A few days ago I got back from France where I attended the 28th edition of the Nimes Flamenco Festival held each year in January. While I haven\u2019t exactly been witness to the evolution of this event from it\u2019s youth to it\u2019s definitive status as one of the great flamenco festivals of the world, having seen fourteen editions out of 28 since the event was founded goes a long way to understanding the project, and the French people\u2019s fascination with culture south of the Pyrenees.<\/p>\n
The city itself is historically rich, with a Roman amphitheater dating from 27 B.C., and still in use for bullfights (take note), and a beautifully preserved Roman temple, among other monuments.<\/p>\n
As long ago as the 17th century, Spanish painters such as Velazquez, El Greco and Murillo were highly regarded in France, and by the 18th, the cultural give and take between France and Spain was paving the way for what would become early flamenco dance. In the middle of the 19th century, the concept of the Spanish\u00a0femme fatale<\/i>\u00a0came into focus in the imagination of Frenchman Prosper M\u00e9rim\u00e9e, author of \u201cCarmen\u201d, and some years later, French traveler-journalist Charles Davillier wrote his amazing travelogue,\u00a0Voyage en Espagne<\/i>, with the rich illustrations of Gustave Dor\u00e9 depicting typical scenes of Spain, including dancing, singing and guitar-playing.<\/p>\n
This long infatuation with Spain, combined with France\u2019s cultural awareness and appreciation of avant-garde manifestations (take note of that French adjective which has become a part of the English language), leads naturally to the unquestionable relevance of the two-week long Nimes Flamenco Festival. Flamenco seems like a natural part of the landscape in Nimes. Thanks to the many artists from Jerez who have performed at the event, the city is affectionately called \u201cthe Jerez of the north\u201d, and in fact, Diego Carrasco and Tomasito, both from Jerez, were presented with the keys to the city some years back.<\/p>\n
The program always features an outstanding selection of traditional and contemporary flamenco \u2013 it would be hard to name any major flamenco artist who has not performed at this festival \u2013 in addition to a wide variety of parallel activities. This year, the contemporary perspective was brilliantly covered by Andr\u00e9s Mar\u00edn with his urban conceptual \u201cDon Quixote\u201d, and Israel Galv\u00e1n\u2019s most recent work \u201cLa Fiesta\u201d. Although I wasn\u2019t able to attend Mar\u00edn\u2019s work, I heard very good things about it. Galv\u00e1n\u2019s creation, turned out to be one of his most interesting\u2026 and controversial. The man who riled flamenco fans years ago when he danced in a coffin, or with his show about the Holocaust, found new ways to tip over the gameboard. \u201cLa Fiesta\u201d, a playful title that led some unprepared theater-goers to think they were in for a fine flamenco time, is like a glimpse into a mental institution where each individual works out his or her private bugaboos in a number of ways, including the now-famous segment where Ni\u00f1o de Elche drops his pants and pretends to defecate, or gives an equally surprising simulation of giving birth. Almost no conventional flamenco; only a few brief spurts and false starts to reference the target. Galv\u00e1n\u2019s shows need to be seen, not described.<\/p>\n
Rafael Riqueni gave a spectacular guitar concert, and classic flamenco singing throughout the rest of the week was offered in a classy recital by Jerez singer David Carpio with the excellent collaboration of dancer Manuel Li\u00f1\u00e1n, guitarist Manuel Valencia and bassist, Pablo Mart\u00edn. Also from Jerez, singer Luis Moneo shared a recital with Antonio Reyes from Chiclana, two very different styles of singing that complemented each other well. Mari Pe\u00f1a from Utrera presented pieces from her new record in a full concert at the Nimes theater with her husband Antonio Moya on guitar, and dancer Carmen Ledesma, in addition to violinist (Fai\u00e7al Kourrich), pianist (Pedro Ricardo Mi\u00f1o) and palmeros (Roc\u00edo del Turronero and Juan Amaya).<\/p>\n
Other noteworthy performances were those of dancer David Coria, singers Pepe de Pura and Fabiola and the presentation of a large group from Extremadura, a flamenco region that has found a friendly space in Nimes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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A few days ago I got back from France where I attended the 28th edition of the Nimes Flamenco Festival held each year in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,2126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estela-flamenca","category-international"],"yoast_head":"\n