Stamping her heels to the sound of a briskly strummed guitar, Merche Esmeralda, 68, twirls her black shawl in the sunshine as the Madrid traffic streams by a roundabout behind her.
At an age when most top ballet and contemporary dancers would long ago have hung up their pumps, this flamenco star still shines – and now a generation of new artists is rising to follow in her footsteps.
“This is a great time for flamenco,” says David Calzado, who blogs about the dance form and writes for Spain’s ABC newspaper. “There is an impressive new generation, extremely technically accomplished in singing, guitar-playing and dancing.”
Esmeralda was the poster girl at June’s Flamenco Madrid festival, for which her open-air dance was a promotion.
Now two other major festivals are coming up, at which the old guard will dance, strum and sing their tragic laments alongside the new blood that must drive forward this traditional art form.
From Thursday until August 22, the small, south-eastern town of La Union hosts the Cante de las Minas International Festival. It is the most important date on the flamenco calendar, says Rafael Manjavacas, director of the website deflamenco.com.
Then, Flamenco on Fire will draw some of the biggest names away from their southern homeland to the northern city of Pamplona from August 22 to 30.
Born centuries ago in Andalusia, flamenco has been shaken lately by Spain’s economic recession and the death of its most revered figure of modern times, guitarist Paco de Lucía.
The country was plunged into mourning when he died in February last year at the age of 63. Spain’s King Felipe VI bowed his head at de Lucia’s coffin.
“Everyone was sad about Paco de Lucia,” says Calzado. “Now we have to move on.”
Says Manjavacas: “He was the international figurehead of flamenco. Now there is no figurehead that we know of.”
Nevertheless, he adds, “there are lots of good guitarists who are helping flamenco evolve greatly”, in the spirit of de Lucia himself, who shocked purists by flirting with jazz and rock.
“There is also a very good generation of dancers who are adapting to new ways and fusing their art with contemporary styles they encounter on their travels,” says Manjavacas.
Four years after the passing of another major flamenco figure, singer Enrique Morente, de Lucia’s death cast a shadow over a flamenco world already suffering through the economic crisis.
Among younger flamenco artists, “many, particularly dancers, live off what they earn outside Spain”, Calzado says.
Rising stars will be bringing flamenco home this month, however.
Acts at Flamenco on Fire, a festival in only its second year, include the 33-year-old Farruquito, who is hailed by critics for his entrancing, rapid foot-tapping turns, performed dressed all in black.
At Las Minas, critics point to dancer Sara Baras, 44, and singer David Lagos, 42. They are known to audiences as far field as Japan and the United States.
Elsewhere, countless “tablaos” – dark, intimate flamenco bars – resound with rhythmic clapping and shouts of “Olé” throughout the summer in Madrid and across sweltering Andalusia.
“There has been a major comeback of tablaos” in the past three or four years, led by the legendary Corral de la Morería in Madrid, says Calzado.
“Some artists who were not dancing in tablaos before the crisis because there was no shortage of work elsewhere, have now come back to them.”
A big name in Pamplona and La Union will be 34-year-old singer Estrella Morente – daughter of the late Enrique Morente – who will share the stage with dancer Israel Galván, 42.
They are relative youngsters in an art form in which dancers mature late.
“They say flamenco is an ageless art,” says Manjavacas. “It is hard for them before the age of 30. But there are artists who continue triumphing on stage in their 70s.”
Artists such as Esmeralda, whose flamenco duende, or spirit, is still strong.
“In life you have to know your limits, and I am older now,” she told El País newspaper last month. “But all these years have given me wisdom. I can do other things now,” she said. “I still have lots of strength to get on stage.”
artslife@thenational.ae