Flamenco is a genuine Southern Spanish art. It exists in three forms: el cante, the song, el baile, the dance, and la guitarra, the guitar playing. Gypsies are often credited with the "invention" of flamenco, and it is at least certain that they played an important part in its creation. But the popular songs and dances of Andalusia, and later, nine centuries of Muslim occupation also had a major influence on early Flamenco. El baile flamenco is a highly-expressive solo dance, known for its emotional sweeping of the arms and rhythmic stomping of the feet. The flamenco dances are improvised.
Stylistic origins
Andalusian (south of Spain), Gitano (gypsies), Mozarabic, Moorish, Sephardic, Byzantine, Italian cultures that existed in Andalusia prior to and after the Reconquest.
Cultural origins
Andalusia (South of Spain)
Typical instruments
Spanish Guitar, Flamenco guitar, palmas (hand claps) and cajón (boxed shaped drum played with hands)
Mainstream popularity
Sporadic except among Andalusians (south of Spain) and Gitanos (gypsies), mostly popular in Spain
History
Flamenco is a Spanish musical genre with strong, rhythmic undertones and is often accompanied with a similarly impassioned style of dance characterized by its powerful yet graceful execution, as well as its intricate hand and footwork.
Although considered part of the culture of Spain in general, flamenco actually originates from one region: Andalusia (South of Spain). The roots of flamenco are not precisely known, but it is generally acknowledged that flamenco grew out of the unique interplay of native Andalusian, Islamic, Sephardic, and Gypsy cultures that existed in Andalusia prior to and after the Reconquest. At the beginning of the VIII century, Muslims from Northern Africa occupied the Spanish peninsula. The Christian populations in the area soon initiated the conquest of the Muslim-occupied territories, and over a period of 800 years, they recovered and repopulated these territories. The Reconquest ended when the Catholic kings conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold.
Instruments
Some of the instruments used in Flamenco are the Flamenco guitar, Spanish guitar, Palmas (hand claps), and Cajón (boxed shaped drum played with hands).In addition to the percussion provided by the heels and balls of the feet striking the floor, castanets are sometimes held in the hands and clicked together rapidly to the rhythm of the music. Sometimes, folding fans are used for visual effect.
Flamenco dance
Flamenco is expressed through the toque -- the playing of the flamenco guitar (which is different from the classical guitar), the cante (singing), and the baile (dancing). El baile flamenco is a highly-expressive solo dance, known for its emotional sweeping of the arms and rhythmic stomping of the feet. While flamenco dancers (bailaores and bailaoras) invest a considerable amount of study and practice into their art form, the dances are not choreographed, but are improvised along the palo or rhythm.
Foreigners often think that the essence of flamenco is the dance. However, the heart of flamenco is the song (cante). Although to the uninitiated, flamenco seems totally extemporaneous, these cantes (songs) and bailes (dances) follow strict musical and poetic rules.
Cante flamenco can be categorized in a number of ways. First, a cante may be categorized according to whether it follows a strict rhythmic pattern ("compas") or follows a free rhythm ("libre"). Alegrías - Bulerias - Tangos - fandango- Farruca – Guajiras – Peteneras – Sevillana – Siguiriyas – Soleares – Tientos, etc
The verses (coplas) of these songs often are beautiful and concise poems, and the style of the flamenco copla was often imitated by Andalucian poets. Garcia Lorca is perhaps the best known of these poets. In the 1920s he, along with the composer Manuel de Falla and other intellectuals, crusaded to raise the status of flamenco as an art form and preserve its purity. But the future of flamenco is uncertain. Flamenco is tied to the conditions and culture of Andalusia in the past, and as Spain modernizes and integrates into the European community, it is questionable whether flamenco can survive the social and economic changes.
Cultural Celebrations
Every spring, the town of Seville (Southern Spain) throws a week-long party for over a million people! La Feria de Sevilla originally began as a cattle trading fair in 1847, and throughout the years it has evolved into an amazing round-the-clock spectacle of all that is Spanish. Seville is considered the centre of flamenco music and culture, also known as "Sevillana" because many of the composers and songs come from this Andalucian city.
Base camp for the Feria festivities is a temporary tent city, on the far side of the Rio Guadalquivir, called the Real de la Feria. This rectangular piece of land is about a mile long and 700 yards wide. The tents, called casetas, are made of brightly-coloured canvas and decorated with thousands of paper lanterns. While this set-up was originally created for the cattle market, today the casetas are impromptu dance halls and every night you'll find flamenco music and dancing from around 9pm to 6 or 7 the following morning. The women all wear spectacularly bright Gypsy-inspired flamenco dresses, inspiring everyone, young and old, to get on the dance floor.
http://www.flamenco-world.com/video/videos_guitar.htm
http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/flamenco/
http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/fiestas/feriadeabril.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamenco
Carmen Amaya
Carmen Amaya (November 2, 1913 – November 19, 1963) is one of the legends of flamenco dancing. She was born in the slum of Barcelona (Spain). She danced from the time she was 7 years old. She was a genius who revolutionized dancing as it used to be at the time. She also used to sing, but her skills as a bailaora eventually eclipsed her dimension as a cantaora. She never studied in a dance school. Her only teacher was her instinct. Her school was the street, where she sang and danced to earn some money. From the street, she went on to theatres, and from these she went on to the great stages in Madrid, in a meteoric rise, with a style and attitude that had never been seen before. In 1929, she made her debut in Paris, to warm acclaims and admiration for her dancing skill. When the Civil War started she left Spain and travelled all over the world, taking her artistry with her: Lisbon, London, Paris, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Uruguay, Venezuela and New York were all won over by her dancing, so that when she decided to return to Spain in 1947 she was already an international star, a status that she maintained until her death. Carmen Amaya also took part in several films, in which she progressively acquired greater prominence: they included "La hija de Juan Simón" (1935), "María de la O" (1936), alongside Pastora Imperio, "Sueños de gloria" (1944), "Vea a mi abogado" (1945) and "Los Tarantos" (1963). She was invited by Franklin Roosevelt to dance in the White House in 1944, and also by Harry S. Truman in 1953. Amaya is buried in the Cementiri del Sud-Oest on Barcelona's Montjuic. "She was from the race of the rebels, of those people who stray from the beaten track and ordinary rules, who only show that there is suffering in their dancing, like there is suffering in existence, and a rage for living. It is a dance that is marked by fire, whose thirst could only be quenched through death". Patrick Bensard, director and founder of the Cinémathèque of Dance in the French Cinémathèque.
