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
Flamenco lover, this post is dedicated to you.
Last week I asked some students what they loved about flamenco. (I asked myself too.) Our answers became the list below. Following the list you'll find the video that inspired one reader to begin dancing flamenco along with a downloadable valentine for you.
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
Popular
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
Do you have a hard time finding the motivation to practice?
I hear you.
. . . And I want to help!
The following ideas will not only spice up your practice but will also make you a better dancer. Apply them to a full choreography, part of a dance, a combination, or even a single step.
1. Do it while singing (or humming) the melody.
OBJECTIVE: Connect the music to the dance. Move your focus away from the steps. Improve your memory. Improve your focus.
2. Do one part over and over.
OBJECTIVE: Solidify and perfect a given part.
3. Do it facing different directions in the room.
OBJECTIVE: Stop relying on the mirror. Focus. Test your knowledge of the dance. Learn to adapt to different situations. Prepare for performance.
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
Popular
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
Popular
Subí a la alta montaña
buscando leña pa’ el fuego
como no la encontraba
al valle bajé de nuevo
Have you given any thought to what you want to get out of your flamenco experience this year? If it has to do with making your hands look better, read on, for today I'll tell you about two common mistakes I see with flamenco hand movements and how to fix them. I'll also show you a video of Mercedes Ruíz, our teacher on the Flamenco Tour to Jerez, demonstrating how to move the hands correctly.
Sometimes we get so focused on learning the steps that we neglect details like hand movements. “I’ll get to it later,” we say. We may think we don't have time, that it’s not that important, or find it boring.
The good news is that there is not one right way to move the hands. Like other stylistic elements of flamenco dance, there is plenty of room for individuality in this area. Watch a few video clips of different professional dancers, and you'll see how personal hand and finger movements tend to be. Matilde Coral reminds her students to make their hands look like doves, Mercedes reminds us to open and use every finger.
While there may not be one right way to move the hands, there are wrong ways ...
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
Want to amp up your flamenco progress in 2018?
Here’s a two part formula to get you going:
“The more reflective you are, the more effective you are,” Hall & Simeral
Consider the past year in flamenco, and ask yourself:
And...
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
Popular
Yo soy como un libro abierto
todo el mundo puede leerme
tú siempre me estás leyendo
pero no has llegado a comprenderme
Malagueñas
Popular
Hincaíto de rodillas
a mi Dios me encomendé
qué remedio buscaría
para olvidar yo tu querer
y me dijo que no lo había
One more Canastera for you to watch, María Terremoto. I can't stop listening to it, especially this coletilla she frames everything with (From Paco de Lucia's Almonte ... I love this chorus so much that I've included two other video versions following hers for you to check out.)
En la marisma con la candela…
Cantan por Huelva y a la Pastora los almonteños
y el corazón se me estremeció en el alma
cogí la manta la eche en el suelo
