Fiery flamenco in Madrid – origins of Flamenco!

Fiery flamenco in Madrid – origins of Flamenco!

Orginally posted: 20240921

Hello friends!
The blog´s been quite for some time because I have been busy starting a Jewellery shop! But now I’m in Madrid for a couple of days and during my time here I am going to experience some live flamenco!

Flamenco Background

This dramatic dance style has its origins in Andalucia in southern Spain. The Gitanos, an ethnic group of Spanish Romanies, with their strong musical traditions developed the flamenco mixing their own traditional music and dancing with Andalousian noubah.

The bailaoras dresses are very similar to the traditional Gitanas dresses as we can see in this old painting from 1872 called “Baile de gitanas” by painter Jules James Rougeron

The oldest known mention of flamenco is from the year 1774 when a man called Jose Cadalso, colonel and author, mentioned the music in his book Las Cartas Marruecas. In the book the main character is traveling and gets to know aspects of the Spanish culture. The book was published posthumously in 1789 after Cadalzos death and is considered by many critics to be one of the masterpieces of Spanish literature.

Flamenco can also be found in South America in countries like Argentina and Mexico but the word on the internet says that the best flamenco is still found in Spain.

UNESCO has also declared flamenco to be “one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”. So we can easily see that this art form has both been around for a while and also recognized outside of Spain. Numerous artists have been inspired by flamencos dramatic vibe and there exists many paintings where flamenco is the main motive.

Joaquin Sorollas “Le baile” from 1915 is probably one of the most famous paintings of flamenco

The different parts of flamenco

The flamenco experience and sound usually consists of many parts. Such as:
The tocaores, or the guitarr players who produces the backbone of the classical flamenco sound
The cantaores whose singing guides us and the bailaores and bailaoras. Often there are at least two, with different ranges and voices.
And then of course the bailaores and bailaoras whose expressive dancing and stomping of the heels binds it all together like magic.

A lot of the flamenco is improvised so flamenco shows usually differ from one show to another. The flamenco is usually performed in so called Tablaos. The word Tablao originates from the word “Tablado” which refers to the floorboards of the stage.

The worlds oldest Tablao opened in year 1911 in Madrid. It´s name was Villa Rosa. A lot has happend at the tablao since it´s opening. Today the tablao is named Tablao flamenco 1911.

Themes of the lyrics in flamenco songs

You don´t have to be a Spanish speaker to understand that the lyrics of the flamenco songs are about emotional topics. Common themes are love and loss, longing and beauty, jealousy and curses, poverty and struggles. And the way these songs are sung you feel them, even if you didn´t happen to have a heart. Manuel Gerena

Political flamenco

Flamenco is not just entertainment. It has historically been embedded with many different political meanings and has served as a rebellious movement against governmental oppression. Some sources claim that this is why Franco BANNED flamenco during his reign (1938-1973), while other sources say he actually didn´t ban it at all, on the contrary, boosted it as a symbol of Spanish national identity.

Protesters in black flamenco dresses in Sevilla 2020. Picture by The Leader newspaper

Given all this, it´s easy to say that flamenco is of importance when talking about Spanish culture. So i´m exited to be visiting two Tablaos during my time in Madrid. The first one will be Cardamomo and the second one will be Tablao de la Villa. Stay tuned for reviews!

xoxo/Salla V
Orginally posted: 20240921