Culture | Sunday, 05 July 2009

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The heart of bohemia

Following a tour of Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Puerto Flamenco will once again be one of the staple acts at the Malta Arts Festival, as they premiere Triana 41010 at the Argotti Gardens, Floriana tonight (there will be a repeat performance tomorrow). Teodor Reljic speaks to company directors Francesca Grima and Andrej Vujicic on what we can expect from their show this year

Cultural links within the Mediterranean are a priority of this year's edition of the Malta Arts Festival. How do you think your show fits into this, if at all?
Triana 41010 does not deal with the issue directly but obviously the fact that the company is formed from various nationalities from within the Mediterranean region speaks for itself. It shows how similar we are: the fact that there is a seamless integration. An integration into the culture and lifestyle also, to which the show pays homage, the suburb where we live and work in Seville with its postcode.

How does it feel to have become an Arts Festival 'staple'?
We started organizing the Puerto Flamenco events a few years before we actually got integrated into the Malta Arts Festival, and we intend to continue making them an annual summer event. The Malta Arts Festival has provided us with a fantastic opportunity to be able to carry out the production within their framework, being able to concentrate much more on the creative aspects of the production and less on the logistics and technicalities. They are doing a wonderful job of organizing the event and promoting local and foreign artists, and we are very grateful to have the support of the MCCA for the third year in a row. We feel privileged. Also lucky that the interest in our productions is increasing each year and we always get very positive feedback, so why not come back again?

What can you say about local interest in flamenco? Do you think that (to pick up on something you had mentioned in our conversation last year) it is being channeled with more intensity?
Andrej: I think it is. There is more interest but there is also more intensity and knowledge about flamenco. The world becomes smaller, and the audience becomes more demanding, it is ‘youtubed’. When they see the show for the first time there is no reference, its all wonder, the attraction is instantaneous. After a few years, the crowd will still claim the surge and emotional stirring of that ‘first kiss’, and that is the hardest to provide. I think the trick is to keep it fresh from both sides. Mint anyone?

How would you describe your approach to teaching flamenco?
Francesca: I love teaching, and it gets easier each year. I basically give it my all: I make my students sweat while I sweat with them. They come back with sore muscles and I push them further. That is the training I received in Seville, and I think it is the training that works and makes people improve. You have to inspire them, but they have to do the work and realize how much is to be done. The more time passes the more I realize how important it is to practice every day and as much as you can, you cannot get anywhere without it. There is an unbelievable amount that can be learnt, but obviously having a predisposition helps a lot, mainly to motivate you to stay on the path.

What have some of the highlights of your last tour been?
Francesca: It would have to be the two WOMAD festivals in Australia and New Zealand. It was an amazing experience, these world music festivals are huge and the best artists in the genre participate over several days in amazing open-air venues and national parks. The crowds go into hundreds of thousands and being in the midst of it all is very exciting and humbling at the same time. Performing alongside some of the legends of the world music scene that we have been following for years now and sharing stages with amazing talent was inspiring, we learned a lot from the experience. It would have been fantastic just to be there, but to actually perform and receive standing ovations was a dream.

What is your main motivation behind choosing to premiere the show in Malta?
Interestingly, someone had mentioned to us (in light of the whole polemic surrounding the venue) that the Royal Opera House was actually often used to premiere and test foreign operas before taking them to Europe. I think that for us, it gives us the time to stop and think about any new elements we could try out. Also, in Malta you are likely to get a large percentage of the same audience coming each year for our productions; which is a challenge, as we have to keep impressing them from various angles. The audience wants to see the same show but better! That is very hard to achieve six years in a row. And we feel we have to give a different show each time. The elements and the core group may be the same, but we always try to get a few new artists, and a change in choreographies and numbers. This year we will attempt a novel concept. When you are on the road touring there is less time to think about new concepts, the changes happen naturally, so it is here that we compile and implement those changes into one new show which we will than tour elsewhere.

You have described this show as your most ambitious one so far. Why do you think this is?
Andrej: It is ambitious in as much as stepping out of the tried and tested formula and adding some contemporary theatre elements to the production. One can get very comfortable repeating something that works. Flamenco, in its pure form, works on many levels and connects with the audience emotionally whilst retaining a complex musical and rhythmical structure. When you start meddling with the genre, you risk disrupting the well worked out and balanced recipe. But the temptation is to take it a little bit further and try to engage more senses, and provide a bit of a context for the unfolding of that emotion. I think very often the foreign audience lacks that context and feels frustrated in trying to understand what is going on. That probably explains the global success of more refined flamenco productions, which do provide that context. The obvious risk is falling into cliches of Spanish-ness on one end of the spectrum and over-intellectualization and abstraction on another, and, in the process, losing the raw essence of flamenco. In terms of music and choreography a lot of work has been done to develop and coordinate the new material, and we are quite excited (and nervous) to find out whether we will manage to succeed in adding a bit more without taking much away.

Puerto Flamenco is also made up of Jesus Herrera, Antonio Castro “Antoñete”, Tamara Lopez Creo, Jose Guerrero ‘El Tremendo’ and Eduardo Trasierra. The show starts at 21:00. Tickets at €15 can be booked online from www.maltaticket.com or from all Agenda Bookshops, Bookends, Newskiosk, Exotique and Vodafone outlets.

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