Flamenco, a dance with a tap

Flamenco has for centuries been a major tourist attraction for visitors to Spain. Last week the dance with a tap and music was an attraction for Abuja residents and guests to the capital city. Flamenco is a style of music and dance which is also known with  some North African countries. Along with its Spaniards […]

Flamenco has for centuries been a major tourist attraction for visitors to Spain. Last week the dance with a tap and music was an attraction for Abuja residents and guests to the capital city.

Flamenco is a style of music and dance which is also known with  some North African countries. Along with its Spaniards origins, Gypsy, Byzantinne, Sephardic and Moorish elements have often been cited as influences in the development of Flamenco.

It has frequently been asserted that these influences coalesced near the end of the Reconquista in the 15th Century. The origins of the word Flamenco are unclear as it was not recorded until the 18th Century.

Flamenco is expressed through the tripple vehicles of dance, music, and song and offers physical, mental, and emotional benefits. It is believed to relieve stress, as a result of the concentration needed for repetitive movement and improve balance, known to deteriorate with age and memory loss in older adults; Flamenco continually challenges their brains through learning about new cultures, new dances and new songs.

Records have it that “most of the roots of Flamenco can be traced to the rich blend of liturgical and secular music from the East which met the gypsies when they came to the Andalusian region in southern Spain in the 15th century. Andalusia was the breeding ground for the continued development and mixing of Spanish folk music and for the Flamenco song.

“In the 10th century, about a million people lived in the city of Cordoba – an incredible blend of races and nationalities, of folk groups with different life styles, languages and cultures. Jews, Arabs, Berbers and Moors lived separately in their ghettos or districts; others, with a higher material standard lived in palaces. Integration between the immigrants and the native population was, however, unavoidable, and since that time the Andalusian people have been an indistinguishable union of these races. During the following centuries, music and dance developed from this union.”

Flamenco is popularly depicted as being the music of Andalusian gitanos (gypsies) but historically its roots are in mainstream Andalusian society, beginning in the 18th Century.

Traditional Flamenco artists never received any formal training: they learned by listening and watching relatives, friends and neighbors. Some artists are still self-taught, but nowadays, it is more usual for dancers and guitarists (and sometimes even singers) to be professionally trained. Some guitarists can even read music and study others styles like classical guitar or jazz, and many dancers take courses in contemporary dance or ballet as well as flamenco.

Flamenco occurs in three settings – the traditional juerga, in small-scale cabaret or concert venues and in the theatre.

The juerga is an informal, spontaneous gitano gathering (rather like a jazz “jam session”). This can include dancing, singing, palmas (hand clapping), or simply pounding in rhythm on an old orange crate or a table. Flamenco, in this context, is organic and dynamic: it adapts to the local talent, instrumentation, and mood of the audience. This context invites comparison with other creation of a dispossessed class, the blues. Flamenco has been referred to as The Gypsy Blues, or even the European Blues as a means of providing a frame of reference to those new to the genre.

One tradition remains firmly in place: the cantaores (singers) are the heart and soul of the performance. A Peña Flamenca is a meeting place or grouping of Flamenco musicians or artists. There are also “tablaos”, establishments that developed during the 1960s throughout Spain replacing the “café cantante.” The tablaos may have their own company of performers for each show. Many internationally renowned artists have started their careers in “tablaos flamencos”, like the famous singer Miguel Poveda who began in El Cordobés, Barcelona.

The professional concert is more formal. A traditional singing performance has only a singer and one guitar, while a dance concert usually includes two or three guitars, one or more singers (singing in turns, as flamenco cantaors sing solo), and one or more dancers. One of the singers may play the cajon if there is no dedicated cajon player, and all performers will play palmas even if there are dedicated palmeros. The so-called Nuevo Flamenco (New flamenco) may include flutes or saxophones, piano or other keyboards, or even the bass guitar and the electric guitar. Camarón de la Isla was one artist who popularised this style.

Finally, there is the theatrical presentation of flamenco, which uses flamenco technique and music but is closer in presentation to a ballet performance.

Flamenco music styles are called palos. Songs are classified into palos based on criteria such as basic rhythmic pattern, mode, chord progression, form of the stanza, and geographic origin. There are traditions associated with each palo. Some of the forms are sung unaccompanied, while others usually have guitar or other accompaniments. Some forms are danced while others are not. Some are the reserve of men and others of women, while some may be performed by either. There are over fifty different palos flamenco, although some are rarely performed.

With additional information from Wikipedia.