Flamenco Quote of the Day

Suddenly a barefoot girl was dancing. No one saw her begin; they only saw her somehow appear in the middle of the dirt floor, surrounded by the mahogany faces of spellbound gypsies. She moved in a tortuous way, dancing in the superb manner that the moment demanded, moving only her hands and arms, completely lost in the trance of the charged flamenco atmosphere. The singer sang to her, the guitarist played for her, and she moved toward them, responding with pureness of dance and movement that had the effect of somehow exalting the crowd, while at the same time intensifying their desolation. They had reached the culmination, flamenco's perfect moment, when all of flamenco's components were combined in a rare purity of expression....we were all quiet a moment, completely entranced, a little ashamed of our raw emotions, and yet savouring the impact of the experience that we knew would rarely be repeated. Further performing was meaningless. 'Ya estaba todo dicho'. Everything had been said.

D.E. Pohren/Author

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I knew a good man,
as reliable as a watch;
through the happenings of love,
he died in prison.

Conoci a un hombre de bien,
tan cabal como un reloj;
y por cosas del querer,
en un presidio murio.

Carceleras/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Within flamenco there is also spirituality in the slower, more profound styles like tarantos or granainas. Since flamenco has been given this stereotype of "fiery" or "fiesta" music, people aren't aware of the contemplative side. Flamenco reflects all emotions of life. Seguiriyas is the most pensive and sad song to come out of a people. The poet, Garcia Lorca, said it could be played, danced or sung in a church without profanation.

Juan Martin/Guitarrista

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Nobleman on horseback
who does not even say hello,
if your horse should stumble,
you'll be singing a different
tune.

Señorito a caballo
que no da los buenos dias,
si el caballo tropezara
otro gallo cantaria.

Fandangos Grandes/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"To the majority of public not well versed in flamenco, the dancer is the show stopper, the scene stealer of flamenco. The popular public considers the dancer THE attraction, with the rest of the cuadro serving as noise-making satellites"..."Ironically, flamenco's greatest deficiency is its lack of good dancers. The number of bailaores that are capable of being profoundly moving can be counted on both hands, and many of them are nonprofessional unknowns."

D.E. Pohren/Author

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"When I sing as I please, I taste blood in my mouth."

Tia Añica La Piriñaca/Cantaora


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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Malagueña

Death
enters and leaves
the tavern.

Black horses
and sinister people
travel the deep roads
of the guitar.

And there’s a smell of salt
and of female blood
in the fevered tuberoses
of the shore.

Death
enters and leaves,
and leaves and enters
the tavern.

F. Garcia Lorca

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I think silence is very important in music. Many times, a rest says more than many notes. If you hush up at the right time, you might get an “olé” in that silence."

Josemi Carmona

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Nobody knows you. No. But I sing of you.
For posterity I sing of your profile and grace.
Of the signal maturity of your understanding.
Of your appetite for death and the taste of its mouth.
Of the sadness of your once valiant joy.

It will be a long time, if ever, before there is born
an Andalusian so true, so rich in adventure.
I sing of his elegance with words that groan,
and I remember a sad breeze through the olive trees.


No te conoce nadie. No. Pero yo te canto.
Yo canto para luego tu perfil y tu gracia.
La madurez insigne de tu conocimiento.
Tu apetencia de muerte y el gusto de su boca.
La tristeza que tuvo tu valiente alegria.

Tardara mucho tiempo en nacer, si es que nace,
un Andaluz tan claro, tan rico de aventura.
Yo canto su elegancia con palabras que gimen
y recuerdo una brisa triste por los olivos.

Federico Garcia Lorca from Lament for Ignacio Sanchez Mejias


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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Andalusian song is unique. It is sung by only one voice which never mingles with others, and tolerates as its only accompaniment a clapping of hands comparable to that of Egyptian timbrels. The singer--male or female--sits in the middle of an attentive, religion-charged choir which listens to his voice as if it were reading a sacred book, or rather as if the voice was a book reading, one of those Fatidic books of which legends speak... The liturgy which surrounds the Andalusian song reminds us of its Semitic and Gypsy origins and always of its Asiatic mystery.

Rafael Cansinos Assens from La Copla Andaluza

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Let them stare at us from the bridge,
full of all their envy;
as long as we are in love,
you and I,
who cares what people say.

Que nos miren desde el puente,
y que la envidia nos siga,
que queriendonos tu y yo,
deja que la gente diga.

Zambra/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

To whatever kind of hell you go,
I have to follow you there,
because when I am in your presence
I carry heavenly glory with me.

Al infierno que te vayas
me tengo que ir contigo,
que yendo en to compaña
llevo la gloria conmigo.

Solea/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

But, flamenco is not Broadway. It is not just a dance. It is how you sleep, eat, dream, think. You don't have to be svelte or even young to be a flamenco dancer. You don't have to have all your teeth or shiny hair. You just have to feel what you are doing, to keep up with the rhythm, to lead and follow your musicians. I don't think Courtney ever understood that; she just wanted to be the only one who got all the attention. Flamenco was not her life.

Ana Castillo, from the book "Peel My Love Like an Onion"

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"She released us. She carried us through the rhythms and they were enough. The gestures were enough. There was no part of us pent up, unexpressed, to be taken home to ferment.

Agnes de Mille/Dancer, describing an unforgettable flamenco performance

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

You are the palm tree,
and I, the date.
You tall, and I
entangled with you.
You are the fragrant
rose in the garden
of my desire.

Eres Palmera
y yo, datil.
Tu eres alta
y yo me 'enreo'.
Tu eres la rosa mas
fragante del jardin
de mi deseo. 

Solea por Bulerias/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"The solea is the song from midnight to one in the morning, when you feel good, when your spirit is still calm and the tears aren't yet brimming at the corners of your eyes...The seguiriya, by contrast, is for two or three in the morning. Your pain is right up at the surface...you've got to lance it. It's a confession."

Pedro Peña/Guitarrista, Cantaor

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"These days there's a lack of charisma out there, so flamenco 'bailaores' have to make up for it using gimmicks"

Antonio el Pipa/Bailaor (2002)

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

In the river of love
a lady swims,
and from the banks
her lover weeps and
cries to her;
How I love you!
And you don't return my
love. I am dying of sorrow.

En el rio de amores
nada una dama,
y su amante en la
orilla llora y la llama;
ay que te quiero!
y como no me pagas
de pena muero.

Sevillanas/Popular

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Until my heart has broken
I have offered you peace,
yet you come wanting war;
when does the battle begin?

Hasta el corazon me duele
de brindarte con la paz;
y vienes pidiendo guerra;
cuando esta la guerra 'arma'?

Solea/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"I feel like I'm at my best because although art cannot be learned, you're born with it, even so, at twenty you think that doing things faster and stronger is... better. And that's not so, it's quite the opposite."

"Me encuentro en mi mejor momento porque, aunque el arte no se aprende, con el arte se nace, con veinte años te crees que haciendo las cosas con más velocidad y con más fuerza es más hermoso. Y no, se trata de todo lo contrario".

Manuela Carrasco/Bailaora

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.” 


Rumi


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Flamenco Quote of the Day

When I saw her cry
I thought I would go crazy.
But later I understood
that she cried for another;
then it was I who cried.

Cuando la vi llorar
que crei de volverme loco,
pero luego me entere
que ella lloraba por otro,
y entonces fui yo quien llore.

Fandanguillos/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Another problem, from the purist's point of view, lies in the management of the tablaos themselves, who demand from the artists a type of flamenco they believe will best go over with the public. This tends to be an overdose of rumbas, sex, legs and above all, exaggerated showmanship and flashy arrangements--in general, what can be termed "commercial flamenco"...This tablao, La Cueva de Nerja, decided to experiment with the pure. They brought in from all over Andalusia the great, unsophisticated artists, unglamorous and uncommercial, and began giving shows of real flamenco. The flamenco world loved it...The public, however did not understand, and the place finally had to close down.

D. Pohren/The Art of Flamenco

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

The mother of my soul,
that I love so much,
She is always with me.
I carry her buried deep
inside my heart.

A mi 'mare' de mi alma
lo que la camelo yo,
porque la tengo tan presente
ahi, 'metia' en el corazon.

Solea/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Where a person brags about himself... that is where he is actually lacking...

'Onde ronea' la persona...ahi 'onde' le falta...

Spanish Gypsy Saying

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I long to be one of
the fine pearls on your
burnished earrings,
and kiss your beautiful mouth,
and bite your cheeks.
Who ordered you to be so pretty,
that even I am being compromised?

Quisiera ser perla fina
de esos pulidos arretes,
y besarte la boquita
y morderte los cachetes.
Quien te manda ser bonita,
si hasta a mi me comprometes?

Colombianas/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

You know how to express the song when you're carrying the pain of centuries with you. The Gypsy who knows how to do this gets it from his ancestors...These are real experiences which have accumulated within him...He suffers them; he lives them; he remembers all his own.

Pedro Peña/Gypsy Flamenco Singer & Guitarist

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

As the cart of the dead
passed by;
I recognized her
by her dangling little hand.

El carro de los muertos
paso por aqui;
como llevaba la manita
fuera, yo la conoci.

Seguiriyas/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Your father doubtless
was a confectioner,
for he made your lips
out of candy.

Sin duda que tu padre
fue confitero,
pues te hizo los labios
de caramelo.

Piropo Andaluz

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Don Pohren/Author...writing on the "System of artist commercialization"

La Chunga is a distressing example...She was magnificent. She knew no footwork, and consequently danced barefoot. Her costumes were simple gypsy skirts and blouses. She did not dance by arrangements, but improvised as her moods demanded. Her outstanding assets, and those most difficult to find in a dancer, were the beauty and grace of her arms and hands, the suppleness of her movements, the authenticity of her facial expressions, her naivete, her complete abandonment to her duende and above all her naturalness. There were pressures on her and her manager at the time, propagated by envious artists, and businessmen mistakenly attempting to increase her commerciality...I did not have an opportunity to see her again until 1960...Through contact with commercial flamenco she had lost much of her authenticity...worst of all, she was no longer natural. Her movements and facial expressions were studied...she did tricks with her dress, hair and body, and exploited her sex appeal, mostly in a cheap, superficial manner...She did an excessive amount of footwork...She was no longer sure of herself...From one of the most moving dancers I have seen, the "System" may possibly succeed in making her just another night club attraction.

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

The critic, Brooke Zern, writing about a performance of someone possessed with duende...

"It dilates the mind's eye, so that the intensity becomes almost unendurable...There is a quality of first-timeness, of reality so heightened and exaggerated that it becomes unreal, and this is characterized by a remarkable time-distortion effect which is frequent in nightmares...A friend of mine put it like this...Time moved like that for me once before--when I was in a crashing car."

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