El Güito
El Güito , actually Eduardo Serrano Iglesias (born June 1942 in Madrid ), is a Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer .
Life
Eduardo Serrano grew up in the El Rastro district of Madrid . Like many families in the first few years after the Spanish Civil War , his parents' home also suffered from poverty. His mother sold lottery tickets in bars and cafes. Eduardo felt the need to dance from an early age. At the age of five, he won first prize in a children's dance competition for the first time in his life. His mother often took him on her sales tours through the bars and encouraged him to watch the flamenco artists and learn something from them. During his childhood he appeared twice in films: 1951 in Una cubana en España directed by Luis Bayón Herrera and in 1954 in Un caballero andaluz by Luis Lucía.
His first teacher was Antonio Marín . His artistic career began at age 14 when he was welcomed into the company of Pilar López . With her he performed at the Palace Theater in London. As the youngest dancer in the company, he learned from well-known dancers such as Farruco , Mario Maya and Curro Vélez , and from the company chief Pilar López, to whom he was extremely devoted. For her part, she was very fond of her youthful Bailarín :
«¡Es como la tierra misma! Una fuerza, una raíz tan fuerte que ya sube hasta el cielo. "
“He is like the earth itself! A force, a root so strong that it even rises to heaven. "
As early as 1959 he received the first major award for his dance art: the Prix Sarah Bernhardt of the Paris Théâtre des Nations .
At the age of 15 he left Pilar López's company and began performing in the tablaos and ballrooms of Madrid. Performances abroad followed: in Portugal, France, Egypt, the United States and Germany. As he himself later admitted, it was a critical youth, characterized by recklessness, copious consumption of alcohol and insufficient diligence in practice. In 1960 he appeared in Sonidos negros under Soledad Miralles , in 1962 in Los Tarantos under Francisco Rovira Beleta in 1964 in the Antología dramática del flamenco under Manuela Vargas and a year later in Flamenco de Manuela Vargas . In the same year he had an appearance in the film Gitana by Joaquín Bollo Muro . 1970–1972 he formed the Trío Madrid with Mario Maya and Carmen Mora ; there he amazed the audience with his creative interpretation of soleá . With Mario Maya and the dancer Antonia Martínez he formed another trio in 1974; together they interpreted texts by the Granadin poet Juan de Loxa in the play Ceremonial .
In the 1980s he appeared as a guest dancer in the Ballet Nacional de España . In addition, he began to stage his own choreographies. His creation Diálogos del Amargo based on texts by Federico García Lorca won him first prize at the Sitges Theater Festival in 1982 . In 1986 he appeared in Farruco's show Flamenco puro . A year later he danced in the United States in Santa Fe in Enrique Morente's El loco romántico , a tribute to Don Quixote de la Mancha . He also performed at the major flamenco festivals in Madrid , Granada , Seville and Mérida in the 1980s . He was awarded the Premio Matilde Coral for his performance at the Festival de Cante Jondo .
The critic Emilio Jiménez wrote in Correo de Andalucía in 1986 : In the Caña , his Caña, as Jiménez emphasized, El Güito did without the usual props such as a cape and sombrero; Just through his stage presence, his passion and his intelligence, he casts a spell over his audience from the small stage. In 1988 in Diario 16, Miguel Acal once again praised his creative power in the Soleá:
"El Güito baila por Soleá como nunca se ha bailado en el Patio de la Montería."
"El Güito dances the Soleá as it has never been danced in the Patio de la Montería ."
In the 1990s and 2000s he also appeared at the major flamenco festivals and staged his own shows. He has performed in Málaga, Córdoba, Seville, Nîmes and in the Théâtre du Châtelet , among others . In 1996 he staged a large series of flamenco palos with Raíces Gitanas in the Gran Teatro of Córdoba . The sequence of Tangos , Farruca , Taranto , Bulerías , Alegrías , Seguiriyas , Martinetes and Bulerías por Soleá found its climax in his own interpretation of Soleá. In 1996 and 1997 he was again awarded two important prizes: the Galardón Calle de Alcalá and the Premio Nacional de Baile of the Cátedra de Flamenología de Jerez .
In 2002 he brought A puerta abierta with Mari Paz Lucena and Alfonso Losa to the stage of the New York City Center in front of more than 3,000 spectators . In 2007 Dos Generaciones he contrasted his now classic interpretation of Farruca and Soleá with the newer forms of the younger generation, represented by Mari Paz Lucena and María Juncal.
In the later years he devoted himself increasingly to teaching. He taught at the Amor de Dios Center for Flamenco and Spanish Dance Art in Madrid. He gave courses for the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco and at the Jerez and Mont-de-Marsan festivals . Nevertheless, even at an advanced age he occasionally appeared on stage as a dancer, for example:
- At the 2010 Seville Biennale with the Portuguese singer Dulce Pontes ;
- 2015 at the extended Seville Biennale;
- 2016 at the Flamenco Festival in the Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona .
style
José Luis Navarro García characterizes El Güito's style as the " quintessence of the Apollonian " dance. Every movement results in a sculpture; his dance is "solemn, measured, elegant and masculine" - a "paradigmatic model of classic male flamenco". His Farruca is impressive, his Caña solemn, his Seguiriya measured and majestic and his Bulería graceful. Most of all, however, he is characterized by his serene, calm interpretation of the Soleá.
El Güito himself named as his principle:
«El baile Flamenco hay que reposarlo. No se trata de hacer muchos contratiempos y cosas dificiles con los pies. Lo más importante es emocionar. "
“Flamenco requires rest. Don't bother with surprises and difficult things with your feet. The most important thing is to arouse emotion. "
Web links
- El Güito. In: El arte de vivir el flamenco. Retrieved June 18, 2017 (Spanish).
- El Güito. Biography. In: deflamenco.com. Retrieved June 17, 2017 (Spanish).
Individual evidence
- ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 253-254 .
- ↑ José Luis Navarro García: Historia del Baile Flamenco . Volume III, p. 255-256 .
- ^ Dulce Pontes y El Güito colaboran en el debú de Juan Valderrama . In: El País . Madrid September 21, 2010 (Spanish, elpais.com [accessed April 14, 2019]).
- ^ Margot Molina: La Bienal de Flamenco expandida . In: El País . Madrid May 4, 2015 (Spanish, elpais.com [accessed April 14, 2019]).
- ↑ Carmen del Val: El flamenco toma el Mercat de les Flors . In: El País . Madrid May 21, 2016 (Spanish, elpais.com [accessed April 14, 2019]).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Güito, El |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Serrano Iglesias, Eduardo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish flamenco dancer and choreographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 1942 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Madrid |