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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Flamenco Quote of the Day

She loosed her robe, 
that I might see
her body, lissome as a tree.
The rosebud opened in that hour
and oh, the beauty of my flower.

Al Mutamid/Poet-King of Sevilla

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

What kind of bird is that singing
in the olive tree?
Go and tell it to hush...
its singing hurts me so much.

Que pajaro sera aquel que
canta en la verde oliva?
Corre y dile que se calle...
que su cante me lastima.

Tientos/Traditional

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

"An art that turns its guts inside out and refuses to hide behind the mask of beauty...that is the real flamenco. Clearly this is not some superficial form of entertainment. Flamenco does not please, it is inherently not pleasing."

Claus Schreiner/Author

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Virgin of Macarena,
the moon's reflection
shines on your dark little face.
There is no face like your face,
nor sorrow like your sorrow.

Virgen de la Macarena
reflejo de luna clara
da en tu carita morena.
No hay cara como tu cara,
ni pena como tu pena.

Saeta/Traditionally sung to the Virgin Mary and Crucified Christ during Holy Week in Sevilla

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Just as the forge becomes
a flame of gold,
So do my insides
when I remember you,
and I weep.

Asi, como esta la fragua
echa candela de oro,
se me ponen las entrañas
cuando te recuerdo, y lloro.

Martinete

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Ardent struggle, endless vigil, like all art...the dancer battles the air around her, air that threatens at any moment to destroy her harmony or to open huge empty spaces where her rhythm will be annihilated.

Federico Garcia Lorca/Poet

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Manuela Carrasco and I started out together, in the Cochera, a tablao in Seville. In the cuadro there was Lole Montoya, Farruquito, Manuela, and myself. Farruco always used to come and watch the cuadro and he would define us, saying that she was more a heelwork dancer, and I was more arms. Although we both dance with temperament, her way of dancing is completely different from mine.

Concha Vargas/Bailaora

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Though I tear the
hands off of my watch,
time will not stop.

Agujas de mi reloj
que yo las iba arrancando,
y el tiempo no se paro.

Solea

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

These songs, to be born, must come from the singer
after fighting his own voice and falling into an ecstasy
of inwardness that will draw everyone around him
into a vortex of feeling, wrapped round by that voice,
a guitar, and the sound of naked palms beating, and surging
down the dark line that runs from nothingness to nothingness
through life.

Felix Grande

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Flamenco Quote of the Day

Even after death I am 
bound to keep on loving you.
For a man loves too, when dead.
I love you from my soul, and
the soul never dies.

Hasta despues de la muerte
te tengo que estar queriendo,
que muerto tambien se quiere.
Yo te quiero con el alma,
y el alma nunca se muere.

Fandangos

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