The movement of his hands cuts the air.
The almost sepulchral silence is interrupted by the constant
flash
of the camera.
Triana Ramos (Talavera de la Reina, Toledo, 1997) performs an improvised choreography in a tablao in the La Macarena neighborhood, in Seville, for the photographs that accompany this report.
She has arrived late for the appointment, but she has an excuse.
She spent the morning touring the city looking for some flamenco dresses and bridal cloaks.
“I wanted something that wasn't too classic, that represented me better,” she says.
It's twelve in the morning and she's been awake since 5:30.
To prepare everything, she says.
In recent years she has been the choreographer of the video clip
Amor amé
by David Bisbal, of Rosalía's
Motomami World Tour
, of Cruzcampo's latest campaign and has danced in the 2022 UEFA Europa League final, in addition to having performed on tablaos most reputable in Spain.
After a long photo session, Triana Ramos confesses that she doesn't remember what the first flamenco song she heard was, but she does have a
flashback
of the first time she was in front of a tablao.
“It was in Malaga, at the tablao where my mother [dancer Carmen Sánchez] worked before she had me.”
She was barely a few years old, but it was then that her passion for flamenco invaded her.
“Flamenco captivates because it has the ability to connect and move you, even if as a spectator you don't understand this style,” says Triana Ramos from Toledo.
Laura Leon
The choreographer recreates a dance at the Peña Cultural Flamenca Torres Macarena, in Seville, the cradle of flamenco.
Laura Leon
Triana Ramos wears a flamenco dress by Alejandro Santizo and a wedding mantle by Juan Foronda.Laura León
At 18 he opted for dancing.
Her mother, who taught her to dance at an academy in Talavera de la Reina, warned her about the problems of this world.
The ego, the strong personalities of the artists, the difficulty of making a living from this discipline… “Even so I wanted to take the risk,” she says.
She left her house, her parents and her friends and ventured towards her new life in Seville, the birthplace of flamenco, to begin her training as a dancer.
Only two years had passed since his arrival in the city when he received the
casting
that marked his career.
Seville was going to host the 2019 MTV EMA gala, which was held in November, and Ramos showed up to dance at the event.
He tried his luck—and was right—without knowing who the artist he would be on stage with was.
“In the first week of rehearsals I discovered that it was Rosalía,” he says.
“Then I told her and we both laughed.”
During the selection process, his father, Joaquín Ramos, who dedicated his life to bullfighting, suffered a heart attack—from which he was able to recover.
In an hour-long interview, Triana Ramos mentions it up to eight times.
Her admiration is revealed in her eyes.
In her voice, nostalgia.
“My parents' family was from Salamanca and my mother was going to stay alone with my father in Toledo.
They weren't going to have help,” she recalls.
It was in the hospital where she was recovering when her father told him to live her dream.
She kept her promise: she returned to Seville and performed at the MTV EMA gala.
A month after the event, she received a WhatsApp message saying that Rosalía wanted her to be her choreographer.
Triana Ramos, four years later, imitates the gesture that she made then.
She picks up the phone, looks at the screen, and locks it again.
“I thought it was a joke in very bad taste.
But my mother convinced me to find out more and I responded days later,” she recalls.
Since then, Ramos began preparing the singer's performance—which consisted of dancing a seguiriya, one of the oldest flamenco palos—for the 2020 Grammy Awards gala, which was held in Los Angeles.
There, Rosalía established herself as the first Spanish artist to win the award for best urban or alternative rock album for
El mal Quiero
.
But in July, seven months after his time in the United States, Joaquín Ramos died.
“That was the real turning point in my life.
His death has taught me in the worst way possible to see and face life from another perspective,” he reflects.
When he remembers that moment, a special moment is created.
It is shown as it is.
The empowered choreographer and dancer, and the twenty-something who lost her father too soon.
Triana Ramos, dancer and choreographer, at the Peña Flamenca Torre Macarena in SevilleLaura León
The dancer with an urban look. Laura León
Triana Ramos puts on makeup for the photo shoot.Laura León
After that emotional blow, he took refuge in his family and his work.
He says that flamenco was his lifesaver.
At his dances, he explains, she tried to reflect who she was, to show the truth about him.
“Flamenco captivates because, even if as a spectator you don't understand anything about this style, it has the ability to connect and move you,” she emphasizes.
And that, she emphasizes, is her goal in each dance: to be able to create an emotion in another person.
Months later, Triana Ramos was in charge of choreographing the
Motomami World Tour
.
There she mixed flamenco with more urban dances, and she created the now legendary Rosalía kick—which she recreates during the interview with innate ease.
After touring the stages and stadiums around the world with the Catalan singer, Ramos has ventured into her latest work,
Gitana
, Cruzcampo's advertising campaign.
In the video, to the sound of an unreleased bulería by Camarón de la Isla, she has designed a dance that revolves around the purest Andalusianism.
She is one of the young people who promulgates—like other artists like Caliphate ¾—the value of Andalusian roots and culture.
“The beautiful thing about this land and its people is that they know how to champion where they come from.
You must never lose that essence,” she says.
Andalusia has become her home.
At the end of the interview, he confesses.
Her dream is to become a dancer or choreographer in a Super Bowl.
"It's complicated but not impossible.
Why can't I get it?
I believe that with confidence, effort and a lot, a lot of work, I can get to where she wants me to go.
"I am the one who sets the limits for myself."
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