Two tributes to Antonio gades at the Jerez Festival, the same day and in two stages of the city. One of the company that bears the name of the genius from Alicante, where a very faithful version of his work could be seen Carmen; another more intimate and personal one, by a young dancer also willing to demonstrate that Gades' legacy is a living one.
Jerez is certainly good for Rafael Ramirez, who won the award for Breakthrough Artist here a couple of years ago, and who with Chronicle of an event confirms the good expectations placed on it. It is still a shame that the Blas Infante Social Center The audience was so poorly attended, perhaps because the public is unaware that young and worthy people who are given a chance sometimes give twice as much as established figures. We could say that this was the case with Ramírez, who was about to appear on the stage in the dark, inside what seemed like the illuminated frame of a standing mirror, as if trapped between its two dimensions.
From there he begins to rehearse his first movements accompanied by the percussion of Javier Rabadan, acoustic but with a marked industrial sound. In that groove the voice of Maria Mix singing for Marchena milonga lyrics like that one Nobody dies or Tasty melon, before continuing to chain together recognizable melodies such as the Song of the Will-o'-the-Wisp de Manuel de Falla or Go Jaleo who wrote Lorca and recorded the little argentinian.
«Rafael Ramírez dances slowly, in contrast to those artists who are anxious to display all their abilities on stage. The talents of the Malaga-born dancer are revealed as he goes along: his extraordinary positioning, the impeccable elegance of his arms, the precision of his feet.»
In a sober and rather dark set at the beginning, Rafael Ramírez dances slowly, in the antipodes of those artists eager to display all their abilities on stage. Those of the Malaga native are revealed as he goes along: that extraordinary positioning, the impeccable elegance of his arms, the precision of his feet. As regards the homage itself, along with the musical winks to the works of the master, there are more or less veiled brushstrokes or insinuations with pictures that show that Ramírez has it well studied, to the point that a colleague next to me sighed several times: "He's exactly like Gades!"
However Chronicle of an event It is not so much the reproduction of a model, as the rescue of a heritage. To imbue oneself with a spirit, that of one of the greatest creators that dance has given in our country, without ceasing to obey the supreme maxim, to be oneself at all times. Dressed in red clothes, Ramírez and Mezcle, the color of the political ideology to which Gades was faithful until the end, share the mariana of Bernardo of the Little Wolves to end up dancing a pasodoble to the sound of the strumming of Isaac Munoz, whose guitar sounded neat and full of beauty in all his appearances.
There is a moment when silence presides over the scene, and that is something very rare in a panorama like the current one, marked by the horror vacui of the choreographers. Oblivious to these anxieties, Rafael Ramírez will finish with the bolero Hello loneliness de Rolando Laserie (a native of Cuba, the island that once hosted Gades, and where his remains rest), with the flight of the skirt-cape like black leather under psychedelic lights and the lyrics of that fandango, “Although I'm leaving, I'm not leaving”...". That was the race to which Antonio Gades belonged, and to which Ramírez has done the greatest honor: that of those who leave, but stay.
Credits
Chronicle of an event, by Rafael Ramirez
29th Jerez Festival
Blas Infante Social Center
March 4th 2025
Direction, Choreography and Dance: Rafael Ramírez
Guitar: Isaac Muñoz
Cante: Maria Mix
Percussion: Javier Rabadán
