Some dreams last a fleeting moment, while others last for thirty years. The one of Cristina HeerenThe American Hispanist responsible for the Foundation that bears her name, reaches that age as an unprecedented case of patronage in the world of flamencoWhile these days tributes and recognitions continue – last week he was awarded the Cabal from the The Well of Sorrows Gathering of Los Palacios, today the Central Theater Seville hosts the show El flamenco it is life- and ExpoFlamenco We wanted to talk to three figures who have known this adventure, not just closely, but from the inside and from its origin.
When his life consisted of singing from festival to festival, Calixto Sanchez He noticed that very often, in the most unexpected places, he would see a very attentive lady sitting in the front row, accompanied by her husband and a couple of friends. Until one day, in a town in Jaén, the mayor told him that this enigmatic woman, passionate about flamenco And being wealthy, she wanted to meet him.
It was the first time the artist shook hands with Cristina Heeren, whom he learned had studied Comparative Literature at Columbia University, Drama at the Herbert Berghof School in New York, and singing in Paris, where she worked as a film director and editor until, in the early 90s, she decided to try her luck as a record producer with the label Pureza, named after the Seville street where she had settled. In fact, her first proposal to Calixto was to record an album. And so they did, but it was only their first contact.
“We started talking about doing something more, what could it be? An academy? Okay, but an academy that not only taught playing instruments or dancing, but also singing,” Calixto recalls. “And that had an official curriculum, that also taught the history of…” flamenco, its main exponents, the literature of flamenco…Something no one had done before. We're thinking of a name, who's putting up the money, you? Well, the Cristina Heeren Art Foundation. Flamenco".
At that point –it was 95– a young Peruvian writer living in Seville appeared on the scene, Fernando Iwasaki, who had very vague notions of flamencoBut she loved music and, importantly, had just completed training at the San Telmo Foundation to manage non-profit institutions. Her role as director of the Foundation was fundamental in shaping a pioneering model, “inspired by conservatories in the United States, where performing arts schools have always existed. It was necessary to ensure that the teachers gathered around Cristina, such as José Luis Postigo, Milagros Mengíbar, Naranjito de Triana, José de la Tomasa or Calixto Sánchez himself, understood that novel spirit.”
Calixto remembers very well how in his discipline, the canteIdeas were beginning to change in those fin-de-siècle times. “Back then it was still common for flamenco singers, after four or five years of becoming professionals, to lose their voice; or, in the best of cases, to Pulpo he will send us to Muñoz CariñanosThe doctor who was later murdered by ETA, so he could see us and prescribe that awful concoction, although in the end he'd tell us that if we didn't want to go hoarse, what we really needed was a speech therapist. I did, and I ended up with a vocal technique that no one else had, and that's what I started sharing with the students: placement, falsetto, voice draws… But it was slow. That's when you realized that many of them didn't care about any of that; all they wanted was to learn two or three things. cante"It's to earn a little money. The change in mentality was slow."
The Foundation's first headquarters was located in Seville Fabiola Street and was given to her by the City Council. Later she moved to a villa in Heliópolis, along with another venue for dance classes in The JuncalFinally, it found its permanent home at its current headquarters in the Pureza StreetIn Triana, they even have a theater to host their own shows. The curriculum was structured in three levels – Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced – and upon completion, students received an Arts Degree. Flamenco recognized throughout the world. “It was about educating people who could earn a living from it flamenco"Iwasaki says."
"Since its official opening in 1996, the Cristina Heeren Foundation has welcomed more than ten thousand students from over fifty countries, boasting an international percentage: 60 percent are Spanish and 40 percent are foreign, demonstrating that they had things clear before the declaration of the flamenco as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO»
Later, the Undergraduate Degrees flamencoAnother pioneering qualification that is now taught at a high school in La Rinconada. Another innovation introduced by the Foundation was the incorporation of the students themselves as instructors, creating an organic system of mutual enrichment. “We turned them into instructors,” the Peruvian explains. “Not into teachers or interns, but into people with the responsibility to help the struggling students. If you were a flamenco dancer, you had to help in the classes of…” canteIf you were a flamenco singer, you had to help out with the dancing or guitar playing.”
They also pioneered the sponsorship and scholarship model. “We got El Corte Inglés to fund prizes for young people in every city where they had a store, including Jerez and Marbella. This allowed many young people to benefit from training opportunities with us.”
One of these students, Jesus CorbachoToday, he is a celebrated figure who keeps a Miner's Lamp in his display case. "I arrived in Seville at 17 years old through a scholarship I won in the Huelva fandango competition organized by the same Foundation," he recalls. "I was fortunate to have José de la Tomasa and Paco Taranto, two greats of the canteand I trained with them. Later I had the opportunity to be an assistant instructor in Milagros Mengíbar's dance classes, Rafael Campallo and Javier BarónIt opened up a world of possibilities for me that I didn't have in Huelva."
Since its official opening in 1996, the Cristina Heeren Foundation has welcomed more than 10.000 students from over fifty countries, boasting an international composition: 60 percent are Spanish and 40 percent are foreign, demonstrating that they had a clear vision before the declaration of the flamenco as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
The list of professors who have worked there over these three decades is impressive: in addition to those mentioned, there are Manuel Soler, Niño de Pura, Manolo Franco, Luisa Palicio…Not to mention visiting professors such as Ana Morales, Miguel Ángel Heredia, Mercedes de Córdoba, José Valencia, Alfredo Lagos, Juan Campallo, Eva Yerbabuena, Rubén Olmo, Rafael Estévez, Valeriano Paños, Carmelilla Montoya, Pastora Galván, María Moreno, Paula Comitre, Rafael Riqueni, Diego del Morao, Arcángel…
But no less impressive is the list of alumni: flamenco singers such as Rocío Márquez, María José Pérez, Jeromo Segura, Laura Vital, Argentina, guitarists like Pedro Barragán, Tokunaga Brothers (Kentaro and Kojiro), Manuel de la Luz, Tino van der Sman, Jesús Rodríguez, José Luis Medina and Yago Santos, dancers like Luisa Palicio, El Choro, Lucía Álvarez La Piñona, Alberto Sellés, Florencia Oz y Juan Thomas de la MoliaThey appear alongside artists belonging to other musical styles such as India Martinez, Farah Siraj o Yasmin Levy.
Despite everything, Calixto maintains that “we shouldn’t think it was all a bed of roses. The fact that an American woman came to Seville and opened a school wasn’t well received there, where chauvinism is widespread. But Cristina has a title of nobility and managed to make it a success. She has my admiration and appreciation.”
“I am very grateful to the Foundation, which helped me take a fundamental step in my career. I was able to share with all those great teachers and continue my work.” cante“,” concludes Corbacho, while Iwasaki feels equally grateful and honored to have been able to meet, during the twenty years he worked for the Foundation, stars like Paco de Lucía, Manolo Sanlúcar, El Güito or Enrique Morente, “but above all, for having taught me so many things, because the flamenco It became my profession, and I had to study it. As for the foundation, I'm proud to have been part of something that started so humbly, filled a gap that didn't exist, and created a teaching method replicated worldwide.” ♦
