Flamenco is a highly – expressive dance form, usually associated with Spanish culture. It is a solo dance, characterized by hand clapping, percussive foot work and expressive body movements, all these elements being in vain if they weren’t accompanied by a singer and a guitar player. People who are practicing this art are dancing with their faces as well, frowning, smiling, showing seriousness. That is the reason why they might always seem angry, but it is only the way artists have to reinforce the message, to feel and pass on so that the audience will have a strong feeling during their performance as well.
ALL THE ART FORMS BEHIND FLAMENCO
Flamenco, which UNESCO recently recognised as part of the World’s Intangible Cultural Heritage, is more than just a dance, it represents art in all of its forms, since it includes five primary elements: “cante”, which is singing, known also as “palo”, “toque”, the guitar playing, “baile”, the dancing part, “palmas”, the hand clapping and the last, but not the least, “pitos”, which means finger snapping.
As important as the artistic act is the whole look of the artist. That is why red is often the colour of choice for their dresses and costumes, since it represents strength, bravery, vitality and passion, attributes without which the performance is not powerful enough. Moreover, this colour is adding the necessary sass and sex appeal so that the audience won’t be able to take its eyes off the show until the end.
HISTORY OF FLAMENCO
Even though the specialists in this matter don’t really know for sure where the term “flamenco” originated, all of them agree with the fact that this form of art comes from southern Spain, but during time was also shaped by musicians and performers in the Caribbean and Latin America. Inspired by the gypsy culture of Andalusia, a very beautiful region from Spain, this dance evokes in the same time very powerful passion and strong energy, both of them so unique that it continues to stand out from the crowd as one of the most exciting forms of art and expression witnessed until this day.
It seems that it has its roots back in history, a very long time ago, between the 9th and 14th century, in the Roma migration, from Rajasthan to Spain. The migrants brought with them musical instruments, like tambourines, bells and wooden castanets and, at the same time, a wide repertoire of songs and dances.
The golden age of flamenco is said to be the period between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, a time when singing was the primary aspect of this artistic moment, while dancing and musical accompaniment were secondary, fact which has changed today.
Contemporary artists are creating new rhythmic strategies in the studio and integrating them into theatre plays. In the last few decades of the 20th century, flamenco was influenced by the general musical trend toward fusion of styles.
THE CONTROVERSIAL FLAMENCO
In the United States and in the rest of the world, flamenco is an important sign of Spanish national identity, while inside Spain the relationship between this form of art and the country’s identity was in controversy for more than a hundred years.
Everyone’s love for flamenco has created problems in Spain over the years, because at that time the performance was considered extremely vulgar, so many Spanish people were saying that the artistic moment was a scourge of their nation.
Flamenco dance came to encapsulate Spanish elites’ feelings of shame because of the country’s declining status as s great power in the modern era. Flamenco’s critics were divided into three main categories: the Catholic Church, left – leaning intellectuals and politicians and leaders from revolutionary workers’ movements. In reality, all of these groups used flamenco as a vessel to contain their complaints with the ideological and structural changes.
After the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War, flamenco performances were decreased considerably, until this form of art was completely disavowed. But, when the Franco regime needed money, by the 1950s, flamenco was again promoted in order to revive Spain’s tourist industry. This idea was really a success, as the regime increased the number of clubs that specialized in flamenco, advertised female flamenco dancers on tourism brochures and encouraged professional artists to star in Hollywood films, in order to raise awareness of this amazing form of art.
