When one enters the gardens of Perelada Castle, it is common to hear an instrument being tuned for an opera or a voice being prepared for a lyrical recital. It is part of the enclave's identity, as are the squawks of the swans on the lake, always sheltered by the imposing and Instagrammable castle, not forgetting the casino that serves as a welcome.
But this Tuesday night was different. If someone listened carefully, what they heard was an insatiable tapping, at once delicate and hypnotic, accompanied by many olés and laments. The bailaora Ana Morales (Vilafranca del Penedès, 1982) had taken to the stage of the Perelada Festival to present her solo En la cuerda floja (On the Tightrope). The strangeness of hearing flamenco in these parts should not have embarrassed any astute listener, considering that a show had not been programmed for years. Specifically, the last one was in 2018 with María Pagés, one of the classic guests of the event.
The Catalan with Andalusian roots Ana Morales has returned to Perelada after two decades. She debuted at the festival with a tribute to one of the natives of the area, the painter Salvador Dalí. At that time, she was just over 20 years old and was one more in a dance company. Now, she has returned solo, consolidated as one of the references of contemporary flamenco, ratified with the National Dance Award in 2022.
En la cuerda floja, premiered at the Seville Flamenco Biennial three years ago, lasts a little over an hour, but Morales makes it fly by. She repeatedly changes rhythm, gaining strength as she performs impossible turns and incessantly taps a floor that comes alive, even managing to create tension on stage by giving space to silence. She takes everyone where she wants, and the audience is engrossed.
The artist says this show is autobiographical. Created in the midst of the pandemic, it speaks of balance and imbalance, chaos and stability, reason and desire. Doubts and fears that she masterfully translates into her movements, knowing how to evoke them among those who watch her with gestures as simple as resting her feet on the tip of her heel, appearing to be on the verge of falling for a few seconds, continuing with dizzying turns and more turns executed with precision... There is "the belly dancer and the professional dancer," as she defines herself.
A voice accompanies her in her corporeal musings and, at times, Morales even answers it. But with whom she does establish a continuous dialogue, perfectly intertwined, is with the musicians who accompany her, Bolita Trío, formed by José Quevedo "Bolita" on guitar, also in charge of musical direction, Paquito González on percussion and Pablo Martín on double bass. She challenges them, they all become emboldened, complicating the score and the choreography, being different parts of the same body. If the guitar strums, Morales' body contorts. If the double bass trembles, so does she. And her shoes become the perfect doubles for the cajón beats.
A performance in Perelada far from the distance that its stage sometimes exudes, close and heartfelt, imbuing everyone with Morales' passion and professionalism. It is not in vain that the audience, surrendered, rose without exception to applaud her, to which the artist responded by granting a few last steps as a gift.
Morales has marked the halfway point of a concentrated edition of the festival, with only one week of programming compared to the long month of other years. When the curtain falls this Friday with the comic opera The Telephone, or l'amour à trois, the starting signal will be given for the works to build a new auditorium, leaving behind the removable one that has always been used in Perelada and creating a permanent space for creation in Empordà.