How to dance flamenco, flamenco travel in Spain, flamenco dance students and their experiences, interviews with flamenco artists, translations of flamenco letras (songs) from Spanish to English
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Letras
We were all blown away by Jesús Carmona and Company's performance here in Portland this week, "I can't stop thinking about it," one student wrote me, "The best performance I attended in my entire life. Heart stopping," another said. You can see pictures from the evening and a video below.
Now, here's a letra from the show:
Flamenco artist Antonia 'La Negra' passed away earlier this week.
Below watch a video of her singing bulerías to her daughter, and here is one of the coletillas you'll hear:
Bulerías
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A nadie quiero
Mientras que viva mi compañero
The Festival de Jerez is in full swing right now, so today I'll share with you a video from there taken earlier this week of Ana Morales with Juan José Amador singing her this letra:
Today, to wrap up love month, a song that falls on the tragic side of love.
Following the words you'll find a collection of videos of live interpretations from Pepe de Lucía to La Macanita.
Here's LOVE Month Letra # 3 ...
Tientos
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Pasaba toda la noche
sentaita en mi ventana
qué larga se hacía la hora
viendo que tú no llegabas
It's the second week of LOVE letras!
Here's the chorus to Vicente Amigo's Enamorao followed by a video of Alba Heredia when she was little.
Enamorao enamorao
lo que a mi me está pasando…
It's LOVE month ...
Here's a soleá por bulerías letra to start February off right along with a video of Saray García dancing at Casa Patas.
Another soleá (the next letra) and a video of Beatríz Martín.
Soleá
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En todas las partes del mundo
sale el sol cuando es de día
es que a mi me sale de noche
hasta el sol está en contra mía
This week's letra comes at the request of a reader. She is learning a soleá to this music and wanted to know the words.
Here is the first letra:
Soleá
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Por qué no te levantas tempranito
que al castillito quiero ir
me han dicho que con el alba
se oye el eco de Joaquín el de la Paula
This week's letra made me think of an experience I had years ago which has nothing to do with flamenco. It has to do with dishonesty and fear. It started with a question, which led to a lie, which in turn led to facing a fear. The facing fear part actually helped prepare me for flamenco where I'm forced to confront my fears over and over again. To my surprise, all of the practice meeting my fears in flamenco has only made it easier to do so in life outside of the dance.
More on that in a minute, but first let's take a look at the letra and watch a video of Mercedes Ruíz, our teacher on the Flamenco Tour to Jerez, dancing caña, all in red, with bata and mantón.
Caña
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Subí a la alta montaña
buscando leña pa’ el fuego
como no la encontraba
al valle bajé de nuevo
Here's one more bulerías from Manuel Moneo. Watch him relaxing and laughing with his friends while singing (con mucho arte) below.
Bulerías
Qué malita fue tu madre
A ti te ha cortao todo el pelo
y a mi me ha tirao a la calle
Today I wrap up the flamenco cuplé series with a bonus post, one more song, and a few more videos:
Un Compromiso
Alfredo García Segura y Gregorio García Segura
Sin firmar un documento,
ni mediar un previo aviso,
sin hablarnos, ni mirarnos
ha nacío un compromiso.
Flamenco singer Manuel Moneo passed away earlier this week.
The huge mural of him that you see in the picture above was steps away from where we study bulerías on the Flamenco Tour to Jerez in the historic flamenco neighborhood of San Miguel. (You can see a video on the making of the mural below.)
Manuel was known for his siguiriyas and soleá. Here you can watch him singing martinete in Carlos Saura's movie, Flamenco.
~ Manuel Moneo
He talks about this concept in the video interview below where you'll not only hear some of his story but also learn about the importance of el Barrio San Miguel, La Plazuela, to flamenco.
But first, let's listen to him sing por bulerías (con mucho arte). Here is one of the letras you'll hear:
You've heard many examples of different artists singing cuplés in the previous four posts. Now it's time to see how one dances to a cuplé, and I've got one of the best possible examples for you, Carmen Herrera. Following the video I'll talk about how to dance bulerías to a cuplé then share one of the songs you'll hear and its translation
Today I share with you a video of Manuel Lombo doing his thing at a juerga in Spain. Manuel begins singing letras then moves to cuplés, with plenty of dancing in-between. He is backed by a chorus of jaleos and palmas that help us to feel the energy in the room.
You've now learned what a cuplé por bulerías is, you've seen the transformation of popular song to cuplé, and today I want to show you one more example. It's Adela la Chaqueta's interpretation of Voy a Perder La Cabeza Por Tu Amor. (I know you'll enjoy her opening and closing dance moves, and if dancing is your thing, stick around because the next two posts will have plenty of that.)
For this second installment of the flamenco cuplé series, I want to show you the transformation of a song from its original form into a cuplé por bulerías. So here is a song famously interpreted by Rocío Jurado. First watch her sing it directly to Lola Flores (watch it all the way through to see what happens between the two of them at the end) then see how Fernanda de Utrera adapts it as a cuplé por bulerías.
Se Nos Rompió El Amor
Maria Alejandra Alvarez-Beigbeder Casas / Manuel Alvarez-Beigbeder Perez
Se nos rompió el amor
de tanto usarlo.
De tanto loco abrazo
sin medida.
In the first installment of the flamenco cuplé series I'll explain what a cuplé is and show you a video example. But let's begin by looking at this one that Ani sang one day during bulerías class on the Flamenco Tour to Jerez. It was so pretty, so I asked her to tell me the words:
¿Quién se ha llevao mi amor?
¿Quién me ha dejao sin nada?
¿Quién se ha llevao todo el sol
que entraba por mi ventana?
Here's a caña letra for you followed by a video of Jesús Carmona (who is coming to Portland in the spring for a show and workshops) dancing.
Caña
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Yo soy como un libro abierto
todo el mundo puede leerme
tú siempre me estás leyendo
pero no has llegado a comprenderme
Malagueñas
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Hincaíto de rodillas
a mi Dios me encomendé
qué remedio buscaría
para olvidar yo tu querer
y me dijo que no lo había
