Barcelona dressed up and the flamencoWe dress up in suits to attend the award ceremony Silver Mosque, a distinction that has been awarded since 1970 by the tablao Flamenco Cordovan and which, in its sixth edition, has received Manuela Carrasco, the dance teacher who is still present because her proposal moves between the eternity of yesterday and the uncertainty of tomorrow.
The Cordobés –as they call him flamencos– is in the festivities of the 55th anniversary of its founding, and is run by the guitarist Luis Adame and his wife, the dancer Irene Alba, which, together with the management of Maria Rosa Perez, have managed to make the tablao a production unit as a result of work, effort, discipline, dedication and dreams.
In case any reader still doesn't know it, it is a creative space, right on Barcelona's Rambla, which I define as an art gallery where they have exhibited their projects since Camarón de la Isla, The Güito, The chocolate o Kids, Manolete, Miguel Poveda, Israel Galvan, Farruquito o Eva Yerbabuena, among many others. And of course Manuela Carrasco, who is the latest recipient of a prestigious distinction that dates back to 1973, when it was awarded to the ophthalmologist Joaquin Berraquer from the hands of Pilar Lopez.
The second edition was awarded in 1995 to the president of the Generalitat, Pascual Maragall, being today one of the most prestigious awards of flamenco culture, as it is proud of personalities and even institutions, such as the FECAC (Federation of Andalusian Cultural Entities in Catalonia) and Barcelona Tourism, who embraced it in 2000, and later such relevant figures as Cristina Hoyos placeholder image y Peret, which would be followed in 2017 by the families of Farruquito e Israel Galvan, respectively, which was done through a gala whose profits were donated to Caritas.
The distinction is compatible with other performances such as competitions named after Matilde Coral and Farruco (1995); the call for solidarity and union of the performers flamencos from the program Sendero (1995); the Festival Flamenco from Autumn in Barcelona, with Israel Galván, The Susie, Rafael of Carmen, Sunday Ortega o Henry the Extremaduran (2000); or the cycle The fusion of talent, coordinated by Belén Maya, in a year, 2010, in which the Tablao Cordobes Foundation, with a committee chaired by Matilde Coral and Phosphorite, which led to the First Meeting of Art Professionals Flamenco (2011) or the show With Carmen Amaya in Memory, as a tribute to the brilliant dancer. (2013).
The aforementioned foundation germinated, therefore, and with no other purpose than that of promoting, protecting and fostering Art. Flamenco as a cultural expression, which includes generating the most favorable conditions for the artistic collective, among which memory records Jose Valencia, Juana Amaya, Joseph Maya, Jesus Carmona, Karime Amaya, John of John or Farruquito, who, additionally, adopted the codes of art and the guide to put them into practice in Cordobés.
«With the breezes of art that Manuela Carrasco has left, we have not seen Barcelona only as a vibrant and cosmopolitan city, which it is. The City of Counts allows the gaze, from the Cordobés, to reach to the infinity of this nerve center of the flamenco, a tablao that celebrates its 55th anniversary by promoting the capital as a reference destination»
It is in prestigious tablaos like the one we are dealing with where the patterns that must not be forgotten are assimilated, the university where our artists become professionals and where they learn the guidelines established by the cantes, touches and dances, without forgetting improvisation, in addition to facilitating learning as they offer the most hopeful future to those who find in them the source of inspiration for creativity.
This is the case of our Manuela Carrasco, and not because she is ours, but because all of us who are right belong to her. But if the artist from Triana is a social reality, it is because she continues to be involved in strategies of cultural development of the territory, in production processes and in dynamics of ethnic vindication or identity construction.
This tribute that Manuela has received in Barcelona strengthens, as a result, her position as a world reference for this art, as the symbol of one of the most authentic and representative cultural expressions of Spain, and, without a doubt, the most recognized and valued identity internationally.
Manuela Carrasco has made her dance at the Tablao Cordobés the Lorca song of freedom. The colors of her movements came to life and moved with depth, with solemn gravity, intertwining in pompous harmony. cantes of El Extremeño and La Tobala, the guitar of Pedro Sierra or the palmas by Emilio Molina, with the dancing of his daughter Manuela, which merges into inherited body language, all passion, all history, all tradition.
With the breezes of art that Manuela Carrasco has left, we have not seen Barcelona only as a vibrant and cosmopolitan city, which it is. The City of Counts allows the gaze, from the Cordobés, to reach to the infinity of this nerve center of the flamenco, a tablao that celebrates its 55th anniversary promoting the capital as a reference destination for a diverse public that, moreover, finds in the flamenco one more reason to enjoy the cultural wealth of the city.
But the anniversary is twofold. I was commenting with the executive management of the Tablao Flamenco Cordobés, and the artists of the company, that the tribute coincided with the half century of when the Triana was baptized as the goddess of dance flamenco. Last night the gypsy divinity remained in the Silver Mosque, which, if it was always a ceremonial act, is now a place of worship flamenco thanks to the goddess of dance, Manuela Carrasco.
