The lighting in our streets marks the beginning of the Christmas festivities, a commemoration that, in addition to the profound religious meaning that justifies it, we have anticipated with such urgency that not only have they not waited for the assembly of the nativity scenes, but even the Sevillian town of Estepa has taken its turn with Vigo as a leading Spanish city illuminated at the national level.
The key lies in anticipation and capturing the visitor's attention and motivating them to visit the destination, such that the offers of Black Friday, the event that came to us from the United States, as Santa ClausAnd that in 2025 the celebration was announced for the fourth Friday of November, that is, last day the 28th. And since business tourism is the main attraction of the Sevillian capital, Seville brought forward the traditional lighting of the lights to that same day, shining, as I am informed, 304 streets, avenues, squares and roundabouts in all the districts of the city.
We are witnessing a solemn and commercial, yet pompous, moment. A ritual that is not a mere mechanical gesture, but rather, as sociological specialists say, a conscious act that seeks to connect people with a greater purpose: to bridge the gap between the material and the transcendental. To mark the difference, ultimately, between the shadows of the everyday and the crucial essence of the night.
Such opulence was perfectly suited to the current [location/design/etc.]. Jerez zambombaThus, the popular tradition that had been passed down from generation to generation was broken, and that time of preparation for Christmas, which, to the sound of bell ringers and other popular songs, began at the end of November and lasted until December 8th, was commemorated. Immaculate Conception's Day, passed away, or to be more precise, to give life to this totum revolutum where the Christmas advertising campaign is the one that rules.
For flamencoWithout artifice, Seville began to shine, on the contrary, with the traditional zambomba of the dance master Juan Tejero, which brought Serva la Bari – as the Arabs called it – to life on Wednesday the 26th, setting the day to the sound of Christmas carols molded on the deep style, but with an overwhelming preference for the bulería, in which the goal is not the perfectionist volatility of the dance, but the deep response of the dance to cante.
Because that's what it's about, dancing with joy as a source of life, but with the sustenance of canteThat is Juan Tejero's objective: to ensure that the canons, norms, and rules passed down to us by the great masters are not lost. These are the very things that give meaning to the creation of the steps, forms, movements, technical precision, and aesthetics they championed. In short, the codes and values that define the various schools that have come before us.
Retaining those images is, therefore, the remedy for to prevent the remnants of tradition that are adrift in the waters of so-called avant-gardism from sinking completelyAnd for this, we must turn to the memories that are preserved in our minds, because memory is the only thing that retains the snapshot of historical teachers, a visual communication whose transmission is only transferred to us through learning in trustworthy centers and academies.
And which ones – the reader might ask – inspire confidence? Those that offer credibility, reliability, and are therefore loyal to what jondoThat is to say, those that safeguard the essence of the dance, for which it is as necessary as it is essential to have the cultural knowledge of the axis that articulates it: the cante, live and direct.
"Juan Tejero's zambomba is a way of rediscovering Christmas through bulerías, a play of pictorial, musical, and experiential references that intertwine in the students' dream come true. Let's hope it lasts another fifteen years in Seville because it's a real treat to be able to enjoy it."
This requires, precisely, a positive environment, interaction between teachers and students, valuing aspects of unity and identity, and enabling emotional well-being through the knowledge of a teaching staff of cantewhich is, I reiterate, the primary factor in encouraging an approach to dance.
Tejero fosters a sense of community starting at midday. The students, all adults at least in Seville, don't attend their regular classes that day. Instead, they meet at a restaurant on the Muelle de las Delicias and, as if it were a company lunch, cultivate a close, almost familial, cohesive, and very positive atmosphere.
After lunch, the special menu is served. The place is packed, and the silence is profound. Bodies prepare themselves for the search for memorable experiences through the bulería, which envelops them like skin envelops animals. The attendees form a circle around the performers, just as I knew it in the gypsy circles of Jerez almost half a century ago, and as the strings of a guitar Agui de Jerez fully committed, they reflect all the nuances that the sung soundtrack must highlight, Isra LópezWith a moistened hand, he rubs the reed of the zambomba from top to bottom.
To the hands that pluck the chordophone notes and those that rub the rustic instrument, is added the violin of Bernardo Parrilla, brilliant, a true luxury in its expressive nuances for the fullness of beautiful moments it brings to the score, and it adds the cante Raw, without tricks, to reinforce the idea of the natural. Therein lies the secret: to embed in the students' DNA the fundamental resource, the original element, the sung melody and the rhythm that sustains it, which is what marks the flow of the movement.
I readily admit that I enjoyed the rich, cavernous bass of Mara Rey, of such versatility; the intentional and very flamenco sensibility of John of the Maria; the exemplary diction and phrasing of Sandra Rincon; the supreme expressive taste of Miguel Lavi; and the considerable rise of Sebastian del PuertoVoices that lent authority to the dance, but all at the service of the students' flexible dance attitude, where pepe louis and the art of Elisa Pérez At 86 years of age, united with Conchita Gallego, Paula Moscoso, Maika, Chelo de Utrera o chonThey catch the analyst's attention because of their assimilation of bodily coding in the face of the challenge of gravity and in response to calls, the nuance of gesture, the breaks and the closures. Ah, I see the rhythm.
Of course, Juan Tejero, with his great conviction and firmness, deserves all the praise, and Irene Carrasco, of captivating delicacy, who, with an immaculate discursive line, exhibited the irreproachable technical basis that gives meaning to the previous paragraph.
Therefore, there is no contemporary dance here, nor bolero school or lyrical dance, and even less physical and acrobatic display. Here, body language from Seville, Utrera, Jerez, and El Puerto de Santa María rebels against the order imposed by the cante by buleríasSome are listened to, others are sung with fragments of romance and couplets, and most are from the Arcos, Jerez, Cádiz and Lebrija axis.
This Christmas carol performance by Juan Tejero is, therefore, a way of rediscovering Christmas through flamenco, a play of pictorial, musical, and experiential references that intertwine in the students' dream come true. Let's hope it lasts another 15 years in Seville because it's a real treat to be able to enjoy it.
