Delighted in the Country of the Magician (07/31/2021)
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Paymogo honored Cristina Hoyos and awarded the José Manuel Canelo Distinction to Alba Espert.
If there is a flamenco territory where youth shines with their own light, that is Paymogo, a town in the Andévalo of Huelva that, despite having little more than a thousand inhabitants, has been celebrating since 2000 a lung festival that, without support from the Provincial Council Provincial of Huelva or the Junta de Andalucía, not only does it help them not to lose perspective and continue to motivate themselves for the future, but it also finds the enjoyment of creative language and knowledge in teachers, in those who left traces for eternity. .
This edition, postponed by COVID-19 since 2020, combined, in this sense, the recognition of Cristina Hoyos, a teacher who has taught all those who have passed through her companies to be architects of their own destiny, with some young people willing to give the best of themselves at the foot of the Castle of Santa María Magdalena, from where, probably, the powers of a shaman from the Sierra Morena onubense gave the place the name of País del Mago, the current Paymogo.
The festival was divided into two days, the first day was the honors to Cristina Hoyos, whom the mayor of Paymogo, Tote Fernández, recognized as "universal Andalusian committed to a better society and creator of an atmosphere of freedom in which art and the movement meet ", thanks that the Sevillian corresponded with the forcefulness of those who are a source of growth and admiration.
And as a flamenco that isolates its young people is called to disappear, the organization made her debut for the paymoguera Consuelo Haldón, an outstanding student of the Aula Flamenca de Paymogo that Manolo Sierra directs so thoroughly, who at 13 years of age already has first prizes to his credit, and that, escorted by an expert guitar like that of Antonio Dovao from Huelva, left samples of his good vocal registers for cantiñas, as well as tuning and rhythm in malagueña with fandango by Frasquito Yerbabuena, tientos-tangos and fandangos from Huelva .
But the unpredictability of the night was caused by Haldón by Sevillanas so that two great teachers like Cristina Hoyos and Pepa Montes would crumble them from the most impressive and unsuspected, both for the mixture of corporality that marked the emotional rhythm of the action, as well as for the fascination of two different but enchanting expressions, their bodies dialoguing to the rhythm of the melodies in such a shocking way that they erected a monument to a different way of integrating the voice in the dance. Consuelo Haldón's cante had been involved in the commotion of two historical figures, while both teachers gave her, on behalf of the City Council, an aid grant to facilitate access to training.
On the second day, the José Manuel Canelo Distinction, which honors the young paymoguero who devised this festival, began with Alba Espert, the Jerez woman who at the age of 24 showed that by rondeña by Manolo Sanlúcar, petenera to evoke Enrique de Melchor and taranta, the concert guitar is more alive and awake than ever in the hands of women, and more of those who that night debuted the title of Master of Research and Analysis of Flamenco.
It was Espert herself who stimulated our interest in Ana Jiménez, please be aware that if by soleares from Alcalá to Triana and by tientos she convinced even the most skeptical, by bulerías by Luis de la Pica and Pastora Pavón she evidenced at 19 years of age which is a paradigmatic example of how things can and should be done.
Manuel Cuevas Jr. arrived from Osuna, who will be 25 years old next August 8 and who, with the well-connected escort of José Manuel el Chino, presented a repertoire without fanfare but with an accomplished flamenco style with the intention of moving forward, because if he sought the inspiration in Vallejo's media granaína and in a "collage" of zambra, tientos, aguajirados and Colombian tangos, pretended to surprise in Rafael Farina's milonga, leaving the respectable without the visual and poetic spectacle of the seguiriyas.
Carmen Carmona, from Bejamen, had a wealth of notes from maestro Fernando Rodríguez, which contributed dedication and resolution to her 18-year-old, while she was evocative in the granaína and half granaína, with an astonishing coherence in the soleares apolás and with a waste of expressive taste in his memory of the tangos of Granada and Badajoz.
As the tradition indicates for these Andevaleños payments, we immediately enjoyed a challenge for personal fandangos with all the participants, closing the meeting with a fandango cané alluding to Paymogo, the Huelva town that considers young people as fundamental agents of the evolution of flamenco , hence the need to promote sound awareness of Andalusia, which justifies the José Manuel Canelo Distinction, which in this edition went to Alba Espert for dedication to the study of flamenco and to encourage him not to predict the future, but to build it.
But the memory that the Country of the Magician will treasure in the 2021 edition is the moment made up of Cristina Hoyos and Pepa Montes, who captured an entire audience overwhelmed and eternally grateful, as they witnessed how the enchantment can open possibilities for the union of the The singing of a girl, only 13 years old, and the body language of two historical artists, will lead to a luxurious dance, unclassifiable and ambitious. The paymoguera Consolación Haldón was from that moment sponsored by those who made art a major poem without words.