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
From Jerez last fall ...
About flamenco and Jerez and what I'm doing here and what I want to learn here.
And I set some intentions for the week.
I had a few.
To observe people dancing bulerías. In class and out. Anywhere. Especially people whose dancing I liked.
To watch them, really watch them. And to notice what was happening.
Here is a letra por bulerías and a video of Paco de Lucía & Camarón de la Isla.
“Paco se fue,”
That is what it said.
Oh my God,
Paco de Lucía passed away.
...
I want to tell you about the time I met Paco.
It was also the first time I met my boyfriend.
And I think it was the first time I saw real flamenco in the US after having returned from that first trip to Spain.
Today, tangos.
Tangos de Camarón
El aire
Yo quisiera ser el aire
pa ponerme a tu vera
y no lo note nadie
The air
I would like to be the air
so that I could be by your side
without anyone noticing
Tengo un secreto.
I’m
afraid
to go
to Spain.
But not for the usual reasons.
Below find a snippet of my journal from Jerez, a video of Mercedes Ruíz dancing bulerías, a letra por bulerías, and a short activity for you to do while watching the video.
October 30, 2013
I played bulerías to help me fall asleep during siesta time.
Bulerías with lots of palmas and jaleos of course.
Who does that?
Someone who is in Jerez I guess.
Someone who is in Jerez and just can't get enough. It's a good thing I'm going back.
I listened to one that I recorded at the peña last night.
I am often asked how to tie the knot on a pair of the castanets strings. Because it's not just an average every day knot. You can find out how at the end of this post.
Raise your hand if you tried to play the toque for the first sevillana, the one I posted last week.
And, as promised, below is how we play castanets for the second copla.
It's written in two different ways. The reason for that is here.
I find it nearly impossible to walk by a rosemary bush without touching it.
I love the smell it leaves on my fingers.
"I'll figure it out." Ricardo hears that a lot when he comes to Portland.
Over and over again he hears it. Namely in rehearsals.
Probably because there is always A LOT to figure out.
MUCHO.
"We'll figure it out."
He became kind of obsessed with the phrase on a past visit. I said it many times. Perhaps because I felt so overwhelmed.
When I wasn't saying it he'd ask me to remind him how to say it.
And then one night he asked how to spell it,
Dancing with castanets. It's something we do on Saturdays.
Four fingers moving on one hand
One finger moving on the other
Feet forming steps
Arms trying to follow
(at least we've taken out the hand movements)
This is what we do.
All the while trying to look good and stay in compás.
So far in class we've danced the first and most of the second sevillanas con castañuelas, and Pam asked if I would post the toques.
Today, a letra por bulerías and a video of La Macanita singing it.
Bulerías de Jerez
Popular
Te tienes que faltar
la alegría y el dinero
la salud y la libertad
Here’s a letra por soleá and a bulerías. Both are interpretations from Diego Camancho, "El Boquerón" of popular verses.
I saw him perform for the first time in 2011 in Jerez at the peña. He was having a good night, and I was told were were lucky. I saw him perform the next time I was there. Again, they said it was a good night.
This is about getting therapy accidentally.
Accidentally and without a lot of work.
It's something you can try too.
An excerpt from something I wrote last summer:
Thursday was tough. For various unforeseen reasons. I wanted to just stay home and feel sorry for myself.
But, I didn't.
Well, I did for a bit, but then I made myself go to class with Danica.
Fandangos de Huelva
Popular
Yo no digo que mi barca
sea la mejor del puerto
pero si digo que tiene
los mejores movimientos
que ninguna barca tiene
¡Felicidades!
Thank you 2013.
Welcome 2014.
Getting in can sometimes be the hardest part...
I told you that today I'd tell you about going to see Estrella Morente in Córdoba. So today I'll share a video of Estrella Morente and a song she sang at the show.
when she sang Volver as an encore.
A bit further down in the post you can see a video of her performing it and looking very beautiful.
She does it as a bulerías. I discovered that it was originally a tango, not the flamenco kind, the Argentinian kind, by Carlos Gardel and that the words were written by Alfredo Le Pera.
But first, about the show in Córdoba.
We spent just two days in Córdoba on the last trip.
Two days to see the city and one night to see Estrella Morente perform. I'll tell you about that on Friday.
The first visit was in 1998, the first time I went to Spain.
I went there after my sister left.
I went there by myself.
