María del Mar Domínguez I Málaga, (EFE).- The bailaor Antonio Fernández Montoya, known as Farru, believes that “now there is a lot of confusion about what is flamenco and what is not”, and defends that flamenco can be merged with other musical genres, but not that it becomes that music.
“There is a tendency to call everything flamenco. Mixing and fusing is one thing, and anything goes is another”, the artist stated in an interview with EFE.
Farru (Seville, 1988) regrets that in a flamenco festival now you can see “everything but flamenco”. At the Paris Opera “I haven’t seen anyone who has danced por soleá. I have seen opera ”, he assures.
“They should start by hiring someone who knows not only about numbers and administration, but also about the preparation of that festival”, who must have “at least a good level of flamenco”, he maintains.
A long distance race
Grandson of the mythical Farruco and brother of Farruquito, the bailaor assures that flamenco is “a longer career than any other” because you can “stay 30 years and get nothing” and you need to train in the art before showing yourself to the public .
“I don’t know if I’ll dance flamenco well or not, but I know who dances well and who doesn’t”. His training, he argues, has “taught him to distinguish”, his family “precedes him” and he has seen “nothing but good flamenco dancing”.
To innovate and merge, he points out, you have to know art in depth, but “now you start to merge from the beginning”, and you wonder “from where”.
She remembers that one day she was asked to do a choreography for the national ballet, and the first thing she said was that she had “no idea” about classical ballet: “I see someone dance and I know if they are more or less ready because I like dance in general, but I cannot stage a classical ballet choreography”.
Rosalía has influence, but she is not flamenco
The influence of flamenco on some current artists is clear. “Rosalía or Pitingo are super interesting artists who perhaps have brought an audience that flamenco didn’t have”. The Catalan singer “has a flamenco influence, but she couldn’t be called flamenco, maybe she could be called flamenco from the heart. Flamenco is not ”, she indicates.
Farru is “proud” that Rosalía introduces “some flamenco” in her show because “in some way she is showing art”, but she believes that “you have to know how to separate”.
“I have a tanguillo that is inspired by a very important piece of jazz but that’s not why I’m a jazz dancer”, he asserts.
Andalusian Ambassador
Farru, who made her stage debut at the age of 2 and traveled to the United States with her brother Farruquito at 13 to participate in a tour, has performed with artists such as Tomatito, Beyoncé, Björk and Marc Anthony.
A few days ago he was ambassador of Andalusia -together with singer Rafael de Utrera, among others- at a gala before tourist intermediaries in Berlin with his show “For a dream”, which was born from some confidences that Paco de Lucía made him about a dream in the one in which Farru appeared dancing, singing and playing the guitar.
“The most universal language there is is feeling, and flamenco, if there is something in quantity, is feeling”, according to the bailaor, who claims the role of this artistic manifestation in the projection of Spanish culture.
Farru pulls from the saying “no one is a prophet in his land” and points out that “there are artists who fill a theater in London in two hours and in their own land it costs them their very lives”, something that he does not say for him because Spain “treats him very good”.
Bringing flamenco closer to the Spanish
This week he has also participated in Madrid in a talk with some bullfighters to bring Spanish culture closer to citizens. “There are people who still see flamenco as a party, not as something educational”, but “before it was a musical genre, it was already a culture, a way of feeling”, she stated.
The artist also participates in Flamenco Lab Paco de Lucía, a space for artistic creation in which he shares mentoring with “geniuses” such as Jorge Pardo or Vicente Amigo.
On March 25, he will offer his show “Fiesta flamenca” at the Pavón Theater in Madrid, which recreates the “university” of small meetings where the teachers sang, danced and played and the students went to listen and learn, who turned out to be Camarón de la Isla, Terremoto de Jerez or his grandfather Farruco.
Summer comes “charged” for Farru, who will present “Fiesta flamenca” on June 28 at the Teatro del Soho in Málaga and on July 29 he will perform at Noches del Botánico in Madrid, together with the Dominican Latin jazz pianist Michel Camilo and the guitarist from Almería Tomatito. EFE