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
Tangos. And a brief departure from the bulerías series. I'll come back to it soon. Last weekend Ricardo taught us some Tangos de Málaga. And this weekend, we'll get more. Below, a letra he sang for us.
(...de Málaga, del Piyayo, del Titi)
Te pongas como te pongas
si eres fea lo serás
por mucho que te compongas
Don't worry, It's not you who I want nothing to do with. In fact, it's not anyone. It's just today's letra.
¿Y por qué?
Because this week has been all about bulerías,
Here I am in Portland with Ricardo López, and he made my day when he suggested we do bulerías in one of the workshops. He then put the icing on the cake when he said we should dance to a tema by Joaquin el Zambo...
I mentioned that we'd hear from Perico Navarro today. He plays cajón for Mercedes, and for lots of other people too. Paco Cepero, Miguel Poveda, Jesus Mendez. He played for Moraito Chico... For some really incredible artists.
I spoke with him last week about his life as a flamenco percussionist. You can read all about that here soon...
Anyway, after the interview we started taking about, well, bulerías.
I've been in Jerez for about a month now. Kind of immersed in bulerías. They're everywhere. And I love them more and more each day. Really.
So here begins a little series. A nod to Jerez as I get ready to go. I'm leaving for Madrid in a few hours...
Because bulerías doesn’t exist anywhere as it does here. And if it did, it wouldn’t be what it is.
And that's that.
I'm not saying you have to be in Jerez to do bulerías or anything like that. No, no. I’ll keep dancing them in Portland, of course, because there's no way I can stop. And we have a lot of fun doing bulerías in Portland, even though it's not the same.
I left almost immediately after the show ended last night.
And people said, ¿Te vas Laura, Ya?
"You're leaving, now?"
Even though the show just ended. I wasn't even waiting to see if something exciting happened next. I wasn't even staying to socialize some more. I was going home as early as 12:30 am...
Sí.
It was a peña show last night. At Peña La Bulería.
For Katie to leave today.
But she has already gone...Last Sunday when everybody else left, I felt like a mother whose babies were leaving. Even though I don't really know how that feels.
For myself to leave...
Read on for a video of Miguel Poveda, Jesús Méndez, and Perico Navarro and a beautiful letra by Antonio Gallardo.
Ok, so I told you that I might share some bulerías tesoros directly from the mouth of Ana María López with you today or tomorrow. Well, it's not happening today because I just got this great email from Becky. Becky is a student. She came on the Spain Tour.
She passed it along to me. and I asked her if I could post it. She was sending it to me for me, but she very graciously agreed.
I read it as a series of snapshots showing how life has been going here in Jerez, which is why I wanted to share it with all of you. So, here you go, from Becky...
Today was the last bulerias class for everyone on the Spain Tour, my exotic pets.
And tomorrow is the final class with Mercedes.
Then on Sunday everyone leaves. I am feeling pretty sad about that. Thank goodness Katie is staying...
But back to bulerías class.
Today was a celebratory day. Just about everyone got cerveza. Yes, beer. When Ani is in a good mood and really likes what you do she gives you beer. I didn't get any beer.
Today everyone came to bulerías class.
My dad, Kuma, and, of course, my exotic pets. (That is what they've started calling themselves, the Spain Tour students. I much prefer it to Spain Tour students, and I can't tell you what fun it is to bring exotic pets along on a trip...)
Anyway, below is a letra that Junquerita sang today. Ani did as well.
Bulerías
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Me entró sueño y me dormí
me despertaron los gallos
cantando quiriquíquí
I got tired,
and I went to sleep
I was awaken by the roosters singing cock-a-doodle-doo
La Gitanería is having these Saturday night flamenco cante shows. There was one last night. It started at 10:30. Only, it didn’t actually begin until 11:30, maybe even a bit later than that. We didn’t even start walking there until after 11. As we came in we walked by Diego del Morao. He was not performing, just hanging out...
The first set was excellent. Two young guys, a singer and a guitarist. Sorry, I don't know their names. The first set also ended up being the only set.
It was one of those Jerez shows where most of the people in the audience are Jerezanos.
Tonight I heard Felipa la del Moreno sing accompanied by Manuel Valencia on guitar. Wow.
They were at the peña Tío José de Paula in el Barrio Santiago. This was the second of the three flamenco shows I went to tonight. So much going on here. All on the same night. And kind of all at the same time. But somehow we still managed to get to all three...
Below is a tarantos she sang tonight.
Tarantos.
Since I was just telling you about how Manuel Liñan danced por tarantos on Wednesday.
Some good things have happened since my trip began. And I've already learned something very important. A story and a video of Manuel Liñan dancing.
On Monday I went to the Portland airport.
I befriended the woman standing behind me in the security line who, as it turns out, I already knew. We talked and I told her about my trip. She told me it was going to be great even though I was scared that everything would fall apart. She also told me I would definitely organize more...
On Tuesday I arrived in Madrid.
It was sunny and the sky was blue. I was in Spain and happy.
Now I am in Jerez. It is rainy and the sky is grey. I am still in Spain. I am still happy.
It's late, but it's still Friday. Here is a letra from Camarón that José taught us...
Bulerías
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Que me lleve contigo
Porque yo no me hallo
Lejo de tu cariño.
I took my castanets for a little walk this evening. But, let's back up.
Last Saturday, after we all felt thoroughly messed up from our shiva nata inspired activity connecting different arm positions to different rhythmic sounds, I told everyone about how much fun and confusing it can be to jump around and jog back and forth while playing castanets. It helps me get into the flow, helps to get things going in my brain and body. Then we started joking around about jogging through Portland playing castanets, and, naturally, we pretended to do so.
Ricardo has told me stories about how he and Manuel Liñan used to walk around the park in Madrid practicing pirouettes and such. Let's just take a moment to imagine that.
Okay.
And what about Tatiana racing her friend down the street in Jerez doing latigos?
Flamenco can be practiced in all kinds of places and in all kinds of ways. We know that.
The same letra, different words.
I love this about flamenco.
I don't mean completely different words, though there's that as well.
I'm talking about one letra and how each singer may vary the words slightly, sometimes changing the sentido, the meaning, sometimes not.
Today another letra that Vicente sang. Something happened while he sang me this letra, something that had the potential to really throw me off. But it actually didn't. It was weird. It was like I noticed it happening and kind of watched myself continue dancing. I guess it kind of caused me to become more focused, in a sense. I want to tell you about it some day...
But, hoy es viernes. So we have a letra. And you can listen to it here, sung by a coro with Tomatito playing guitar. It's Cañailla, from his Barrio Negro album.
Alegrías
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Anda y ven
Replicale al orgulloso amor
Anda y ven
Dile porque llora mi corazón
Si solo intento vivir con mi triste alegría
haciendo que la luna también encaje cada día
Por eso quiero que salga el sol.
Sueño con tus besos,
tú y siempre tú.
I found this letra in the Antología del Baile Flamenco. (Gracias, Angel por haberme regalado este libro.) It was written for Matilde Coral. She was one of my first teachers.
I really ought to tell you about my first encounter with her. In Triana, on La Calle Castilla, at her academy.
I had no idea who she was, other than that she was a flamenco dancer, when I went to see her. We met in her office.
but I only understood bits and pieces.
That's kind of how it was that whole first year in Spain. Most of the time I only partially understood people. I did however understand what Matilde wanted me to do. And I did not want to do it. In fact, I refused to.
But, I'm not going to tell you about that today...
For today, just this letra and a video of Matilde Coral dancing alegrías
A Matilde Coral
Daniel Pineda Novo
It's almost time to perform, and I'm worrying. I've felt this way before... But I guess I needn't worry so much. At least I don't have to get up in front of the whole audience to talk and start crying instead.
Anyway, so I decided to take myself for a walk to the farmer's market to get some fresh flowers. Only there was no farmer's market because it's Saturday, not Sunday. Oh yeah. But it got me out walking. And a walk is always good for me. I walked and went through some steps in my head.
Now I'm giving myself encouragement. I'll be there sharing the stage with people who are wonderful and supportive!
And I'm writing myself some notes, some reminders for tonight and tomorrow.
Here are some things to remember before (and during) a show...
I'm on a bit of an alegrías kick. Yesterday I got together with Vicente to practice, and he sang me this letra...
Alegrías
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Ayúdame caballero
a pintar esta rosa…
Alegrías. Mmmmm. Love them.
Here is a letra and a video of Camarón singing it.
Alegrías
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Yo pegué un tiro al aire
cayó en la arena
confianza en el hombre
nunca la tengas
