Flamenco

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I went to my first live Flamenco show earlier this week. Flamenco is a form of baila y música (dance and music). It is known throughout Spain, but is only native to the region of Andalusía. It has many Arabic and Gypsy influences. Flamenco shows usually include a guitar player, a singer, and a dancer.

I went with a group of friends from school. The bar that it was held at was at the entrance to the Albeicin. When you walked in, it just seemed like a normal bar, but as you continued to walk in, it kind of looked like you were in a cave. The show first started out with a singer and a guitar player. The singer was a man that looked like he was in his early to mid 80's, and the guitar player was a younger guy. I wasn't really sure what to expect, because I had never heard, or seen Flamenco before. I highly recommend that you look it up on youtube. It's not lyrical singing that we are used to, there is a lot of vibrato, and it's loud. It was amazing to see this old man sing like that. He then got up and started dancing.

*fun fact: Age is perceived very differently here than in the US. Here, age isn't measured by a number, it's measured by how old your spirit is. If you are an "old" person, but have a young spirit, you are considered young.

The dancing part of Flamenco is very beautiful. It's full of passion (just like the Spanish culture). When the dancer came to the stage she was dressed in a typical Flamenco dress. She never smiled, and never looked at the audience. Flamenco dancing uses a lot of hand movements, and the only way I can explain the foot work is to relate it to tap dancing, but it's nothing like tap dancing. It's very complicated, but beautiful.

There is also clapping that goes along with the music and dance. The rhythm is very complicated, and I don't think I'd be able to imitate it. It's very rhythmic, and you can really hear and see the Arabic influence.

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Photos

CIMG0914
The singer

CIMG0916
Singer and dancer

CIMG0917
dancer

Comments

[colette]

Sounds fun
Hi Katie- wow, it sounds wonderful. It's cold here, 8 below to be exact. Bob and your dad did some male bonding yesterday. I'm glad it's the weekend. Time to relax and sit back. Keep up the good work.