Immaculate Tapia |
Madrid (EFE).- The bailaor Joaquín Cortés returns to the stage after almost six years of absence. A foot injury kept him from dancing and the pandemic forced him to cancel his comeback, now he returns where he left off with “Esencia”, a renewed show with which he plans a world tour.
“I am in a full moment,” says Joaquín Cortés in an interview with EFE, next to the poster announcing his return, a photograph with a pose that is very much his, leaning forward with his arms and body ready to fly.
“It is a photograph with a lot of symbology in which I feel my arms as if they were wings”, she explains, the same expression she uses when she talks about her childhood in Córdoba and her desire to fly through her passion for dance.
The bailaor presents “Esencia” on March 14 at the Teatro Real; on March 26 it will be hosted by the Liceu de Barcelona; on March 17 he will be at the Cartuja Center in Seville and on April 2 at the Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastián. A tour that he hopes to expand in Spain and then travel to the United States, Europe and Asia.
In “Esencia”, Cortés (Córdoba, 1969) addresses his story, that of a 12-year-old boy who wanted to be a bailaor to imitate his uncle, his hero, Cristóbal Reyes.
He assures that the child who drives him to dream and keep his imagination alert to create continues to be in him.
“I am looking forward to dancing again and connecting with the public and the new generations. For me, dance is passion, it is not a job, ”she warns.
A show that has been renewed since its inception, which he considers that “it really hasn’t been seen: we couldn’t tour and then the pandemic stopped the world.”
Joaquín Cortés has received the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts, the 2001 Culture Award and the Ibero-American Forum of the Arts award, among other awards.
He was designated “Universal Spaniard” (1998) by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Miami and Unesco Artist for Peace (1998), and is considered one of the ten best dancers of the 20th century.
The bailaor considers himself professionally and personally privileged. “I am a family man, I have two children (Romeo and Andrea) who I enjoy raising and the public has not turned its back on me. I’m lucky”.
With a smile, he stresses that he has gone “more around than Willy Fog” taking flamenco all over the world, and although he knows that he is in favor with the public, he does not feel the same way about the institutions. “In this country it seems that you have to die to be recognized.”
Despite this, he is happy that flamenco is increasingly recognized, “but it should be given more dissemination, we are very far from what it should be”.
With more than forty years of career, he is not willing to give up his philosophy. “I started fusing styles and I continue like this. They criticized me, but as long as the formula works, why change. Now it turns out that fusion is in fashion”.
That young man who danced in a skirt also knew how to transform the aesthetic image of flamenco. With “Gypsy Passion” he changed the way of lighting dance, “more rock and roll”, and to this he added big names in fashion such as Armani, Gaultier or Dolce & Gabbana as creators of his costumes.
“These are times and changes are necessary to give another breadth to the world of dance”, he points out. Today he thinks that in some way these changes make him be seen as a “visionary, avant-garde and a bit revolutionary”, by contributing to change the history of Spanish dance and flamenco in Spain a bit, “although before me he has there have been great geniuses, I feel proud of it”.
In the end, “my greatest prize is recognition from the public”, he assures, and that the young generations discover flamenco through him. “The important thing is that the culture stays alive.”