BADALONA, Spain – In a makeshift dance studio in an industrial warehouse, flamenco dancer Miguel Fernández Ribas, known as El Yiyo, practiced his moves next to a pile of pink and orange synthetic blankets his father sells in local street markets.
He lives just a few minutes’ walk from the warehouse with relatives and friends who are part of the Roma community in Badalona, a city north of Barcelona.
It’s a gritty working-class neighborhood far from the Teatro Real opera house in Madrid, where El Yiyo made his debut in November and performed with such energy that he broke the heel of his boot. Undaunted, he threw off his boots and finished the act barefoot.
“It’s unfortunate to break a heel, but I didn’t feel like it was a serious crisis because I always improvised,” he said in an interview in Badalona.
At the age of 24, El Yiyo belongs to a new generation of flamenco artists, some of whom push the boundaries of traditional Spanish music and dance style by combining it with other genres.
While traditional flamenco is the cornerstone of an El Yiyo performance, it is self-taught and combines the genre with elements of contemporary dance: “Whatever can inspire me,” he said. Such a mix comes at a time when Spain has been debating what constitutes real flamenco, reinforced by the success of the singer Rosalía, who has become one of the country’s leading music exporters by adding a flamenco touch to pop music confers.
As a Roma, El Yiyo belongs to the community whose members present themselves as guardians of Spanish flamenco culture. Rosalía, who is not Roma, has been criticized as a kidnapper of tradition. But El Yiyo does not want to get involved in disputes over cultural appropriation.
“I really don’t understand this debate between purists and modernists because even if you can find reasons to argue that Rosalía doesn’t really do flamenco, there is no reason to deny her originality and talent,” said El Yiyo.
“I can dance classical flamenco if I am asked to. But I want my dance to be more open, ”he added. “I want inspiration from anyone who can help me dance better, be it Michael Jackson or a kid on my street trying a nice little move.”
El Yiyo said he was proud of Roma culture, but that flamenco had also long been enriched by non-Gypsy artists, such as guitarist Paco de Lucía, who also helped create a six-sided Peruvian box, the cajón to make flamenco percussion a staple. Being Roma was just an asset and relevant to flamenco, El Yiyo said, “in the sense that we start with flamenco in our DNA.”
After a brief pause, he added, “I really don’t want to make a race statement by talking about my DNA, but I mean that I have never attended a family event that my parents, uncles and cousins have not attended weren’t clapping, singing or dancing flamenco – and that doesn’t happen in every family in Spain. “
He grew up surrounded by the sounds of flamenco, but he really learned to dance by watching it online, he said. His biggest idol, he said, was Michael Jackson, whose movements he would repeat as a child, as well as those of Fred Astaire and other Hollywood actors he spotted on YouTube.
“I was born into the technology generation. I’m a YouTuber who learned more by dancing in front of a screen than in front of a mirror, ”El Yiyo said. “I didn’t have a great teacher who made me a good flamenco dancer, but I was fortunate to have a family who always loved flamenco.”
Juan Lloria, a journalist who covers flamenco for Onda Cero, a Spanish radio station, said El Yiyo was not Spain’s only self-taught flamenco artist, but there were certainly very few who did not have at least one professional artist as an example follow in their family.
“When I see El Yiyo, I see someone who has studied on the street,” he said with real energy and spontaneity.
In December, El Yiyo traveled to Valencia to give one of the few stage performances he had been able to plan since March when the pandemic brought cultural life to a standstill in Spain. His show at the Talia Theater was sold out – or at least the 50 percent of the seats that could be filled under local coronavirus rules.
Partly due to the limitations, El Yiyo presented a scaled-down version of its latest production. He danced alone, accompanied by only three musicians and without his usual backup dancers and his large orchestra.
El Yiyo went on stage wearing a silver jacket and a black fedora that covered his face and looked a bit like his hero. For much of his opening dance he seemed to slide smoothly across the floorboards, but he suddenly jumped in front of the stage and hit his feet on landing, causing the audience to collectively gasp. From then on, every break in the show was greeted with enthusiastic applause and shouts of “Olé!”
“I have to feel like I’m setting my audience on fire,” said El Yiyo after the show. “I need to let her forget everything else that’s going on for at least an hour, especially amid this pandemic.”
In some of his recent shows, El Yiyo has appeared with his two brothers Ricardo, 20, known as El Tete, and Sebastián, 13, who uses the stage name El Chino.
“We all have the same hair and the same face, but I think we are really very different when it comes to our dancing,” El Tete said in an interview. “Our older brother is pure energy and has horse power, while I think I’m a little more elegant.”
He added that the sibling relationship “is clearly competitive, but I think in a healthy way that motivates each of us to dance at our best.”
El Yiyo sounded good at the competition too, insisting that the coronavirus should unite, not separate, artists who are now facing a second season of canceled shows. Aside from the economic impact, it is difficult to convey the essence of flamenco without having an audience and feeding on its reactions.
Even when he sat down for an interview, El Yiyo continued to fidget, tapping the palm of his hand on his thigh to a flamenco rhythm that apparently sounded in his head.
“Of course there is a lot of technique in my dancing,” he said. “But flamenco is really about letting all sensations flow through your veins.”
