Silvia MorenoSpecial envoy New York
Special Envoy New York
Updated Friday, March 15, 2024-9:35 p.m.
Interview Manuel Liñán: "At first, they told me: 'you're wrong, this is not flamenco, be careful, don't betray us'"
Culture Miguel Marín, the cultural manager who crossed the pond with 'jondo' art: "The New York public is looking for art, not white-label flamenco"
The dancer of the National Ballet of Spain
Estela Alonso
(Madrid, 1991) poses stylishly before the photographer in the heart of New York, in
Times Square
.
Its flamenco bearing is framed in the gigantic illuminated signs that have turned this square into a global icon of the city of skyscrapers.
The place is packed with people, but almost no one pays attention to the dancer.
Some take their own photos, others seem absorbed with their mobile phones and the majority walk hurriedly.
In the city of skyscrapers, no one pays attention to what the person next door is doing.
Contrast this street indifference with the heat that the historic New York City Center
, the first performing arts center in Manhattan,
has given off , with the performance of Estela Alonso and the
National Ballet of Spain
, directed by
Rubén Olmo
, for three days in a row and with four shows packed to the brim with a very enthusiastic audience.
The National Ballet dancer Estela Alonso, in Times Square.PEPE ZAPATA
These shows have been one of the highlights of the New York Flamenco Festival, directed by
Miguel Marín
and being held in different New York theaters from March 1 to 17.
This year is the twenty-third edition of the contest and the North American public seems already accustomed to flamenco art.
"Flamenco
tells the truth
, speaks with the soul and makes the artist and also the audience feel intensely," describes Estela Alonso, who confesses that on her
play list
there is no song that has the slightest connection with
reggaeton
. the musical style that, supposedly, is sweeping among kids his age.
But what does flamenco have to continue engaging new generations of artists who express themselves through this ancient art?
Aren't other musical styles more connected to their reality more attractive to young people?
The singer from Jerez
Tía Anica la Piriñaca
said: "When I sing, my mouth tastes like blood", an expression that links with another by the playwright
Salvador Távora
: "Flamenco is the expression of pain of a people."
Flamenco art, for the most veteran flamenco artists, is not the manifestation of a people that celebrates, but rather a
"deep cry"
.
And how does all this sound to younger people?
The ten stars
EL MUNDO has brought together 10 artists, between 24 and 43 years old, to clear up these unknowns.
The ten are performing these days at the Flamenco Festival in New York and in other North American cities, such as
Boston
and
Miami
, which are part of the same competition.
There are classics,
unorthodox
, avant-garde... All the trends and styles that, every year, are shown in the best theaters and coolest venues
in
the city of skyscrapers.
With them, the "fatigues" of old flamenco have given way to a new way of feeling the flamenco, and of searching for the origins of this root music.
The oldest member of the conversation is the singer
Sandra Carrasco
(Huelva, 1981), who is proud and hopeful in the face of the great talent that has been pushing hard.
The art of flamenco «does not end;
There is light, hope and people with immense talent" because
"the poison of flamenco catches you at 15, 20 or 70 years old
," summarizes the singer, who for her solo debut in New York this Friday has been accompanied by the virtuoso guitarist
David de Arahal
(Seville, 2000).
Tomatito and his son José del Tomate, at the opening of the New York Flamenco Festival on March 1. DAVID W. RAUCH
Sandra Carrasco embodies in herself the wide range of styles that come together in flamenco.
The singer masters
bossa nova
and
jazz
and she has a deep knowledge of flamenco.
Early in her career, she won several fandango competitions in Huelva and has been on a world tour for three years with
Anoushka Shankar
, daughter of
Ravi Shankar
and sister of
Norah Jones
.
Flamenco clubs
His stage partner in the United States, David de Arahal, has been more focused on the most orthodox flamenco since he was very young.
As soon as he wanted to sign up as a member of the flamenco club in his town, those responsible had to meet urgently to discuss whether it was possible to admit a child of only
10 years old
.
They all agreed that he should have his membership card.
In the Sevillian town of
Arahal
there is a great fan base that has traveled half of Spain to see established flamenco artists in their salsa.
"Yes, they put cars and went to Madrid to see
Enrique Morente,
" recalls David de Arahal, who clarifies that in the flamenco club in his town there are people of all ages.
"20, 30, 40 and also older."
It is not just art for the most veterans.
The guitarist Alejandro Hurtado, on a street in the Big Apple.PEPE ZAPATA
The guitarist
Alejandro Hurtado
(San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante, 1994) also started playing the guitar very early.
«I remember buying
Paco de Lucía
's
Anthology
from 2004 and realizing, upon listening to his music, that that was what I wanted to do in life.
I was struck by his sound, his expressive force and the magnetism that he printed," he says.
Father and son
Among young flamenco artists there are some lucky ones who, from a young age, learned flamenco art in their own home, like
José del Tomate
(Almería, 1997), son of
Tomatito
.
"I was born with flamenco, always attached to my father," says the guitarist proudly, who participated in his father's performance at the opening of the Flamenco Festival at the emblematic and historic Town Hall in New York, the same stage where Maestro
Sabicas
(considered the driving force behind the internationalization of flamenco) presented the first flamenco guitar recital in history in 1959.
But although flamenco is in his blood, José del Tomate defends that "without hard work" you cannot get the best notes from a guitar.
Where the young flamencos do seem to be more disconnected is in the "fatigues" that the older ones sang.
"We no longer experience that pain and hunger, but we have to understand that legacy," summarizes the dancer
Paula Comitre
(Seville, 1994), who participates in the gala that closes the Flamenco Festival this Sunday.
«Yes, you leave a concert, you grab your iPhone, call a taxi and you have everything at hand.
It seems very contradictory to those fatigues" of yesteryear, but now there are also "heartbreaks," says pianist and composer
Andrés Barrios
(Utrera, Seville, 1997), who performed for the first time in New York with the Flamenco Festival on December 5. March.
Barrios compares his love for flamenco to the "
love
that comes to you in
adolescence
" without really knowing what it is about and then, when you are older, "you begin to understand the depth, the richness and the magic it has."
For the singer
María José Llergo
(Pozoblanco, Córdoba, 1994), the "fatigues" of now are
mental health
problems , which are causing so much havoc among young people.
She does not have the feeling that the new generations despise this art.
Quite the opposite.
Among her audience, there are "kids with colored hair and
octogenarian grandmothers
," she boasts.
The "noblest" music
What the ten artists are clear about is that their art embraces any genre and style and makes it greater.
«Flamenco is the mother of music.
Rock does not combine with other styles, flamenco does;
"It is nobler and more humble," summarizes
Israel Fernández
(Toledo, 1989), a singer who many compare with
Camarón
and who tours New York with the guitarist
Diego del Morao
.
Despite his traditional singing, Israel Fernández is not averse to performing songs of other styles, but always taking them to his field.
In fact, a few months ago he covered the Puerto Rican
Bad Bunny's song
Bye, me gone
.
"Flamenco can be mischievous, but it is elegant and I saw that I could defend this song with all humility," he says.
The artist who has gone furthest in the alliance of flamenco art with other music has been
Sergio de Lope
(Priego de Córdoba, 1985), one of the figures of the so-called second generation of flamenco-jazz.
This Saturday he presented
Unlimited
, in which 80 North American musicians from the Manhattan Wind Ensemble, a wind orchestra founded in 2007 in the Big Apple, will play seguiriyas, tangos and bulerías.
To reach such a fusion, this artist has immersed himself in the masters of flamenco.
«
Tradition and avant-garde
are two sides of the same coin, one cannot exist without the other», defends De Lope.
The eternal debate between guardians of essences and innovators struck down by almost a hundred musicians.
In New York.