Flamenco Quote of the Day

The dancer's trembling heart must bring everything into harmony, from the tips of her shoes to the flutter of her eyelashes, from the rustles of her dress to the incessant play of her fingers. Shipwrecked in a field of air, she must measure lines, silences, zigzags and rapid curves, with a sixth sense of aroma and geometry, without ever mistaking her terrain. In this she resembles the torero, whose heart must keep to the neck of the bull. Both of them face the same danger--he, death; and she, darkness.

Federico Garcia Lorca/Poet, from In Praise of Antonia Merce

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Malena had a little stand where
she sold sunflower seeds
to the little ones.
Malena of mine, Malena of mine,
come dance a little buleria!

La Malena tenia un puestesillo
que vendia sus pipas, pa' los
chiquillos.
Malena mia, Malena mia,
date una vueltesita por buleria.

Bulerias/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

To help us seek duende there is neither map nor discipline.
All one knows is that it burns the blood like powdered glass,
that it exhausts, that it rejects all the sweet geometry one has
learned, that it breaks with all styles.

Federico Garcia Lorca, Flamenco Poet
From Theory and Function of the Duende

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

After the husband of the woman he loved slit
Curro Pablas' stomach and took her back, 
Pablas lived long enough to sing this song:

I am going to the graveyard
oh, God! Little companion of my soul,
don't let me die so alone;
I want to die by your side.

Al cementario me voy,
por dios! Companerita de mi alma,
no me dejes morir tan solito;
quiero morir a tu vera.

Seguiriyas

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"Because in this story of flamenco everything is 'me, me, me,' and if there's any room left, it's 'me', too, you know what I mean?"

"Porque en esta historia, sobre todo en el flamenco, todo es "yo, y yo y yo", y si sobra un trocito en el cartel pues también yo... Ya sabes lo que te digo." 

Javier Latorre/Bailaor

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

I must punish 

the eyes of my face 

for looking with affection 

on someone who doesn’t care. 

A los ojos de mi cara 

los tengo que castigar, 

porque miran con cariño 

a quien mal pago les da. 

Solea

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

George Borrow, writing in the nineteenth century on the history of gypsies in Spain draws this conclusion:

The gypsy women and girls were the principal attractions to these visitors. There can be no doubt...that they are capable of exciting passion of the most ardent description, particularly in the bosoms of those who are not of their race. No females in the world can be more licentious in word and gesture, in dance and song, than the gitanas.


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