The Ballet Nacional de España closes the Festival de Jerez 2020 with a bang

Editor’s Note: This was posted on deflamenco.com earlier this year.

INVOCACIÓN BOLERA, JAULEÑA, ETERNA IBERIA, DE LO FLAMENCO. HOMENAJE A MARIO MAYA.

Basic list of artists – Choreography: Rubén Olmo, Antonio Najarro, Mario Maya, Mirián Mendoza, Milagros Menjíbar, Rafaela Carrasco, A. Rueda “Toná”, Manolo Marín, Isabel Bayón. Music: Manuel Busto, Manuel Moreno-Buendía, Diego Carrasco, Jesús Torres, Moraíto Chico, Los del Río. Voice: Saray Muñoz, Gabriel de la Tomasa, Luisa Carmona, Noemi Humanes, Juan José Amador “El Perre”. Guitar: Diego Losada, Víctor Márquez, Pau Vallet. Percussion: Roberto Vozmediano. Dance: Members and guest artists of the Ballet Nacional de España.

The Festival de Jerez 2020 has closed its imaginary doors with a banquet of luminous art, music and great beauty. The beauty of a cultural heritage that with this project goes on record to be preserved for future generations. Spanish art whose most fundamental character seems to send an urgent message to the entire world indicating that we must embrace both joy and tragedy with equal passion, because they’re the raw material of life itself. My much-admired friend, Marta Carrasco, an authority on these questions, says Spanish dance and flamenco together represent the most difficult dance discipline to dominate the entire spectrum.

At first glance, the program appears impossibly long and impenetrable for a simple flamenco fan. But then, among the numerous cast of artists you see the names of Diego Carrasco, Moraíto, Milagros Menjíbar, Rafaela Carrasco, Jesús Torres and Manolo Marín, not to mention Mario Maya, who is the object of a tribute, and you know you’re in the right place, because the path from essential bolero school dance to flamenco is shorter than most people think.

Rubén Olmo has been director of the Ballet Nacional de España for six months. The program he directed which we saw last night, combines group numbers with solos and duets, a work of recuperation combined with conservation and creativity. {más a deflamenco.com}