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
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Flamenco Tour to Barcelona
I mentioned that we saw José Valencia at Tablao Cordobés. Seeing him in that intimate setting felt magical.
Here is one of the letras he sang:
Taranta
Mira lo que te he comprao
que vengo de las minas de las Carboneras
que mira lo que te he comprao
unas botas de cartera
con los botones a un lao
te las pones cuando quieras
Look at what I bought you...
In November 2013 after the Flamenco Tour to Jerez was finished, I traveled to Barcelona to study with David Romero. (And to research holding a flamenco trip there with him, which is happening in November, woot!) My friend Stefani and I had daily classes with David (our own private flamenco workshop). Often times we would meet with him before or after class to have a coffee and chat.
The interview took place in the little restaurant by the studio where we used to meet. We had lunch. We had café. And then we got to filming.
We did some shooting inside, some outside. I filmed some, Stefani filmed some. A couple of clips cut off in strange places because, well, I guess I stopped or started shooting too early or too late. Oops. I did my best to edit out the background noise, but you will definitely hear some potatoes being fried, sirens, a few outside voices, stuff like that. You'll also see some ladies on their way to the restroom, which happened to be our backdrop during part of the interview. I guess it all adds to the ambiente, the ambiance . . .
David has been dancing since he was three years old. He grew up going to peñas and hearing flamenco. He's from Barcelona, but his family is from Andalucía. In the video David talks about how his parents, originally from Huelva in Andalucía, ended up in Barcelona, the influences of hearing flamenco in his home, how he began dancing flamenco professionally (in a tablao when he was underage, having to run and hide when the authorities came by), his teaching philosophy, how he goes about creating a choreography and even just creating a step.
I wrote this back in the fall of 2013 when I was in Barcelona studying with David Romero. I thought you might enjoy reading it and finding out more about him...
November 22, 2013
I told you I'd be visiting Barcelona to study with David Romero.
I told you I'd been wanting to take classes from him for years.
Finalment!
(Catalán. We are in Barcelona after all.)
Studying with David.
One more tangos that David was using with us last week...
Tangos
Popular
Viva Málaga la bella,
tierra de tanta alegría,
que si a prueba me pusiera,
por ella daría la vida
Long live Malaga the beautiful,
land of so much happiness,
that if she put me to the test,
for her I would give my life
The first time I went to Sevilla I met this guy, José Luís. No, it wasn't like that. You could say he was a friend of a friend.
Just scroll down to the bottom of the post for today's letra and a really cool video.
So José Luís is one of those people who is constantly telling jokes.
Well, constantly saying funny things is more like it because they're not jokes, not exactly. Some people call them jokes, but they're not what I have ever understood to be jokes. I guess because I'm American. And not just that, but I'm from Oregon.
José Luís is always saying funny things and making himself, and other people if they get it, laugh.
You could call him witty, but it's more than that. It's witty in a Sevillano way. Ingenioso. Agudo. That's what the dictionary is calling it.
