I have 23 minutes to write this up...

Last night in Sevilla, Matt and I attended an authentic flamenco show at the Casa de la Memoria.  The venue was the cultural center of Sevilla, an intimate outdoor patio with a 5x7 ft wooden stage platform surrounded by about 150 chairs.  At 9pm, a singer and guitar player entered the patio area, picked up their chairs, and sat on the platform.  Both slender and dressed in sleek simple black clothing, they chatted quietly among themselves for a few seconds before starting.  The guitar strummed some notes, and then with the most agonizing expression, the singer rang warbling notes of pain.  Words were difficult to make out, instead the aesthetic was that he ran through notes in a throaty up and down manner.   The sound was so unique, and it reminded me of some far away muslim land.  As the tempo picked up, both singer and guitar player tapped their feet with thebeat, crescendo´ing to a nice wah-lah type of ending. 

After the singing, another tall slender Sevillano entered the room.  Again, dressed in black, they man looked angry, his greasy curly hair looked like my hair after I get out of the shower.  And then, oh my god, he started dancing.  His style was very upright and linear, with most of the movement in his legs and feet.  He stomped in a manner similar to tapdancing, but better.  He spotted a single place on the wall for his entire performance, his brow furled.  He danced in what felt like little vignettes (sp¿), showcasing different abilities for each dance.  For each song, the singer and guitar player watched his legs for their timing.  All of his power came from his knees and hips, with the most forceful sounding coming from his heels.  Almost in a shimmy, he was able to tap his heels up to about 15 beats per SECOND.  It was amazing.  His arms were strong, and swooped from one arm up to both arms up, switching arms as he danced.  He lifted up his shirt a few times to show his hip work, but it was not flirty at all, more of a display of his precision.  Amazing.  His style mimicked what I´ve seen in bullfights, very masculine, machismo, precision, almost in a drill-style.

After his performance, the female dancer entered.  She was about 5 foot 3 inches, dressed in a glimmering light blue silk and chiffon ruffly floor-length skirt with a matching furrly shirt and vest.  Her hair pulled taught into a bun, she also looked a bit pissed off, but beautiful nonetheless.  Her style was a bit looser, with more attention to her hips rather than feet.  She made a throaty noise to keep her time, as she stomped away, doing turns and hand floreos.  She kept up the same energy throughout her 15 minute performance, demanding the audience´s attention through her moves.  When she wanted you to pay attention to her feet, she hiked up her tiered ruffled skirt , pulling it up to her knees.  I managed to look away from her feet once, and looked at every set of eyes in the room locked on her feet, especially the singer and guitar playyer.  She stomped, they clapped, and sang.  It was pure energy, and a demonstration of total audience control.  I´m not quite sure how much of it was improvization versus rehearsed, because she communicated to the singer and guitar player through some verbal and non-verbal cues.  At any rate, I was truly inspired by the ability and stage presence of the dancers and singers. 

At the end of the show, we were allowed to take a few photos.  Most of them didn´t turn out very good because the flash bounced off of her outfit, and they only daced for about 5 minutes.  I will post them when we get back!  It was a wonderful ´wow´event for me.