Don't Tell Me You're Too Old To Dance | The Weekly Letra
Don’t tell me you’re too old to dance.
Because Tía Curra, who you’ll see dancing in the video below, was in her late seventies when I filmed it.
I know you’re going to love her signature move at the end where she taps her tummy with the palm of her hand to the compás.
But first, here’s a bulerías letra referencing La Calle Nueva, one of the most, if not the most, historically important flamenco streets located in the Santiago neighborhood of Jerez.
Following the letra and video you’ll learn about La Calle Nueva, New Street, which I chose not to translate in the verse due to its historical significance.
Bulerías
Traditional
En La Calle Nueva
hay un almacén
que vende arenque
manteca y café
On Calle Nueva
there’s a store
where they sell herring
butter and coffee
Here’s that video I took on the Flamenco Tour in the spring of 2015 of Luís El Zambo singing for Tía Curra with Domingo Rubichi on guitar, and Zorri (can you spot him?) playing palmas.
I apologize for the poor quality. We were sitting up in the balcony (an area usually reserved for members of the peña. We ran into Zorri there before the show and seeing how crowded it was due to the Zambos, he hooked us up with some VIP seats up there.
¡Olé!
This is the second letra he sings 20 seconds in.
Tía Curra
You can learn more about Tía Curra and her experience growing up on Calle Nueva and in the farms she worked at with her family for months at a time outside of Jerez in this article from the Diario de Jerez from September of 2018 when she was just turning eighty.
She talks about how she’s been dancing since before she was born as her mom danced when she was pregnant but that the first time she got on stage was at the age of fifty seven as her husband wouldn’t allow her to dance professionally.
She and her family talk about different dance styles, her very personalized style, and one of her signature moves, keeping rhythm with her hand on her stomach, and people who have adopted this move.
Here’s her grandson Enrique Remache singing on the very same stage you see her dancing upon in the video.
La Calle Nueva
Have you heard other letras mentioning La Calle Nueva and wanted to know more?
Following is a short video from La Voz del Sur talking about the history of this famous street.
We hear from neighbors who grew up on the street, even the current owner of El Almacén, the store, talking about how flamenco used to thrive there and how most people have now moved away leaving many buildings in ruins.
They talk about the communal homes (casas de vecinos) where thirty to fifty working class (mostly Roma) people may have lived together and formed spontaneous flamenco juergas that went on throughout the night.
They talk about the important flamenco families who lived on the street, such as Fernando Terremoto and Tío José de Paula and legendary flamencos, such as Camarón, who visited often.
If you don’t understand Spanish, you can opt for subtitled captions in English by clicking the settings wheel on the bottom left . . .
You can read the article that goes more in-depth about it in La Voz del Sur here. (It’s in Spanish but you Google will translate the whole article for you if you use the Chrome browser. The translation is not ideal with many incorrect words, but it gives you the gist.)
Now Tell Me
What’s your favorite move from the video? Let me know in the comments below.