Noche Flamenca
Dan Downing
I first experienced Flamenco up-close-and-personal in a restaurant-theatre in Madrid in May of 2000. I got to spend the better part of a week there on a business trip with two business colleagues and their wives. Linda had been invited to come also, but being the middle of the school year, she had to decline.
WeÃd been seated at a table maybe 15 feet from the raised stage, and feasted on tapas and local fare before the show came on. Over the next hour or so, four men, dressed plainly in blacks and browns, and five women in colorful, flowing, gypsy outfits, created and wrapped around us an organic experience that was less choreography and performance than genuine outpouring of emotion. It was, for me, a transcendent experience. It left me intoxicated, shaking, unable to communicate the feeling to my colleagues, and aching for Linda to be there sharing it with me.
Tonight I finally got to share with her this ancient Spanish art form. Our orchestra seats in Row G at the Emerson Majestic Theatre placed us as nearly as close to the stage as I had been in Madrid.
I read to Linda from the Playbill before curtain time. ìFlamenco is a storm of dance, song, and acoustic guitar, set to a lively beat, inside of which the dancer-singers improvise, using their bodies as instruments, bellowing and tapping out a wail of human suffering and grief that is the cultural root of this 15th-century Andalusian genre.î
But no words are adequate to convey the whirling-dervish-cum-tap-dancing, deep bass male cante, staccato clapping, accompanied by impeccably strummed guitar chords, and accented by ìallez!î as they cheer each other on, that is the live event.
Linda loved it. And agreed that our next vacation should be to Spain.
For those intrigued, Flamenco Festival 2004 will bring an Andalusian dance troupe to the Majestic at the end of January.
LetÃs all go!
Nice surprise to wake up to, Dan.
Loved the description, ending with “It left me intoxicated, shaking, unable to communicate the feeling to my colleagues, and aching for Linda to be there sharing it with me.” Left me wanting to know more about those feelings.
How about instead of going to the Flamenco Festival, we all accompany you to Spain?
Comment by Michael — October 5, 2003 @ 9:46 am
Hi Dan,
Loved you rendition on flamenco dancing. I’ve been acquainted with it for a long time and
Cris is crazy about flamenco! Cris has always admired the rythms, steps, graceful hand and arm twirls, clapping and above all “el porte”, the confident way the women carry themselves, their strong straight backs bending and swaying so easily! Hey, what is not to like! Of course, the Cante hondo, the yearning, and suffering, in part due to the homelessness and marginality of the gypsies, make this the soul of Spanish music. Decimos “tiene duende”…(instinct?devil?nature?)
I’m sure you’ve heard modern “rumba flamenca”, a mixed and modified music that has been around for about 20 years. Meche and Mari Carmen do modern modified steps, which is exemplified in the music of the Gypsy Kings (they’ve been around for over a dozen years, now), and a bunch of other groups.
Flamenco dances are part of the mystique of Southern Spain… remember that the North AFricans Arabs conquered and stayed in Spain for 700 years. That is a whooping long time! Imagine how embedded Arab culture is in Spain! Not to mention the darker features, different speech accent,and architectural details that were transposed to Mexico and all our southern American countries, food (dates, olives, etc), etc. form part of the richness! Vamos a Sevilla!
I can understand why you were so moved… Appreciation of beauty is hard to explain, I usually mist up and choke and Chet reaches over and caresses my hand…he understands! But hermanito, you are a writer.. not hard for you to express emotion with words!
Love you.
Hope you are over your cold!
Lil
Comment by Lilly — October 5, 2003 @ 1:24 pm
Hermanita, your commentary adds a beautiful historical and cultural perspective. Thanks for sharing.
I’m going to look up The Gypsy Kings, and play my other Flamenco CDs tonight for Polly.
Comment by Dan — October 5, 2003 @ 1:47 pm
Another great reason to visit Spain! I’ll pass your story on to my daughter, Katie, who’s in a Spanish dorm at UMd, and wants to exercise her 6-odd years of Spanish someplace where they speak it fluently.
Allez! Allez!
–Ed
Comment by ed — October 6, 2003 @ 4:20 pm
Ed,
Is katie the partying type? A *must* in Madrid. The yout there go to work around 10, lunch at 3, work til 7 or 8, dinner at 11, party til 3, then do it all over again. It’s true. I *saw* this!
Comment by Dan — October 6, 2003 @ 5:10 pm