A Night of Spanish Culture
Are we at a concert? Are we watching a fireworks display? Watching a step performance? Of course not, but when the flamenco dancers’ shoes hit the floor, the force of it sounds just like it. They’re dancing with so much emotion! Flamenco dancing is a combination of a dancer, a singer, and some type of instrument, usually a guitar. Clapping and foot tapping play a significant role in the dance and the song. The dancer interprets the song, which is based on love, death, family, hardships, and stories about everyday life. There are songs for a variety of occasions, but I know we heard at least one alegría and one song about death. It was difficult to understand the lyrics because of the guttural sounds.
The history of flamenco dancing dates back years ago, but it’s believed to be a combination of music and dancing from gypsies that hailed from India, Sephardic Jews, and the Moors. The songs tell stories about groups of people who have been pushed out from the larger society. I could feel the emotion coming through the performers as I sat there listening. At one point, we stopped to clap and I heard one of the audience members say something to our guide about how fantastic the performance was and then I thought the woman was going to yell at her for talking. Her face showed so much emotion. Later on I found myself on the verge of tears and I can’t even explain why. The dancers and musicians were fierce and powerful and I could “hear” their emotions in the music.
One of the messages for this trip has been “the presence of the absence”. I thought about that as I was listening to the music and watching the dancers, all of them exhibiting such passion in their work. I could feel the pain and happiness that people might go through if being pushed out of a society – light and fast songs for joyfulness and slow and angry songs about death. Music and stories, in this case songs, allows for those memories to be passed on and tonight, even just for a moment, I was elated to be a part of that history so that I can pass it on to my family, my daughter, and my students in the years to come.