory, stands in the center and begins to move silently. The 56-year-old veteran is the first to go out on his own to pick things up. Then catharsis occurs, and the students begin to slide onto the stage and begin to participate in this increasingly growing performance, which little by little overcomes the shyness of some.
Read Antonin Artaud’s Manifesto for the Theater of Cruelty. One of the texts that had a great impact on the history of world theater, and is still moving on the scene. The first to leave are those who already know each other, the members of the Andalusian Flamenco Ballet, who are more accustomed to interacting, but little by little more and more shy people join them. “Don’t dance,” Eva Yepabuena insists, because dancing slips through the cracks for many.
The performance occupies the first part of the master class and ends with general applause. “I am happy that so many beautiful images have been presented,” says Andrés Marín to some of the young people, many of whom have never done this kind of activity before.
Dancers listen to Eva Yibabuena’s explanation before starting the first part of the master class
In the second part, Andres Marin is the one who clicks on the students, He begins to sit on the chair. “It was Mario Maya who popularized this zapatado who sits like this, but Antonio the dancer had already done it before. We have to keep in mind that everything comes from Antonio, although many people don’t know it, he came from America with some ideas that he transferred to Spanish dance,” says Marín.
The zapatateado is difficult and complex, as Marín customizes it with each one and eventually gets almost everyone to join the party of voices that make up the heel. It does so to the rhythm of the boleria, but then it leads into a tango.
Ultimately they want recognition from studentsEach one takes a picture of himself, gives his name, age, and origin, and says why he loves dancing. And for all tastes: “Because it makes me feel free; Because it’s the only way I have to express myself; Because I lived it in my house; Because when I discovered it I couldn’t stop thinking about flamenco; I’m from Alicante, I’m a weirdo in my house, no one likes flamenco; On Wednesdays I dance on the rock, to forget other things, and be happy; I want to devote myself to this with all my might, it is my passion; I don’t want to devote myself to dancing, I dance for fun…” Hence the personal universe with which the master class ends with applause.
The Olavide Chair Flamenco activities will continue on Saturday 29th with the symposium “Glasses on the Floor: The Contemporary Flamenco Dance Scene” The concert will be moderated by Professor Francisco Ickes, with the participation of university professors, communication professionals, and dancer Vanessa Aybar, who will present the artistic capsule entitled “Queen of Metal – Solo.”