And it is not only a mischief: it is, above all, memory. Memory in love with the people who were left behind, with the family, with the music that poisoned it, with those who left. Also a wink, a somersault in time, a riddle, a dream, bits of the road traveled, as if Isabel Bayón opened an imaginary trunk that she had found in the attic of her memory and had begun to take out toys, books, photos yellow, records of when she was young, maybe some personal secret, details, skins of all previous ages.
 
César Rufino.

ISABEL BAYÓN´s show staging by ISRAEL GALVÁN

Since Gypsies appeared in european culture, the unearthly has followed. Fortune telling, for example, has been one of their most immediate economical resources. So, as that moment, magic and Gypsy were born together.

Before dju-dju or voodoo-that were direct descendants of the colonial exploitation in Central-Africa or the Caribbean – before these practices embodied fear of the unknown, Gypsies embodied that curse. Needless to say, Gypsies took those fears to Flamenco.

The magical has left us a hygienic vision of what still is a constituting element in the process of making Flamenco. And in that swampy world is where Isabel Bayón and Israel Galván are going to get lost. Troubling feelings, magic, superstition, jinxes, fixations, words that mustn’t be said, amulets, magical rituals and everyday rituals. That which you cannot touch with your hands.

So we are actually trying to know why we tighten our stomachs when we have a bad feeling, why we swear impetuously when faced with a challenge, why we carry our pockets filled with little coins and stones as if our luck depended on them. Everything we do daily without thinking about it and we stop in fear when facing it. The electricity that runs through our body when we are startled. Bad thoughts. Hexes. Bad Luck ,mal fario. La bají. El mal Bajío. Fear. Apprehension. Disgust. El dju-dju.

Pedro G.Romero

A dialogue with the everlasting

Each period has its own distinctive styles and tendencies: those who seek safe refuge can follow contemporary trends, adhere to the established canon at any given moment. The genuine artist however, is aware that creativity is more than simply a question of following fashion, they aim for a dialogue with the eternal, not simply the present, and they confront a void, a space without certainty, where there is none of the comfort of convention as defined by others. Isabel Bayón has always danced from a perspective of personal investigation, ignoring the styles of the moment, aware that she shouldn’t be drawn into the tendencies which seem to be governing the world at any given time. Every time she performs she is searching for her inner self, her choreography is full of joy and fear, creating a network of sensations which are far too complex to be simply an expression of a particular era. Fighting the ephemeral, Bayón attempts to reach something timeless, permanent, something which speaks of what it is to be human, something which any spectator can relate to. A work which is full of passion, revelation and enthusiasm has its roots in life itself, and will resist any force of nature which may try to destroy it.

This piece is a reflection on time and how it affects what we do. It is not however addressing simply the changes in taste, the tides of popular opinion which wash over us, the arbitrary nature by which something modern becomes outdated, and then later, becomes fashionable once again. Isabel Bayón looks to the past to understand the present: an artist needs to have a memory to address the future, they need to move forwards whilst drawing on the legacy they have inherited. The show combines the musical and aesthetic approaches of the past with a contemporary sensibility and the result is a piece which celebrates those figures who went far beyond the conventions of their day: names such as Sabicas, Paco de Lucía, Ramón Montoya and Manuel Vallejo, great masters who used their talent to expand the boundaries of flamenco. Caprichos del tiempo pays homage to these figures but avoids the easy nostalgia which suggests that the past was always better: what Bayón does is launch herself towards the horizon from a timeless perspective, in which art is not governed by inertia but celebrates the great masters who were courageous enough to search inside themselves in order to find a new form of expression.

Basically. The basics. The primordial. The essence. The bottom. The soul. All those things are Lo esencial.

A show that is made without pretensions, without packaging, without conceptual ideas, and allowing total freedom to show the flamenco we feel.

Making a tour of the alphabet, from cantiñas to martinetes, tangos, abandolaos, tientos or malagueñas. A show designed for intimate spaces. Flamenco in great theaters amplifies its greatness, but I think that in the small spaces you can experience other nuances, it becomes alive, you can almost feel the air that moves the shawl or the bata de cola, the breath of the sings, appreciate the looks, the complicity between the artists, and in this show besides admire us we love each other, and that can be the important thing of this proposal, the essential thing, Lo esencial. Sing, guitar and dance.

Isabel Bayón

GIRALDILLO DANCE AWARD IN THE XVI BIENAL DE FLAMENCO DE SEVILLA.

Isabel Bayón knows that the language of dance is one universal language when creators and interpreters share the same emotion: the need to express and to transform the intangible art in a build of experiences, the movement will lead to a fragment of life where the viewer will be moved. So this time, the dancer seeks the excitement and beauty coming from the view of other creators; she allows her versatile body to be choreographed by three different choreographers, Fernando Romero, Florencio Campos and Ruben Olmo. Each one starts off with the same premise, the sonnet of Miguel Hernandez “Por tu pie” meaning, by your foot, “The most danceable white …” each of them with complete artistic freedom, In The Mold of Their Shoes is a kaleidoscope of different sensitivities benefited from the plurality of each of their approaches, this is the challenge of a performer unafraid to venture into new territories.

The work that Bayón unfolds in this show is distinctly sentimental, the Seville dancer creates a warm tribute to her teachers, whose shoes she learned from and also put on at some point in her path, of which there are references of these teachers that are indisputable to her dance, she shows her gratitude for these intimate encounters.

This is not only about opening up to other levels and reviewing the legacy of her masters, the work is also the story of a statement, Bayon deepens and opens to new universes to emerge from this experience and to gain greater security, to show the public, in a thrilling final confession, how she is and how she understands dance. The previous steps have given her maturity, made her acutely aware of herself, and now she is prepared to strongly dance In The Mold of Her Shoes, ready to dance the future in full control with her own capability ingenuity.

“Tan Sólo Flamenco” (“Just Flamenco”) is a spectacular that revives the flamenco cuadros of days gone by. It’s a celebration of those small groups of dedicated musicians, singers, and dancers who, with their only props a handful of woven chairs and a few brightly colored dresses, created and sustained an art form and a culture that is now embraced in every corner of the world. Spontaneous and dynamic in nature, participation in the early cuadros required a level of skill and a depth of communication that is only possible among those who share a profound understanding of and respect for the essence of flamenco.

In “Tan Sólo Flamenco”, Isabel Bayón surrounds herself with a distinguished group of artists who share her passion for classic flamenco. Using a carefully selected succession of palos guaranteed to delight the senses, she takes us on a journey through the very heart of flamenco.

GIRADILLO FOR BEST FLAMENCO DANCE SPECTACULAR IN THE XIV BIENAL DE FLAMENCO DE SEVILLA

“La Puerta Abierta” (“The Open Door”) explores the creative interplay between the public and the private, the external and the internal. Isabel Bayón leaves the imaginary door between the two worlds open as she freely enters and exits, casting the audience in the role of unwitting voyeur. From this vantage point, we see her inner world, where identities are created, recreated, and preserved.

Musical memory forms the narrative thread for “La Puerta Abierta”, as a range of voices from the past intrude on the present. The plaintive cante of La Piriñaca and El Agujetas, so evocative of Andalusian fatalism, pierces our heart — while Bach invites us to celebrate with his “Goldberg Variations” (inspired by 16th century Spanish chaconas). Which call do we answer?

In “La Puerta Abierta”, artistic freedom reigns paramount. Isabel Bayón shows us how flamenco absorbs and transforms life’s complexities and contradictions, reconciling the public and the private. “La Puerta Abierta” ultimately transports us to a place of joy. And within this spontaneous fiesta, we find the answer to our own existence.

“La Mujer y el Pelele” (“The Woman and The Puppet”) tells the story of a Parisian Don Juan (Don Mateo) who meets his match when he falls for Seville’s most beautiful, and notoriously elusive, flamenco dancer (Conchita). Isabel Bayón is Conchita, the femme fatale, and baile is her weapon of feminine seduction. Free, intelligent, and self-assured, Conchita uses sensuality and wit to draw Don Mateo irreversibly into her grasp, where she manipulates him like a puppet before devouring him like a praying mantis.

While based on an adaptation of “La Femme y le pantin” (1898), a French novel by Pierre Louÿs, the theme of the work is undeniably Spanish — inspired by Goya’s masterpiece, “El Pelele” (1792), which depicts four women amusing themselves by tossing a straw man high into the air using a blanket (“manteando”). Goya’s scene is likewise reminiscent of the fate suffered by Sancho Panza in Cervantes’ “Don Quijote”.

In the culminating scene of “La Mujer y el Pelele”, Don Mateo watches helplessly as Conchita enjoys the intimate embrace of another (and to his thinking, lesser) man. Frustrated, he observes the scene from behind a locked gate. He is unable to act, tossed about once again like Goya’s straw puppet. Don Mateo’s will has been annihilated by the magnetic power of a woman. His jealousy and desire for her is his own personal hell.

The passion of Conchita Pérez has been brought to cinema on numerous occasions, with the role of Conchita interpreted by such improbable flamencas as Marlene Dietrich and Brigitte Bardot. Fortunately, Luis Buñuel gave us a more modern and credible adaptation of “La Femme y le pantin” in his classic film, “That Obscure Object of Desire” (1977), where two actors, Angela Molina and Carole Bouquet, were simultaneously cast in the role of Conchita, capturing the complexity of the character.

Now it is Isabel Bayón’s turn to seduce us with her baile and trap us with her sensuality in Antonio Álamo’s dance adaptation of “La Mujer y el Pelele”.

La Tórtola Valencia was one of the most famous dancers of the early twentieth century, playing a crucial role in Spain’s modernist movement in the arts and literature known as “the generation of ’98”. La Tórtola Valencia introduced a more natural, intuitive, and sensual style of interpretation, in sharp contrast to the more raucous, cabaret style dance that had become popular. She earned the respect and adoration of both the elite and the masses alike, elevating Spanish dance to the category of “high art”.

In “La Tórtola Valencia”, teacher and student — the venerable Matilde Coral and her protégé Isabel Bayón — come together to remember this incomparable artist. They do so not by mechanically reconstructing her life and work, but rather by living her legacy and celebrating the ongoing mystery of La Tórtola Valencia’s art form.

To the initial shock of “respectable” society, La Tórtola Valencia abandoned the traditional long, heavy dresses covered with layers of flounces and ruffles, and chose instead to adorn herself with gossamer fabrics that revealed her bare legs, simultaneously highlighting her femininity and allowing her a full range of motion. Particularly expressive with her eyes, face, and upper body, La Tórtola Valencia relied on rapidly changing poses and graceful movement to evoke a deep emotional response in her audience. The artistic risks undertaken by La Tórtola Valencia forever changed Spanish dance in general, and revolutionized dance for Spanish women.

La Tórtola Valencia uniquely embodied the spirit of the age, inspiring the finest intellectuals, artists, writers, and poets to create during her lifetime more than 150 poems, laudatory essays, and other artistic works in her honor. Initially, she toured Spain, Europe, and Latin America extensively. However, at the peak of her career, World War I and the political instability that followed made worldwide touring impossible. As a result, much of the dance world today knows little of her formidable legacy.

It is vital to preserve the memory of all those who have gone before us, smoothing the way to our own success. On a personal level, La Tórtola Valencia’s courage and risk-taking resonates deeply within us. On an artistic level, we honor her style of interpretation — acknowledging the power of the subtle and sensual over technical virtuosity and crass showmanship. On a spiritual level, particularly as women, we are deeply indebted to La Tórtola Valencia.