At one point in this interview, Julio Ruiz (Almería, 31 years old) points something that summarizes the incipient speech that appears resounding in his short career: “When they tell me that I do contemporary flamenco, I say: no, I make flamenco present.” And as a restless descendant of that here and now, it shows a vast and baggy make in tastes and formation.
He quotes Angelica Liddell and Dimitris Popeioannou as referents of the scenic, “because they bring the everyday closer to stratospheric levels of elegance.” And he says that he studied Spanish and flamenco dance, but also contemporary dance, audiovisuals and writing, and is the first flamenco artist to whom the National Center for the Dance of Paris has granted one of its desired scholarships. “When they called me I did not believe it, I thought it was a joke. Once there I am amazed at the respect for dance.” Very different from here? “There is no color.”
The National Dance Center of Paris, a signature space since 1998, and that on the cover of its website is described with a phrase that sounds like an extraordinary verse (“Center for resources for the choreographic sector and the public”), co -produces the show that Julio Ruiz premieres this Tuesday in the newborn Biennial of Flamenco in Madrid. Is called The family And he puts his grandmother, his mother and his aunt at the center of questions and wounds, of tragedy and pleasure. “The wound comes from being in a family with a very powerful matriarchy and of not understanding some dynamics. Like that thing that is said when you do not like someone but ‘what are we going to do, it is from the family. And has they told them about this show? “Two yes, in fact they come to see it, to the third not because we have not been a relationship. My grandmother, in addition, is very modern, is very strong … In the end, this to shake the family’s carpet is something we should do.
Julio Ruiz says of his family who, despite not being artists (“My mother is a house cleansing granain, my father is a Galician waiter, who fell in love in the north, they went down Granary And let’s go to the coast that there is more work, they ended up in Almería and I was born ”), their mother detected a certain sensitivity being very small and pointed it to dance classes.” I did not want to return because there were only girls, but I did it because dancing I liked more than anything else, “he explains. Then the Almería Conservatory arrived and the 14 tablaos, which still still steps on and combines with his creations. Another, I am always the same. With my shows I work more freely. But in tablao, even if there is a more traditional code, I enjoy it too. ”
From his words an amazing and young maturity emanate about the absence of prejudices and labels. On your right not to choose a box that framed it or the fear that in the end, someone will. Like when Sevillanas included to Tiktok included in his previous work, Touch, That Paz Padilla shared, became viral and rained the insults. Something similar to what happened a few weeks ago to Manuel Liñán and denounced this newspaper. “That Manuel has told me seems fundamental and applaud it. He is a great and has a necessary visibility for this type of thing to stop happening,” he says.
Its first creation is 2014, it is called Pieces. But it was a couple of years ago, the dancer did not even have thirty, when the looks stopped in his speech. “I remain the same. As my grandmother says, ‘every day I see you you have another body but the same eyes.’ What is that? “One more step towards freedom.” More than with the body? “Yes, because I am not a writing professional, I allow myself to do what I want. I am not afraid to feel impostor and it makes me free.”
Among its next projects, in addition to the premiere of The family In the Conde Duke Center of Madrid, there is the publication of an “artist book” and a documentary that collects the creative process of this show, where among other phrases it is heard almost as a plea: why does this family every time it joins it bleeds?