Andalucía is the home of Flamenco and so it would be silly not to experience it whilst I am here. Last weekend, some of the girls and I went to see a local show called "The Magic of Flamenco".
I wasn't sure what to expect and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It felt very authentic and gave me a great insight into the passion felt for Flamenco in the South of Spain.
The show opened with the stage bathed in an intense red light with a solo guitarist playing some, ever so Spanish sounding, melodies. Following this, a man who was quite clearly not a dancer (let's just say he blocked most of the light on stage) came on and began to sing. Now, I will admit, the singing takes a bit of getting used to - it isn't what we're used to in the UK - but it fits so well with the genuine Spanish ambience. Our only slight issue with this man was that every time he put a concerted effort into singing he contorted his face into a rather hilarious shape; cue fits of giggles from us - bloody tourists eh?
We were then treated to many different dances filled with passion and clearly buckets of talent.
The vibrations of the dancers' feet on the floor was so atmospheric but the effect is difficult to describe - it was amazing.
Having learnt about "duende" in sixth form drama lessons and pretending I knew what it meant, this was the first time I felt like I could understand it. I assure you if you're looking it up now, any descriptions of it sound very vague so you should just pop to Córdoba and experience it for yourself.
Stolen from Flamenco website is this description of the Flamenco recipe: "Flamenco is made up of four elements: Cante - Voice, Balie - Dance, Toque - Guitar, and the Jaleo, which roughly translated means 'hell-raising' and involves the hand clapping, foot stomping and shouts of encouragement." For me, what was incredible was how all of this came together to produce a fluid, engaging performance. It almost comes across as though this people met five minutes before and decided to have a bit of a jig. However it is more a delicate weaving of different rhythmic patterns: magic. I particularly enjoyed the "hell-raising" Jaleo - I became very fond of the man behind me who shouted "Olé!" every few minutes.
Sorry for the poor quality of the video, I was clearly too caught up in the passion to be a skilled camera-woman.
After the show we went for cocktails at a bar that overlooks the river. It was pretty busy but a lot more spacious than most of the places here so we really enjoyed it. Especially when the promoter gifted us some free bubbly! No complaints here!
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