Want to better understand how cante and baile work together in bulerías?

Check out this incredible video of José Mijita and Carmen Herrera at Peña la Bulería.

After the video I break down Carmen's dance to help you identify the different parts and see how her moves align with José's singing.

If you want to go even deeper to learn about how to dance to the cante, join us for a virtual bulerías workshop Sunday!

Before we look at that video, here’s something you’ll hear José sing:

Bulerías
Traditional

Tú na más quieres dinero gitana
y ahora me voy con mi mare gitana
a donde me quiera llevar

All you want is money, Gypsy woman
so now I’m leaving with my mother
wherever she wants to take me

You can hear José sing this coletilla at the very end in the video below as he and Carmen leave together.

¡Olé!

Do you notice how Carmen isn’t just following a choreography?⁣

She’s improvising.

See how she’s listening and responding to José’s cante?⁣

Let’s break it down:

NOTE: For an explanation of the basic structure of a bulerías dance and the terminology for the different parts, check out this post .

José calls Carmen up to dance [about seven minutes into the video].

Notice how she goes back where the musicians and and starts playing palmas waiting for José to begin singing.

He starts singing this letra. After he sings the first line she walks out, her salida.

She then transitions into some marcajes as he continues singing.

As he comes to the end of the letra, the caída, she does a remate [7:54].

She goes back to marking [8:00], and José starts another letra. She does a variety of marcajes as he sings.

Again, with the end of the letra, she does a remate [about 8:15].

He repeats the last two lines of the letra as she does another marcaje into an enganche [8:27] with the caída.

Carmen then goes into another marcaje. She marks and waits until José begins another letra [8:30].

She continues with a variety of marcajes which become more dynamic as the energy of the music builds.

As José brings the letra to a close, Carmen does an enganche with the caída [about 8:50] and goes into paso de bulerías as he begins singing the coletilla above.

She then does her llamada [about 8:58] followed by her final which José joins her in.

¡Olé!

You’ll notice Carmen does not do a patá (or a second llamada).

It’s common to go straight to the final after the llamada when dancing for a longer amount of time like this. She danced for awhile to a few different letras. She did many remates, so there’s already been plenty of excitement!

By the way, don’t you absolutely love their chemistry and how attuned they are to one another? It’s such a joy to watch.

Want to learn how to do this?⁣

Join us online THIS SUNDAY, April 16th for the online workshop, How to Dance to Bulerías Cante with Carmen Herrera & José Mijita!!!

(The workshop will be recorded, so if you can’t make it live, no problem.)⁣

This will be different from our past bulerías workshops with José and Carmen because we’ll get to dance to the cante in real time.⁣

Carmen will teach us a few simple remates then demonstrate how and where to put them with José’s cante. ⁣

We’ll learn how to apply these moves in different situations and how and why to change them if the cante calls for it.⁣

If you’re ready to start to solve the mystery of how to dance Bulerías de Jerez, this is for YOU.⁣

Some other letras you hear in the video above:

Here’s the first letra you hear him sing.

He sings this one about three minutes in.

And this one at about seven minutes and thirty seconds when Carmen comes up to dance.