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
Sometimes you want to know a song to go along with the dance form you're studying in class. Other times you want to know the words to that particular flamenco song you like so much. And sometimes you long to know what those words mean.
Here you'll find a collection of letras (flamenco verses) organized by palo (flamenco form.)
Nada!
Portland Flamenco Events is still around, I've just merged it with my other project, the Flamenco Tour. Together they form experienceflamenco.com.
No te preocupes.
When you enter portlandflamencoevents.com into your browser, you will be redirected to the new url, experienceflamenco.com, where you can access all of the same info about our PDX happenings in addition to info about our events in Spain and other cool flamenco things.
It's the final day of 2015, and tomorrow begins a brand new year.
This evening I plan to celebrate what went well in 2015 and look ahead to the possibilities of 2016.
I'm feeling particularly excited at the moment because 2016 means a brand new web site for me, this one, woo-hoo! (I'm still figuring it out, and there are various kinks at the moment, my apologies, but I find transitions to be particularly challenging while also providing amazing opportunities for growth.) I invite you to stick around to see how the site progresses.
Cheers to a bright new year with lots of dancing and fun.
A coletilla is a short ending that the singer tags onto a letra. The singer often repeats it like a little chorus (estribillo). Here's a common one por alegrías:
Una coletilla por alegrías
Popular
Que me lo tienes que dar
el tacón de la bota
que para taconear*
You have to give me
the heel of your boot
to make music with my feet
You can see a video of María la Sabina sing it here:
We danced alegrías with David in Barcelona. He gave us so many cute moves.
Here’s a letra for you…
The other night I went to see Noche Flamenca here in Portland.
Manuel Gago got me when he sang the Romance de Juan de Osuna. He sang it like this, opening with this letra por siguiriyas:
On the last Flamenco Tour to Jerez the ladies spent a good amount of time in the bar talking to José Luís and Maribel (our hosts). This is often the case as they are quite fun to chat with, and they make us feel at home. (Some people don't speak Spanish. I'm convinced this makes the conversations all the more fun.) So Luís loves flamenco letras and happily shares them with us.
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...
Tonight we went back to Tablao Cordobés to see David perform. He danced por soleá, and he was on fire.
Everyone was.
Below is a letra La Tana sang tonight por bulerías.
Bulerías
A mí me llaman La Loca
porque vivo a mi manera
y aunque viva equivoca
seré feliz hasta que me muera
They call me The Crazy One . . .
As I mentioned last week, we've been studying caña here in Jerez on the Flamenco Tour (along with bulerías por su puesto). We learned from Mercedes that la caña has six ays (iis) while el polo has five.
For baile, that is.
And there is a set of ays in the middle of the letra and at the end.
For cante, it's more open.
We're studying caña with Mercedes right now. (Here in Jerez on the Flamenco Tour that is.) Watching her dance while listening to Santi play the guitar can make it hard to focus on the steps. I'm sure you can imagine . . .
Below is a letra written by Paco López for her show Perspectivas.
Caña
Paco López
Ya la nieve se hizo agua
de tanto llover
Los ojitos tengo secos
de sembrar y no recoger
The snow has turned to water . . .
I've got two flamenco learning tips to share with you today. One from Mercedes and one from Ani. We're on day two of Flamenco Tour classes, and the classes have been going like this:
Technique with Mercedes in the morning. Bulerías with Ani right after. Then choreography and castanets with Mercedes after lunch and siesta.
Everybody loves Mercedes. Everybody loves Ani. All is well.
Class with Mercedes
The ladies go in and out of concentrating on the steps and being mesmerized by Mercedes and her magnificence.
Another coletilla today. (Another from Zorri. Can't wait to see that man on the Flamenco Tour in less than two weeks!)
Bulerías
(a coletilla)
Keep Reading
A coletilla for you and an accompanying video of Manuel Liñan that is sure to knock your socks off.
Vente conmigo
Vente a mi vera…
Another one from the little book followed by a video of Argentina singing it live..
Serranas
La aurora cuando sale…
I played hooky today and took myself to the beach on a whim.
15,000 steps of beach walk therapy felt so good.
And so, here’s a letra about the sea:
It's worth posting another version of this letra.
Soleares
Popular
Quisiera ser como el aire
y tenerte yo a mi vera
sin que lo notara nadie
I would like to be like the air
and have you by my side
without anybody noticing
I was a junior in college and struggling through Spanish class.
The professor spoke only in español, and I hardly understood a thing.
Feeling confused, behind, and overwhelmed most of the time I did not particularly enjoy the class.
However I am full of gratitude for the experience.
You see, had it not been for this class, I'm not sure I would be dancing flamenco today.
