Siderella - Le Carboneria, Seville
siderella
Siderella - Le Carboneria, Seville
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POF READERS please message me on POF thanks. The stage of Le Carboneria flamenco bar is very narrow and only slightly elevated . It is an intimate experience with the audience sitting a guitars length away from the performers . Rows of wooden benches are quickly filled by a diverse group of tourists, students, and die-hard flamenco fans. I squeeze into a space in the second row just as the show starts. The guitarist begins by introducing each of the performers. The dancer, tall and olive-skinned, wears an imposing scarlet and black taffeta dress. Her crop of jet black hair is swept into a lofty hive, accentuating her height. The singer sits quietly on a chair, his hands cupped loosely on his lap, head bowed, waiting for the first few bars of music before beginning his accompaniment. As the steady repeditive rhythm of the "bulerias" picks up tempo, he raises his hands dramatically to shoulder height, as if offering the audience his blessing. Then he voices the first notes of the song in an explosive warbling wail and in this small room the sound strikes the white adobe wall and bounces into the audience like a thunder bolt. We are all startled and delighted. Someone shouts "Ariba!" Then the flamenco dancer glides to the centre of the stage, her hands grasping the hem of her skirt. She raises a tanned muscular leg, holding it in mid air while remaining perfectly still as she waits for her cue. Suddenley she drives the wide heel of her black shoe hard into the wooden boards, triggering a whip crack that bounces across the tiled floor and reverberates beneath our skin. Behind me a woman jubilantly cries, "ole!"