defining flamenco
Donkeys, Lightning and Piranhas — Nicknames in Flamenco
Let me paint a picture. You’re so excited about seeing flamenco in Spain that you want to whet your appetite by reading about or watching YouTube videos of the artists you’ll be seeing on the night. So you start reading their names and they look like this: Antonia González “la Pescaílla Chica”, Lucía Álvarez “la Piñona”, José Carmona “Rapico”, Natalia Delmar “la Serrata”, Antonio “el Ciervo”, “Chispas”… —and you start wondering… “What’s with the quotation marks?”
Well, they’re the performers’ nicknames. Because, the thing is, nicknames are very common in flamenco. (more…)