Flamenco Puro Irlanda at Festival de Jerez 2011

There were various shows over the Festival taking place in the Teatro Villamarta, highlights including Compañía Antonio El Pipa ‘Danzacalí Danzar de los Gitanos’, La Farruca ‘Homenaje a los grandes (Lola Flores, El Farruco, Carmen Amaya)’, Compañía Rubén Olmo ‘Tranquilo Alboroto’ and Isabel Bayón Compañía Flamenca ‘En la horma de sus zapatos’.

Compañía Javier Barón performed ‘Vaivenes’ on Monday evening. Singers José Valencia, David Palomar, Pepe de Pura performed with extreme power which lifted the performances. Lynn’s flamenco teacher, Ana Morales, from the Bienal de Flamenco in Sevilla in September 2010 performed in both Javier Baron’s production and Rubén Olmo’s production on the Wednesday evening.

The story: ‘Vaivenes‘ is a journey where the selection of music, dance, the lyrics of the songs or verses realise how flamenco lived in another time not too long, where short trips were so long that gave capacity to a thousand and one stories”.

La Farruca is performing the world stage with her final show before retiring. ‘Homenaje a los grandes’ made its debut at the Festival de Jerez. Her show was a tribute to past famous flamenco artists Lola Flores, Carmen Amaya, Matilde Coral and her father, the famous El Farruco (Farruquito’s grandfather). Puro is what was advertised and Puro is what the audience received. Rosario Montoya Manzano ‘La Farruca’ danced with every part of her body.

Rubén Olmo ‘Tranquilo Alboroto’ – A show of near-perfection. Rubén Olmo is somewhat of an ‘outsider’ in flamenco festival terms. This was his debut show. Within the show, he paid tributes to dancers Manuela Vargas and Matilde Coral. Israel Galván choreographed a piece inspired by his sister Pastora. Throughout the show fandangos, seguiriyas, guajira and tangos were performed to near perfection and beauty. Inspired by Seville’s religious images, Ruben perfectly performed to the sound of a live bugle and drum band at the back of the stage.

~Rubén Olmo “Más allá de la perfecta ejecución está la danza y el hombre”

Isabel Bayón’s show ‘En la horma de sus zapatos’ was a beautiful earthy mix of traditional where she performed a Guajiras and Garrotin with power and beauty. The premise of the show was the “challenge of a performer unafraid to venture into new territories”. The show was part-choreographed by Fernando Romero, Florencio Campos and Rubén Olmo.

Other shows outside the Teatro Villamarta the group went to see were Andres Peña (Tara’s teacher at the Bienal de Flamenco in Sevilla September 2010) with Pilar Ogalla as guest performer at Sala Compañía and the great cantaor El Torta at a local club which were fantastic additions to the Festival de Jerez.

Bienal de Flamenco, Sevilla, septiembre 2010

Jose Maya y Alfonso Losa GRITO

We first witnessed Jose Maya’s gritty performance in a small bodega with guitarist Tomatito at the Festival de Jerez in 2008. His energy and emotion was as dramatic as Tomatito’s guitar playing. We were interested to see how such an intimate performance would relay on a bigger stage. We were not let down. Jose Maya has a traditional style of flamenco and uses his masculine power to perform. Alfonso Losa performed a perfect Farruca starting off with the rhythm of a bastón (cane) which was one of the many highlights of the evening.

Compañía Rocio Molina CUANDO LAS PIEDRAS VUELEN
Rocio Molina is a very young dancer with a very mature mind. In her choreography and interpretation of flamenco, Rocio steps out of the box entirely and in this show, she gave a very personal performance.

Her choreography in the show was modern and at times a little mystifying but this does not disguise the fact that Rocio is one of the top flamenco dancers in the world today. The show’s theme was based around the beach, nature and birds.

Andres Marín LA PASIÓN SEGÚN SE MIRE
Andrés Marín is another very innovative dancer and in his latest show he mixed modern flamenco with traditional old style by introducing dancer Concha Vargas to perform with him. Some of the pieces were performed with musical instruments such as tuba, marimba and clarinet.

Jose de la Tomasa was a highlight of the show with the most deep, earthy flamenco voice performing today.

Farruquito SONERÍAS
Juan Manuel Fernández Montoya, known as Farruquito, is a huge flamenco star in Spain and expectations are always high when he announces a new show. ‘Sonerías’ is set in a local bar in Havana where some gypsies enter and introduce their culture to the local musicians in Havana. The mix is a little jazz, some salsa with a little flamenco. For us, Farruquito did not perform enough during the show and the entire production was a little audacious and over the top although the original idea was innovative. The four female dancers were very professional and there were was a lot of activity taking place on stage to entertain but it didn’t quite work overall.

The group went to Peña Flamenca Torres Macarena in La Macarena district which featured a young dancer from Cadiz performing an alegrias. The room was packed with Bienal festival goers and there was a good atmosphere as the singer Javier Rivera encouraged the young dancer performing in a bright red bata de cola.

The group also went to a performance at La Casa de la Memoria to see dancers Manuela Ríos, El Choro, singer Javier Rivera and Dutch guitarist Tino and also ventured out to late night events at La Carbonaría.

Bienal de Flamenco, Sevilla 2010

In September 2010, members of Flamenco Puro travelled to the Bienal de Flamenco in Sevilla to study with top professional flamenco artists and take in the many shows on offer. More information on the Bienal can be found at http://www.bienal-flamenco.org/


In August 2010, Sarah from Flamenco Puro travelled to Madrid to study at Amor de Dios, more updates soon.

Festival de Jerez 2010

María del Mar Moreno, Manuel Liñán, Isabel Bayón, Olga Pericet and Mercedes Ruiz, all the classes members of Flamenco Puro from Ireland took over the course of the 14th Festival de Jerez.

Tara studied Petenera with María del Mar Moreno and in the mornings took a Tangos course with Tatiana Ruiz at the Acadamia Chiqui de Jerez. Lynn studied Bulerías por Soleá with Mercedes Ruiz, Soleá with Manuel Liñan and Sarah studied Farruca with Isabel Bayón and Alegrias (with bata de cola) with Olga Pericet.

There were various shows over the Festival taking place in the Teatro Villamarta, highlights including "Quiero tu cante" Compañía María del Mar Moreno with singers Antonio Malena, David Lagos, Manuel de Malena, Juana la del Pipa and La Macanita. Later at midnight at the Bodega Los Apóstoles, "Mujeres" with singers Juana la del Pipa, Dolores Agujeta and La Macanita proved to be a treat for cante lovers.

Compañía Joaquín Grilo performed "Leyenda personal" on Sunday evening which won the Premio de la Crítica del XIV Festival de Jerez, video footage of the show can be found here

Singers José Valencia and Carmen Grilo were outstanding with Dorantes performing on piano as a special collaboration.

Compañía Belén Maya featured young dancer Olga Pericet, el premio de Artista Revelación del Festival de Jerez 2010, the show "Bailes alegres para personas tristes" was a beautiful mix of light and shade with stunning costumes which included Belén Maya in a bright pink bata de cola.

La Farruca performed to a small audience at a new venue for the Festival, Sala Paúl. She performed an Alegrías and Soleá with three singers, Mara Rey, Piquina, Pedro Heredia with Juan Requena on guitar.

Compañía Rafael Campallo featuring Rafael's sister Adela Campallo offered an exciting evening with a tribute to Triana in Sevilla.

The final evening at Teatro Villamarta was a tribute to Fernando Belmonte. A concept by Joaquín Grilo, the show featured artists including Joaquín Grilo, Fernando Belmonte, Ángel Muñoz, Fernando Galán, Christian Lozano, Alicia Márquez and Úrsula López.

The group went to a few Peñas which were organised by the Festival to see local singers and guitarists perform. These were quite enjoyable if a little staged and lacking some involvement by the late-night festival goers.

Other shows outside the Teatro Villamarta the group went to see were Pepe Torres and Almudena Serrano at Sala Compañía, cantaors Antonio Reyes and Rancapino at the Bodega Los Apóstoles and Fernando de la Morena and El Torta on the final evening provided a fantastic end to a great week of study and performance at the Festival de Jerez.

Details on Dublin-based Flamenco Puro can be found here: http://www.flamencopuro.org/

La Sarita en Madrid, febrero 2010

It has been almost 10 years since I stopped living in Madrid. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to return 2 weeks ago to train intensively for three weeks in preparation for my 2 courses at the annual Festival de Jerez.

When I left in 2000 Amor de Dios was a series of battered studios with no windows with a permanent and stale scent of body odours in the basement of a building in Calle Fray Luis de Leon in the barrio of Embajadores. It is still a series of battered studios (and yes those stale scents are still there...) but now the school sits above a market and the school is filled with light as the building has windows. It is still run by the same group of people and has the same feeling of chaos and excitement.

As I sit here writing this, my feet are throbbing from the 6 hours of dancing that they have endured today, though I must admit they are being soothed by a glass of red wine...

I'm currently studying 5 hours of classes a day at Amor de Dios in Madrid, which is, without a doubt, probably the best flamenco dance school in the world due to the concentration of amazing teachers. They are all here under one roof; from the best known maestros such as La Tati, Merche Esmerelda and Cristobel Reyes to the young generation of teachers such as La Truco, Inmaculada Ortega and Cristian Almodovar.

I'm taking classes from 11am - 1pm and from 5 - 8pm with the odd practice session thrown in for good measure (just in case my body wasn't suffering enough).

In the first session I'm studying with La Truco (so called because her name is Eliezer Truco) who was my very first teacher when I first came to Madrid almost 12 years ago. I had pre-prepared a lovely speech for her in Spanish "Hi I'm Sarah, you probably don't remember me, I was one of your first students blah, blah, blah..." so as to re-introduce myself to her before class. Well I needn't have bothered. Eli spotted me down the corridor and screamed out in excitement and ran towards me, giving me the biggest hug while we babbled at each other in Spanish. I can't tell you what an amazing feeling it was to see her again and I have to say that after 10 years she hasn't changed a bit. Her classes are fabulous and I'm learning so much. It's two hours of hard work combined with pure joy. Her technique is exquisite and her attention to detail is quite scary at times. Eli wants everyone to not just get the steps but also to understand all the nuances of the cante, as well as the baile. Even after all her success she remains the same - open, caring and genuine and it's wonderful to have the opportunity to learn with her again.

My classes in the evening are a lesson in stamina building. Candela Soto, my teacher in the evening is like a drill sergeant, every exercise is done to the accompaniment of a baston, for 5 minutes non stop - oooooh it's a killer, I tell you but an amazing way to build strength and technique. There is no whinging or moaning, you just get on with it. A great lesson in discipline. These are the classes that I've been taking once a month, during my weekends away in Madrid and even though I knew what I was in for, it has still taken my body almost two weeks to adjust. That said poco a poco (bit by bit) I can feel my technique improving...and those pesky Christmas pounds melting away - hurrah!!

All in all it's lots of hard work but I'm learning an enormous amount whilst gettting myself ship shape and ready for Jerez.

Amor de Dios may have moved location since I was last living full time in Madrid but the essence of the place has not changed one bit - with blood, sweat and quite a few tears, it is possible to move mountains and improve poco a poco. I'm looking forward to my third week and building on what I have achieved so far.

Flamenco Puro Dublin Irlanda

Welcome to the Flamenco Puro Blog

With the help of the Arts Council in Ireland funding, members of Flamenco Puro travel to the 14th Festival de Jerez 2010 to study with top professional flamenco artists María del Mar Moreno, Manuel Liñán, Isabel Bayón, Olga Pericet and Mercedes Ruiz



We will update this when we arrive in Jerez. Keep checking back.

Read more about us: flamencopuro.org