M.etti one evening at Teatro della Pergola of Florence to see Israel Galvánfor 47 years (i.e. since he was 3) struggling with flamenco, first learned from parents and then deconstructed at will. Well, that evening at the theater it happens that a certain idea of the typical Spanish dance suddenly changes, takes on disruptive connotationsso much so that remaining seated and still in the audience – composed in front of Israel – is really a problem.
Moreover, double, because at the Pergola the good Galván he decided to do what young people now call mergingthat is to combine two shows: El Amor Brujo + La Sacre du Printempsrespectively of Manuel De Falla and Igor Stravinskij. (Tonight November 12 the last performance).
Compositions that have more relationships than you think, in addition to the reputation of failures at the first performance (April 15, 1915 And December 15, 1920). Igor and Manuel knew each other, they dated, exchanged opinions and gifts, influenced each other. Mixing classicism and avant-garde, openness and solipsisms. Israel Galván – on stage a colossus as in person suddenly fragile and modest, eyes turned downward and hand raised to mitigate the applause – it is the instrument at the service of musicand viceversa.
Israel Galván in “El Amor Brujo + La Sacre du Printemps” staged at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence. (Filippo Manzini)
Accompanied by two pianos (Daria van den Bercken and Gerard Bouwhuis) and a mezzo-soprano (Barbara Kozelj), emerges on the scene misleading, like a woman glued to a chair (Candle pretending to be a witch as per the booklet). All propulsive action, discomfort and pantomime, and the frustration of bumping your head to the ground, literally; and a divination that no longer has powers: ceramic tarot cards that shatter instead of telling the future. And then, in the space of the Paolo Poli Saloncino everything, including the theater, off the wig, Israel moves works with wooden planks feet, sand circles, drum platforms and rattles. He interrupts the moves when he wants, adds – as per the legend that recurs him – gestures to Michael Jackson, in short, he becomes the director of the raid (who knows if proven or casual).
From the darkness, then, comes out from the ground with meters of skirt that seem to be made of soil, primordial energy where the legs (miraculous) disappear. By misleading again: movement is perceived, but the ears do not know how to place the sound. So, in the end, this meeting of El Amor Brujo And The Sacre du Printemps. No one warns you about it, nor does he know how to make it pass even after days.
Israel Galván, “I try to keep dancing like a child”
Do you remember the first time you heard these two compositions that you are staging here today at the Pergola? What sensations did he feel?
El Amor Brujo I listened to it as a child; it was a familiar music, danced in all flamenco academies. The impression it gave me was that of a ‘theatrical’ flamenco. I danced El Amor Brujo when I was in company with Mario Maya and I felt like I was running a lot, moving from one side of the stage to the other. With regard to The Sacreafter seeing the photos of Nijinsky I began to study everything he had danced, and Stravinsky’s music opened me to new sensations.
How did you transform them by adapting them to you?
In El Amor Brujo I wanted to be a woman who dances and try to dance standing still on a chair, in a piano version that almost resembles a guitar, and so it seems to me much more jondo (gypsy, ed) than in the orchestral version. For The Sacre starting from Nijinsky’s poses it was to capture all the silhouettes and lines dancing in my own way. I realized that I wanted to do it as a solo, with two pianos, becoming the percussive element of the score with my body. Even if it remains a ritual, it is an animal that must be allowed to breathe, a double game: being a percussionist and playing with the rhythm, like a needle among the silences.
Israel in “La Sacre du Printemps”. (Jean Louis Duzert)
Who earns more from these versions than the classic languages for which we know them: flamenco or El Amor Brujo And The Spring Festival?
The flamenco interpretation is different. I try to make sure that in the end they are concerts, that they are not too theatrical, even if the witchcraft and the ritual present in the two works change the atmosphere. I don’t think I’m imposing a forcing.
Is it ever analyzed by reselling yourself on video, or does seeing you get tired again?
I don’t look at myself, I prefer to listen to the audio of the noises I make while dancing.
You have been working for over 47 years, they have defined you as a “madman”, a “lover of risk”, “that of avant-garde flamenco”, “guru of intellectuals”. Do these labels take the truth out of your art or promote it, sell more tickets?
I started working in the tablao at the age of 3, and from a very young age I felt the opinion of the public and since then I have learned to keep the pressure at bay. Now grown up, I try to keep dancing like a child, and so I accept that adults scold me from time to time.
You were born with the “Flamenco inside”, probably already dancing in the womb of your mother (dancer like your father). Have you never felt this sort of predestination as a constraint?
Flamenco as a child was ‘muy pesado’ (very heavy, ed) because I was in a world of adults, I was bored, I fell asleep and for this reason I looked for a way to express my freedom. But I don’t want to erase my roots. Flamenco is slow, has its own tempo and I try to make it light. It’s like having a chain around your ankle, and yet flying.
Israel Galván in “El Amor Brujo + La Sacre du Printemps” staged at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence. (Filippo Manzini)
No ambition to perhaps direct a form of cinema-ballet like Carlos Saura with Amor brujo (1986)?
I like the art of cinema, I am a great admirer of Kubrick, for example. I see and review his films, then I go to my rehearsal room and I mount a farruca and I imagine that there are cameras and zoom movements. If I had the chance to make the cameras dance, why not?
Why should people see dance, or more dance?
It can help the audience to move in life or to dance with the mind. I believe that dancers should also dance in everyday life, like people who don’t dance. The audience learns about body communication.
Is the best show always the next one?
It is not the next one, it is what one does right now because it is the most important.
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED