Israel Galván - A Negro Producciones

PRESENTS
ISRAEL GALVÁN
DANCE NATIONAL AWARD 2005
in the category of CREATION
given by INAEM (Spanish Ministry of Culture)
DANCE AWARD 2009-2010
given by the critics syndicate (FRANCE)
MAX AWARD FOR PERFORMING ARTS 2011
To the best Male Dance Performer
given by the Spanish Authors and Editors Society (SGAE)
La curva

With:
Israel Galván, dance
Sylvie Courvoisier, piano
Inés Bacán, voice
Bobote, compás (rhythm accompaniment)
In 1924, in the theatre La Courbe, Paris, Vicente Escudero presented to the world a most singular
experience. In what would be one of his most daring shows, he mixed together under the banner
of cubism anything from a number dedicated to “Foot-ball” to his famous tap dance imitating the
sound of a pyramid of chairs falling to the ground. In the number named La Courbe, he announced,
with a certain commercial cunning, the jazz dance with which Josephine Baker would gain great
success by the end of the year. What Escudero actually danced is a real enigma. We only know
from the descriptions that he used a banjo sound box as a “cajón” – the percussion instrument so
widely used in flamenco so many years later.
Following on from Tabula Rasa – an experiment in the temporal synchronisation of music, in which
the traditional flamenco triad of voice, instrument and dance were presented separately and on
their own, Israel Galván now wants to enter into another empty space. There is a common texture
between the lonely and nearly atonal singing of Inés Bacán and the invigorating qualities of Sylvie
Courvoisier’s solo piano. There is a touch of vibrato which identifies the primitive voice with the
vanguard piano. Israel Galván tries to evoke an entrance alone into this tense space. Alone, each of
the two ladies – and it is important that they are ladies – will tighten her strings in order to fill the
space with vibrations. Maybe at times we can even hear the old banjo sound box that will evoke
the memory of Escudero. Deleuze said that any vibrating space curves, bends and folds up. Here in
this spatial fold is where Israel Galván now wants to dance.
Tabula Rasa was a real exercise in starting again from absolute scratch, wiping away all previous
processes and polishing. Now that the slate is so completely clean, a simple drawing can be traced
– a curve. With La Curva, Israel Galván wants to continue redefining the roots of his flamenco
vocabulary, starting from square one, stripping himself of all his wisdom right before our very
eyes.
Pedro G. Romero

It was my friend Pedro G. Romero who put a name to what I had just explained to him – my angst and urge to unite
the universe of contemporary music with that of the deepest-rooted, most original flamenco – a flamenco that grows
on me more and more and which I recognise in Inés Bacán. I feel comfortable in the line that goes from one universe
to the other, I feel comfortable in the silence. Here, from this morning on, we are creating something which has no
name – a new world. We are on a desert island which we are trying to make habitable. It is as if each of us were
walking along the road and were suddenly taken away from there, to find ourselves in a room with two other people
who speak different languages. Suddenly, three different tongues learn to communicate with each other.
This show takes flamenco out of its natural habitat. We are free to experiment in a timeless space without start or
finish, without concessions. In this show we are that room and the spectator observes us through the keyhole.
La Curva is born out of my familiarity with silence, from my need to remove the structure from flamenco recitals,
where song, music and dance are intimately linked. I wanted to see each element on its own and show the silence. La
Curva is also the second part of La edad de oro (The Golden Age). There I face a singer and a guitarist. Here I move
towards the feminine, with two women - one very “jonda” (for its deep and original singing) and one very innovative.
The two together form my idea of a female artist.
I have had the great fortune of finding Inés and Sylvie at a curve in my artistic path. They help me create the
soundtrack to my personal dance workshop, bringing me to dance from Lebrija to New York.
In this journey, I am accompanied by my loyal rhythm bearer, “Bobote”.
Israel Galván

Creation, choreography and musical direction
Israel Galván
Music by
Sylvie Courvoisier
Dramaturgy and stage direction
Txiki Berraondo
Lights design by
Rubén Camacho
Producer
A NEGRO PRODUCCIONES
Co-producer
THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE - PARIS
With the support of

Israel Galván
Dancer Israel Galván describes himself:
Reviver: Yes! Contemporary: Yes! At the same time, however, supported and bound by a strong
tradition.
My intention is to get away from all of flamenco’s clichés, and to take every possible freedom. A
flamenco artist today is no longer formed only in the tablaos and fiestas. I went to college, I use
Internet, and I go to the movies. Dancers today don’t have the same influences that they did in the
past. But the new style comes from its roots. People describe my movements as new or even
grotesque, but I learned them from looking at pictures taken over fifty years ago. I’m trying to
bring dance back to its essence, even if it the result doesn’t look pretty. In the end, it’s purer.
Israel Galván was born into flamenco dance. He grew up learning and dancing with his father, the
dancer José Galvan, and his mother, Eugenia de los Reyes.
In 1994 He joined the Compañia Andaluza de Danza directed by Mario Maya, and over the next
decade won just about every top flamenco prize possible, including the Giradillo prize at Seville’s
flamenco Biennal, the Flamenco Hoy critics’ award for best dancer of the year, which he received
in both 2001,2005, and Spain’s national dance prize, 2008 Premio Ciutat de Barcelona.
Forming his own company in 1998 to create his first work Mira Los Zapatos Rojos, his reputation as
risk taker grows each time he presents a new work since then, Metamorphosis,, his flamenco
version of Kafka’s novel ; Arena, his dramatic and surprising choreography based on bull fighting ;
La Edad de Oro, in which he clings to references tracking the normal approaches and shuns "Age" ;
Tabula Rasa in which he turns the canon uspide down to offer his conceptualist and baroque
flamenco ; Solo, its most experimental and risky piece in which silence plays as a music. And his
personal and so impacting vision of « the Apocalypse », El Final de este estado de cosas redux,
premiered at the Operahouse La Maestranza of Sevilla (Summer 2008).
In each of his works, Israel Galván has been collaborating with classic flamenco artists including
Fernando Terremoto, Inés Bacan, Bobote, El Electrico, and contemporary flamenco innovators
including Enrique Morente, Gerardo Núñez, Miguel Poveda, Diego Carrasco, Diego Amador,
Alfredo Lagos, and with contemporary musicians.

Inés Bacán
She has one of the great and most unique voices of cante jondo (original flamenco singing), but
what kind of witchcraft can make us feel the intensity and influx of Inés Bacán even before hearing
her sing? It is her way of appearing on stage, majestic and meaty, her first glance at the audience
seeming to seal a pact which will take us back to long-gone times - the times of the soul. With her,
the singer and her public melt into one musical score.
The characteristic slowness with which she sends out her timeless song, her powerful and ringing
but also contained voice, suit to perfection the performance of seguiriyas and soleás – the most
captivating types of cante jondo melodies (palos). Her skill and mastery allow her to improvise at
any moment and play with the structures, thus always giving a renewed insight into these palos.
Her true capacity for bringing out from the deepest realms of her gypsy sensitivity a voice shorn of
gimmickry and exhibitionism, capable of moulding words into sighs and playing with the silences
between them, ends up truly overpowering the captivated listener.
Born into an Andalousian gypsy family of astonishing musical heritage in 1958, Inés Bacán has
grown up surrounded by masters of song. She is the great-granddaughter of Pinini, great-niece of
La Perrata, granddaughter of Fernanda and Bernarda de Utrera, cousin of El Lebrijano and sister of
the late guitarist Pedro Bacán, who introduced her to a wide audience in the 1992 Avignon
Festival.
She trod the national and international stages either with the Pedro Bacán company and the Pinini
gypsy family or accompanied only by her brother, up until his accidental death in 1997. From then
on, Inés has performed her recitals all over the world solo or surrounded by artists such as the
dancer Concha Vargas, the singer José Valencia, Gnaua musicians, the
Andalusi singer Amina Aloui or the oud player Sofiane Negra, Persian and Indian musicians and
many more.
In June 2002, the Royaumont Foundation’s Department of Oral and Improvised Music invited her
to give a cycle of concerts accompanied by the guitarist Moraíto Chico de Jerez, with whom she
recorded the album “Soledad Sonora”.
She received the “Tío Luis el de la Juliana” award from the Colegio Mayor Isabel de España, Madrid
in March 2004 and closed a flamenco cycle dedicated to her with a recital.
In 2006, Israel Galván called on her to create “Tábula Rasa”, which opened in the Sala Joaquín
Turina, Sevilla and received the Flamenco Hoy prize awarded by critics to the best show of the
year.
Since 2009 she has also participated in Israel Galván’s “El final de este estado de cosas, redux” as
well as continuing to offer numerous recitals.

Sylvie Courvoisier
Winner of the Vaudoise Foundation’s Grand Prix in 2010, Sylvie Courvoisier was born in Lausanne,
Switzerland, where she began learning piano at the age of six from her father – an amateur jazz
musician. She has lived in Brooklyn, New York since 1998.
As a pianist and composer, she has played and recorded with artists as varied as John Zorn, Ikue
Mori, Joey Baron, Mark Feldman, Tim Berne, Tony Oxley, Yusef Lateef, Joëlle Léandre, Herb
Robertson, Butch Morris, Tom Rainey, Mark Dresser, Ellery Eskelin, Lotte Anker, Fred Frith, Michel
Godard and Mark Nauseef, among others. She has had work commissioned for concerts, radio,
dance and theatre by institutions such as Swiss television, the Brecht Forum, Pro Helvetia and the
Donaueschingen Festival.
Since 1996, her career has taken her all over Europe, U.S.A, Canada and Japan, playing in
numerous jazz and contemporary music festivals such as Berlin, Willisau, Davos, Donaueschingen,
Banlieue Bleue, Saalfelden, Groningen, Vision NY, Library of Congress, Nürnberg, Taktlos, London
LMC, Bath Festival, Münster and the Victoriaville Festival.
She is currently leader of the Lonelyville quintet, the Abaton trio and the Silvie Courvoisier Mark
Feldman Quartet with Thomas Morgan and Gerry Hemingway. She is a member of the

improvisation trio Mephista with Ikue Mori and Susie Ibarra as well as another trio with Ikue Mori
and Lotte Anker, Agra Dharma with Makigami Koichi and Ikue Mori, the Herb Robertson Quintet
with Tim Berne, Tom Rainey and Mark Dresser, the Vincent Courtois and Ellery Eskelin Trio and
John Zorn´s Cobra + Femina, to name but a handful.
She received the Swiss “Young Creator’s Prize” in 1996 and the Zonta Club Creation Prize in 2000
and she was also a candidate for the European Jazzprize in 2008.
Stand-out Discography:
«To fly to steal» Sylvie Courvoisier Mark Feldman Quartet (Intakt 2010)
«Oblivia» Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier – (Tzadik 2010)
«Femina John Zorn» (Tzadik 2009)
«As soon as possible» Courtois, Courvoisier & Eskelin (Cam Jazz 2008)
«Every so often» Ellery Eskelin & Sylvie Courvoisier (Prime Source 2008)
«Signs and epigrams» Sylvie Courvoisier solo (Tzadik 2007)
«Real Aberation» Herb Robertson – NY Downtown Allstars (clean Feed 2007)
«Lonelyville» Sylvie Courvoisier quintet with Mori, Feldman, Courtois, Cleaver (Intakt 2007)
«Malphas» Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier, music by John Zorn «Book of Angels» (Tzadik 2006)
«Masade Recital» Sylvie Courvoisier & Mark Feldman, music by John Zorn (Tzadik 2004).
José Jiménez Santiago “Bobote”
Born in Seville on 28 May, 1962, Bobote began dancing aged 13 with La Susi and then starting
working very young in flamenco shows, although by the age of 8 he had already formed the allsinging,
all-dancing group Los Gitanillos, with members of the Amador family and his inseparable
stage-mate El Eléctrico.
He is currently one of the most in-demand palmeros (rhythm-clappers) in the flamenco scene and
is considered a wizard of compás (flamenco rhythm). Daring and committed, he jumps from
accompanying Israel Galván in theatres and dance festivals all over the world to giving compás
workshops in the Tres Mil neighbourhood of Sevilla, where he created the Las Tres Mil group and a
percussion school.
As dancer and palmero, he has collaborated with artistic names of the stature of Manuela
Carrasco, Canales and Farruco, Miguel Poveda, Arcángel, La Argentina, Aurora Vargas and Rocío
Molina and he is a habitual hand in the shows of Israel Galván.
He has also performed in such outstanding films as Flamenco (Carlos Saura, 1995), Vengo (Toni
Gatlif, 2000) and Polígono Sur (Dominique Abel, 2003)

PRESS RELEASES
Showing his mastery by standing still
It’s extremely rare in any genre to see a dancer of this singular imagination and authority.
(Alastair Macaulay, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 13/09/11)
To call Galvan a brilliant dancer is like saying Einstein was pretty good at physics. I have never seen
anything remotely like him.
What propels him into the league of genius is his pinpoint precision, his absolute mastery of
balance and poise. And his musicality is astonishing, the sheer kinetic energy of his movement.
Absolutely breathtaking. (Neil Norman, DAILY EXPRESS, 11/02/2011)
He performs a mix of ragged virtuosity, idiosyncratic moves, and almost mime-like gestures that
lustily convey flamenco's passions without enacting every one of them.
Galván seems to achieve the near impossible feat of embodying flamenco's "duende", or demon,
while avoiding its clichés. This is rare, as is his artistic authority and undoubted sensuality.
Perhaps the best thing about Galván is his reimagining of flamenco moves.
(Sarah Frater, EVENING STANDARD, 10/02/2011)
(...) is a show where popular music, classical or contemporary music and dance come together to
produce a roaring success day after day in its twelve performances last December in the Vidy
theatre, constructed by Max Bill, in Lausanne, Switzerland. We are talking about La Curva (The
Curve) – a work which unites the advanced flamenco dance of Israel Galván, the
freejazz/contemporary piano of the New York-based Swiss composer Sylvie Courvoisier and the
earthy cante jondo of the veteran singer Inés Bacán, all accompanied by the clapping hands of the
popular and intuitive Bobote. This is a far from conventional quartet for a show that is impossible
to classify, a show that will be performed in 2011 in the Cuyás Theatre, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
for the Dance Day celebrations, in Madrid as part of the Autumn in Spring festival, in the Festival
Flamenco del Parco della Musica in Rome and in the Théâtre de la Ville, Paris among other places.
Israel Galván has made a huge mark with his passion for merging Flamenco and Contemporary
music, exploring the deep-rooted bases of the former while, this time, moving away from his
beloved Ligeti and Messiaen in order to immerse himself in a process of improvisation which
continuously touches genius. In his last show, Solo, performed in the Abadía Theatre some months
ago, he already did away with music altogether, pitting his dance against geometry, material
textures, stacks of wooden or metal chairs and other artistic distributions of the most daring kind.
Now he goes various steps further and mixes Vicente Escudero with Pina Bausch into his

conceptual line of dance, combining the most consistent tradition with the freest vanguard,
emotion with mathematical rigour, humour with tenderness.
In a theatre which has grown used to seeing the newest, most innovative proposals, the public –
who have filled the house every night – have been fascinated by the originality and daring of an
aesthetic proposition which does away with all convention, showing that a quartet made up of an
experimental dancer, a deep, profound singer, a contemporary pianist and a clapping Jack-of –alltrades
is not only possible but is in fact highly desirable. La Curva’s blend of popular music,
classical music, and dance has caused upheaval in the peaceful Swiss town so well-placed in the
world of Dance thanks to figures such as Maurice Bejart, Sergei Diaghilev, Serge Lifar and so many
more. (...).
(Juan Angel Vela del Campo, DIVERDI, january 2011)
Israel Galván breaks the schemes of the dance in a continuous gestural sublimation that extracts
the essence of flamenco from a corporal unexpected development and a deep creativity. Nobody
can remain indifferent before his art, Israel is different, is incomparable.
(Ramón Rodó Sellés, LA VANGUARDIA, 05/07/2010)
Known as an avant-garde force in Spain, Mr. Galván is postmodern by typical flamenco standards.
He strips flamenco of its histrionic showbiz status.
He is seductive without trying to be, and if this is what new flamenco means, bring it on.
(Gia Kourlas, THE NEW YORK TIMES, 19/06/2008)
Israel Galván treats flamenco dance with the audacity of a lover. He destroys the gesture, moving
as a bird, he leaves walking. Sometimes he flies.
Israel Galván offers himself the luxury of irony. His own body is not flamenco: it turns into
flamenco.
He helps us to understand, to live and to think the ignorance of the future. In the perfection of
rhythm and time that can be heard because we can see them.
(Francis Marmande, LE MONDE, 10/05/2007)
He does not deserve less than to be compared with Picasso, Nijinsky or Escudero. Since he has
found in fragmentation, deconstruction, deformation of lines, and in the use of internal and
external stimuli, the transmission channel of such a complicated thing. The intelligence to describe
the whole mystery of this feast of death: art and money, beauty and sacrifice, barbarity and label.
His circumstances and his emotional temperature. I finally understand what can’t be explained.
(Julia Martín, EL MUNDO, 22/07/2005)

Technical crew on tour:
Premiered on December 7 th 2010
in the Charles Apothéloz hall
of the Vidy Theater in Lausanne (Switzerland)
Running time: 75 minutes aprox.
www.israelgalvan.com
Rubén Camacho (lights)
Pedro León (sound)
Pablo Pujol (props and technical coordination)
+ road manager

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