Escuelas taurinas
One of the programmes on the pay channel Plaza Toros TV that I’ve been enjoying over the past few weeks has been a series on escuelas taurinas.
The series, hosted by former matador Eduardo Dávila Miura, has a standard format, doubtless influenced by programmes like ‘MasterChef’, albeit with no competitive element. Firstly, the viewer is introduced to the escuela being featured, its director and some of its pupils. Often, the escuela will be shown practising at a famous local landmark. Then a matador de toros (or matadora in Cristina Sánchez’s case) is introduced who takes questions from the pupils and advises them on executing a particular pass. Three pupils are then chosen to join the matador in a tienta the next day. The rest of the programme is based en el campo, where Dávila Miura interviews the ganadero and then watches the three youngsters torear, each with a becerra to themselves, receiving advice from the professionals present, before finally the guest matador performs with a fourth animal.
Apart from giving the aficionado insight into the different schools and their teaching methods and an early view of youngsters who may become more familiar names over the next few years, you are left with an abiding impression of the strength of interest in the corrida amongst the pupils - boys and girls of various ages - the impact on them of having a visit from a practising or recent matador de toros, and their own determination to master the art of toreo as well as they possibly can. It’s an uplifting experience, particularly at a time when few festejos have been taking place.
Escuelas taurinas have been criticised for churning out toreros of a similar ilk, but nowadays they are the main starting place for budding bullfighters. Everyone has to pick up the fundamentals somewhere, and arguably personality and style are elements that develop over time in any case and cannot generally be expected to be in place from day one.
A recent critic of escuelas taurinas is Morante de la Puebla: “I’m very against them,” he said during a recent radio programme. “Toreros are born in the street, helped by the banderillero del pueblo, just as it’s always been.”
On hearing this, I was reminded of a morning in Santander not so long ago, when it was announced that Morante would be coming to the bullring to assist pupils of the city’s bullfight school. I’m not sure Morante got much further than the callejón. As soon as he appeared, he was surrounded by adults wanting a word or a photograph, while the children carried on practising toreo in the arena. Although he could have insisted on stepping out onto the sand if he had wished, there was not one word of instruction from the matador, indeed hardly a look in the chidren’s direction, and after a while he left, the pupils no wiser than before. In the circumstances, I was impressed by the youngsters’ determination to keep on practising toreo, just as I was dismayed by Morante’s behaviour.