Captured: Flamenco

Flamenco in Málaga was everything I thought it would be - moving, talented, and passionate.  Thank goodness, because I would have been really disappointed if it ended up being some cheap sellout tourist-trap.  I had read before that flamenco is all about the duende; the word doesn't have an exact translation in English - 'soul' is close but doesn't quite encompass it. Wikipedia has a pretty good description.  Most flamenco dancers are not young, like in most other forms of dance, but are middle-aged, because it is thought that young girls do not yet have the experience and maturity needed to convey duende.  Lorca wrote, “The duende works on the body of the dancer as the wind works on sand.”

I found this description of flamenco online and love it:  There is a world of difference between American tap-dancing and Spanish Flamenco. The former is “singing in the rain,” “happy again.” Happy is too light for Spaniards. The Spanish light is so bright that it demands shadows. Tap is closer to flying. Flamenco closer to a body in its death throes or in the frenzied throes of passion. 

The place we went, Kelipe, was highly rated online as about as authentic as you can get.  There were only 3 performers, one of which was the same man who took our money, led us to our seats, and opened the show (I've read that the shows that feature lots of dancers 'is a style that has been developed as a spectacle for tourists').   It was held inside an ancient PALACE, with awesome original tilework.  All of the artists were excited and proud because it was their first weekend performing in their new venue.  With maybe 30 of us in the audience, it felt intimate.  Both dancers come from long family histories of flamenco performers, and everyone awwwed when the guitarist and female dancer told us at the end that not only have they been performing together for years, but they are married :-)

First, the guitar: 

Then the singing: 

 Then she danced:

Then he danced: 

 Then finally they danced together:

A few more: