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<\/p>\nCall me old-fashioned, but I really like flamenco dancers to keep their clothes on. By this time, everyone in flamenco, and plenty of outsiders, know that at one point in her new show,\u00a0Ca\u00edda del Cielo<\/i>, Roc\u00edo Molina strips fully and frontally on a brightly lit stage. She covers the strategic areas with her hands as if someone had just walked in while she was showering, but aside from the hairpins holding up her bun (not buns), she\u2019s stark naked.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, there have been a variety of reactions, mostly strong: negative, positive and decidedly, self-consciously indifferent, from people who wish to be open-minded and ignore the event as \u201cno big deal\u201d. One way or another, it\u2019s time to face this head on and stop pretending it\u2019s just an artiste expressing herself. This is decidedly not \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d; with this single dramatic gesture, the M\u00e1laga dancer is advocating a reworking of flamenco from the inside out. By comparison, even Israel Galv\u00e1n, that infant terrible par excellence, appears tame.<\/p>\n
Before going on, let me make clear that Roc\u00edo is, for many followers of dance in general and flamenco dance in particular, including yours truly, an outstanding interpreter, a true genius\u2026the fact that ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov knelt at her feet after seeing her perform several years ago, says a great deal. So we\u2019re clearly not talking about any shortage of talent. The question then is, why? What part, if any, in the scheme of flamenco things does nudity play? I recall some brief topless scenes in other flamenco works, most notably that of Angela Molina in the Bu\u00f1uel film,\u201cThat Obscure Object of Desire\u201d, deliberately sordid, with discreetly dark lighting or backs to the audience. Roc\u00edo\u2019s nudity was stark. She looked like a fresh loin of pork standing upright at the butcher\u2019s. My first impression was that it was a childish prank, unworthy of a brilliant dancer such as Roc\u00edo. Belonging to the generation that invented hippies, free love and skinny-dipping at Woodstock, no one can accuse me of prudishness\u2026.yet I can\u2019t get beyond this being a \u201cchildish prank\u201d.<\/p>\n
First of all, if you\u2019re going to strip naked in front of one thousand two-hundred people, what\u2019s the point of teasingly covering up with your hands? Some people are sniffing that nudity has often been used in modern dance and other forms. Well, I don\u2019t think that in any way alters the dramatic effect sought, and surely achieved by Molina.<\/p>\n
I just now realized that Manuel Boh\u00f3rquez has also mentioned Roc\u00edo Molina\u2019s striptease in an Expoflamenco article. So fine, my view is just another opinion, a woman\u2019s opinion. Thinking about what elements move flamenco, I come up with: love, death, religion and family values, especially mothers\u2026few musical genres devote more verses to mothers. Adding nudity to this mix, feels out of whack. It doesn\u2019t work well with the other elements; even \u201clove\u201d in flamenco can be of the carnal as well as the spiritual type, but is not explicitly referenced. And those favorite Andalusian pastimes of flirting and seduction, mentioned in so many verses, would become casualties of full frontals, because they\u2019re an expression of shyness and modesty. With no longer anything to be seduced, we\u2019re left with a flamenco version of those Adam and Eve programs on TV.<\/p>\n
I for one, would not like to see nudity become a trend in flamenco. And what about the guys? In the name of equality, will they be next? Let me think about that one for a while\u2026.<\/p>\n
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Call me old-fashioned, but I really like flamenco dancers to keep their clothes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[174],"class_list":["post-6590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estela-flamenca","tag-jerez-en"],"yoast_head":"\n