WHAT IS FLAMENCO?

We want to share an interesting anecdote that happened to Mimo, who runs Tablao de Carmen, with some foreign guests who arrived at the tablao to catch the show already underway, through a hasty booking their hotel concierge had made in advance.

The jaleo — the shouts of encouragement — of the house flamenco ensemble had already begun.

Two cantaores (flamenco singers) and three seated bailaores (dancers) clapped the palmas (hand claps) while the singers took turns with the cante (singing) por bulerías, and the two tocaores (guitarists) strummed their guitars, just as the guests reached their table. They called the waiter, and in his absence Mimo came over to attend to them. In English, they explained that they didn’t want anything — they only wanted to understand what they were watching.

They kept asking insistently: “What is this? What is this?”

Her astonished answer was: “This is flamenco.”

And they asked again: “What is flamenco? Is this from here? Is it typical of here?”

Does Everyone Know What Flamenco Is?

For those who live close to flamenco and take for granted that almost everyone knows what it is (above all, imagining that those who come to Tablao de Carmen come to see flamenco), that guest’s question was disconcerting at first. Later on, that very same question revealed how necessary it is to be able to define what flamenco actually is.

In the words of Roberto Fratini, playwright and dance theorist, flamenco dance is like a caged tiger: a restless, watchful animal that never stops moving inside its cage. Its movements are precise, powerful and contained. That is flamenco dance — a contained force within the dancer that explodes on the stage of a tablao. The same could be said of flamenco guitar and flamenco singing.

It is worth noting that many foreign writers and journalists have been drawn to flamenco and have written or theorized about this art. One of the first books to speak about the Roma people, their culture and Andalusia is Carmen by Prosper Mérimée (this 1845 novel would become the basis for Bizet’s famous opera Carmen). Mérimée traveled to Spain and, fascinated by our country’s culture, met Countess María Manuela de Montijo, who told him the tragic story of a bandit hopelessly in love with a woman.

More recently, there are other examples of books written by foreigners, such as Corin Frayssinet-Savy, who documented an exhaustive study of the choreographic language of the dancer Israel Galván in her book Israel Galván, bailar el silencio.

Given that there is a great deal of literature on the subject, this time we aim to describe flamenco in a different way. So we start from a less conventional exercise than compiling what has already been written, and instead we pose more questions:

Is flamenco music?

Is flamenco one dance, or many?

How is flamenco sung?

Why does the flamenco guitar sound so different from other guitars?

Is flamenco Spanish?

What does it mean to “be flamenco”?

Why is there flamenco in Barcelona?

Why do the Roma feel flamenco as something so much their own?

What do flamencos say about flamencos?

Where is flamenco found? Where does flamenco come from?

Characteristics of Flamenco Art: Music, Dance and Culture

The term “art” defines flamenco as an artistic discipline. It gives it the breadth that the word implies.

The gesture of the hands of Adam and the Creator in the Sistine Chapel, or the gaze of the Mona Lisa, or the voice of Queen, or the winged and armless bust of the Winged Victory of Samothrace — all come from the hand of creators. Art comes from the creator and their circumstances; it is one of the few explanations that can be given of art, and the one that best explains the art of flamenco.

As a musical art, flamenco ranges from the purest, most solitary cante to compositions with hundreds of instruments: piano, cajón (a wooden box drum), saxophone, bass, cello, flute, Indian tabla, electronics. It has no limits. Flamenco is cante (song), it is toque (guitar playing), it is baile (dance)… it is the union between flamenco artists, live, always interacting, every second.

Choirs from all over the world collaborate with flamenco artists, singing por palos (in the flamenco song forms) that were originally accompanied only by hand claps, by the guitar, or by the blow of the hammer.

Flamenco dance is an artistic discipline that ranges from the most ancestral, improvised and raw dance to the utmost scenic sophistication. From the gestures of the ancient dances of southern Spain, all the great ballets of the world have drawn inspiration. The flamenco pose, like a bullfighter’s pase (pass), has become a symbol of the Spanish character.

Flamenco is beauty, it is personality, it is a gesture, and it is “feeling” in the strictest sense of the word. Flamenco art demands truth. There can be no façade. It requires attitude and presence.

The exact rhythm of the flamenco compás (rhythmic cycle) and the history of its origins inspire respect, seriousness and commitment. What has endured for centuries and been passed down from grandparents to grandchildren, from villages to suburbs, from urban neighborhoods to other countries, deserves a privileged place on the stages of art.

The art of flamenco is present in any corner that evokes the culture of this land.

And as art, flamenco will endure through the ages, because there is always something to sing, something to express.