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PHOTO DIARY: Wednesday, February 22nd We safely arrive at the Jerez airport (including our luggage! Last year, our luggage got stuck in Frankfurt for a day). The first thing that we see out the window of the airplane? Of course, the Toro with the obligatory sherry name, Osborne.
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Thursday, February 23rd We
take a day trip to Sevilla and make our rounds to the usual flamenco
stores and favorite bars. It's my 8th time in the city so I feel
like I know the city center inside and out - well, at least where all
the important stores are!
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Friday, February 24th The Festival opens today and I have my first day of classes, a Soleá choreography class with Javier Latorre. Opening the Festival this year at the Teatro Villamarta was Joaquín Grilo's company. He was absolutely amazing!!! Our hotel is just around the corner from the theater.
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Saturday, February 25th The CRAZY schedule started today: Class from 4-6:20pm; first show at Teatro Guadalcacín from 6:30-7:45pm (which means catching a cab after class and arriving 15 minutes late at the show); catch the bus back to Jerez, arriving back at the hotel at 8:40pm for a super fast shower; Villamarta show starts at 9pm; the third show starts at midnight (either at the Sala La Compañía or the Bodega); then peñas and other festivities until.....??? (Hint: That's why I don't take morning classes!) Tonight's show at Teatro G. was Belén Maya, along with a friend of mine José Luís Rodríguez, a guitarist. Tickets were completely sold out, but José Luís was able to pull some strings and get 2 tickets for us. The show was incredible. The second show at the Villamarta was Manuela Carrasco, with special guest artist, Manuel Molina.
The late night show at Sala la Compañía was Angel Muñoz, with Cañizares as guest artist. |
 Belén Maya & co. take their bows
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Sunday, February 26th We met José Luís for a café. The reviews of their performance were great and he was very pleased. I buy the Diario de Jerez everyday (well, almost everyday) because they have a special supplement in the paper about the Festival. It has reviews, artist interviews, student interviews and articles in general about flamenco.
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 José Luís gets stopped on the street by a fan and receives compliments on last night's show
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Monday, February 27th Generally speaking, we ate a big lunch because we had no time to eat dinner. We found several good eateries, one of which was hidden behind a church that is currently undergoing renovation. "Revueltos" seem to be popular, which are like scrambled eggs but they put all kinds of vegetables like artichokes or white asparagus. "Brocheta" is widely popular too, which are skewered meats with vegetables, grilled. For late night snacks, we would grab a bite of "montaditos" which are like small "bocadillos" and they come with all kinds of toppings, from ham and cheese, to smoked fish, paté, turkey, etc. Today's highlight was Rafael Campallo's Alegrías at the Villamarta. He was absolutely phenomenal!!
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 Despite the cold weather (for a Miamian like myself), the oranges were in full bloom
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Tuesday, February 28th It appeared that today was some kind of holiday because all of the stores were closed and everyone was out and about taking walks and sitting at outdoor cafes. We saw a throng of children running around with street performers. (We later found out that today was el Día de Andalucía.) We had a leisurely walk through the city and met up for lunch with Paco, a fellow festival attendant from Taiwan, who has been our friend since the 2003 festival. Today's highlight was definitely Rocio Molina's show at the Villamarta. It was a superbly executed mixture of flamenco, dramatic theater, and copla singing by Pasion Vega. Rocio danced each palo so differently, which demonstrates her depth of understanding and interpretation.
We ran into Pastora Galván on our way to go see Juan Antonio Tejero's show. She was in town to rehearse with Joaquin Grilo for a show in Paris. She made sure that I would be going to see her perform in Jerez in a few days and gave me her phone # to call so that we can go for a drink later on. |
 Holiday festivities in the city center
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Wednesday, March 1st My friend Lisa from Washington, DC and I have been going to the Jerez Festival together for the past 5 years. Unfortunately due to her work and school schedule this year, she could only stay for a week.
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At 7pm, I went to the Palacio de Villavicencio to see Luis El Zambo's concert (sorry, no pics). I've always liked his singing so I was very excited to hear him live for the first time...and he was amazing! His Seguiriyas and Fandangos gave me goose pumps.
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Thursday, March 2nd Today was the last day of classes for week 1. Javier Latorre's class was so much fun! He is funny, gives individual attention and corrections, and he is a great choreographer and teacher. We were lucky to also have a very good singer and a guitarist for our class.
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At Teatro G., Daniel Navarro had his solo show. He was watching my class yesterday; Javier has used Dani in many of his shows, and they are good friends. Dani danced very well and I liked his choice of having five singers for his show, including Guadiana.
There was no show at the Villamarta today, but Hiniesta Cortés performed at 9pm at the Sala la Compañía.
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Friday, March 3rd Day Off! We get a free day in between the first and second week of the festival, but no time to be sleeping in for me. I met some friends at 9am to take the train to Sevilla to go pick up my dresses. Before hitting the stores, we had breakfast at a cafe near Mayo, where everyone goes to get their Gallardo shoes.
Paco and I took the train back to Jerez earlier than the others so that we could catch the 5pm show with Angeles Gabaldon.
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At 9pm. I went to see Sara Baras' show, Sabores, which was dedicated to her mother. After the show, Sara made an emotional speech, and invited her mother to come on stage. Her mother even danced a little pataíta de bulerías!
At midnight, we went to the Bodega (see from my 2003 entry) for a Cafe Cantante concert with Tomasito. He was hilarious and very entertaining! |
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Saturday, March 4th I started the second week of classes today. I am taking Mercedes Ruiz's Tangos class. As I mentioned above, I was originally signed up for Belén Maya's class but since she was injured and was unable to teach, Mercedes substituted for the class. She starts out the class with slow warm-ups and she emphasizes body part isolation movements. José Luís came back from Huelva to see me, and brought along with him Pecas, who had sang for our performance last year in Miami. Carmela Greco was also in town, so all of us went out to eat after the show at the Villamarta. |
 Me, Carmela, Christina and Nicole
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Sunday, March 5th Today's highlight was Los Farrucos at the Villamarta. I saw Farruquito as we walked into the theater just before 9pm. He wasn't dancing in the show, but his brother Farruco, cousin Barrullo, mother La Farruca and aunt Faraona were, and at the end little El Carpetilla came out to dance. He stole the show at the end! I was absolutely mesmerized by Farruca's Soleá.
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 El Carpetilla - ole! (photo from El Diario de Jerez)
Eli "La Truco" gave a strong performance at the midnight show. She is very strong yet feminine at the same time, and her vueltas are something else! |
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Monday, March 6th In almost every single performance that I've seen so far, the artists, after taking their bows, always do an encore of bulerías. In some shows, only a few singers and dancers would do a pataíta, in others, everyone would each do one. In some shows, the dancers would go last and show off their incredibly fast footwork and complicated rhythmic patterns. The best ones I've seen, though, are the ones by the singers. They are short and sweet, and always full of charm.
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 Pastora Galván & co. take their bows
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Tuesday, March 7th There are several rental studios available in Jerez that you can rent by the hour. A few of my friends from class and I got together to go over the choreography and videotape ourselves. Tonight at the Villamarta, El Güito and Moraíto shared the bill. I was very happy when he played my favorite song, a romance de huelva.
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 Teatro Villamarta
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Wednesday, March 8th Most of the time, I slept in too late to take advantage of the breakfast offerings at my second hotel. Today, I got up before the 10:30am cutoff to enjoy breakfast in this lovely dining area. As I was eating, the staff at the hotel told me that they saw me on TV the other day! [On the last day of Javier Latorre's class, crew from TV station Onda Jerez came to film our class.] I have noticed a significantly broader coverage by the media of the festival this year, both locally and internationally.
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I have looked forward to tonight's performance for a long time. I first saw Marcos Flores and Manuel Liñán in Rafaela Carrasco's company last year, and Marcos again as a guest artist for Mercedes Ruiz's show, and thought that they were phenomenal dancers. So when I learned that they were collaborating together to do their own show, naturally I was very excited. They not only met my expectations but far exceeded them. Marcos danced an Alegrías and Manuel a Seguiriyas, and they were both phenomenal.
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Thursday, March 9th To my big surprise, when I opened the Diario this morning, I saw myself in the centerfold picture! A couple of days ago, a photographer came to take pictures in Mercedes' class, and since there was no show at the Villamarta last night, I guess they had chosen to put a picture from one of the classes in there.
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Aída Gómez presented Carmen at the Villamarta tonight. This performance was the most "classical Spanish dance" performance out of all the shows this year. At midnight, Israel Galván presented Tábula rasa at the Sala la Compañía. What can I say? It was quintessential Israel - very unique, intellectual, and left me puzzled yet impressed.
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Friday, March 10th Time flies so quickly when you're ..... in Jerez! Today was the last day of classes, and as is customary, we each received a diploma from our teacher.
At the Villamarta tonight was Antonio El Pipa's show, and the theater was completely packed with locals. Every time he came out on stage or moved an inch, I'd hear jaleos like "tu sabes como baila!" or "puro Jerez!" It was an entertaining show and he had lots of great guest artists with him, such as Juana la del Pipa and Concha Vargas. Even his 8-year-old (I think...) nephew was part of the show. My friend had told me that the boy was in Pipa's Farruca class last week! |
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Saturday, March 11th It was back to Sevilla again for me today to pick up my dresses. I met up with my friend Nicolia, who is a flamenco dancer from England now living in Sevilla. She has worked with Israel Galvan's company and performed at the Jerez Festival two years ago in Angeles Gabaldon's "Inmigracion". She is currently working on a film with Javier Latorre.
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Back in Jerez again, I went to see the final show of the 10th Festival de Jerez - Blanca del Rey and Fosforito. Blanca's Soleá with a mantón blew me away! And Fosforito's cante was simply sublime, accompanied very well by Manuel Silveria especially in the Alegrías.
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Sunday, March 12th Almost all of the festival attendees had left yesterday or today, so the city felt "different" to me today. As if the Jerezanos were reclaiming their town, they were out in droves. We had the best weather yet, so I decided to go for a leisurely lunch at La Cruz Blanca, which has become one of my regular eateries.
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My friend Paco was still in town, so we went for coffee and churros while we reflected on this year's festival. The discussion continued into dinner, and eventually we parted ways by saying "hasta el próximo año!" I sure am looking forward already to next year's festival.
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Monday, March 13th Heading home: Jerez - Madrid - Miami. As we approached Miami International, I could see my house out the window!
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The
Catedral
C/Arcos
