Excellent, so you’ve decided to explore the world-class range of flamenco in Madrid and enjoy a show. You googled the best shows in Madrid and ah, the tyranny of choice! I hear you, picking a flamenco show in Madrid can be very confusing. So let me give you a few tips to help you see the best flamenco Madrid has to offer!
Whether you’re thinking of upgrading your flamenco wardrobe, taking up flamenco, or hunting for a special flamenco present for someone back home, here are what I consider the best flamenco shops in Madrid. (more…)
I’ve met people who don’t love flamenco, but do love flamenco guitar. And I totally understand. I became hooked on flamenco largely because of flamenco guitar. This is how it goes: you start listening profusely to Paco de Lucía’s Entre dos aguas and next thing you know, you’re spending 90% of your waking time thinking about, practising and listening to flamenco. Just like that!
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…)
I count myself lucky to be excited about September each year, and this is due mainly to… well yes, flamenco! My dance and rhythm classes resume, and the calendar fills up with fantastic flamenconess around Madrid. And here are the flamenco events that most excite me this year – and some of them are free!
“Could you please advise of a non-touristy flamenco show in Madrid?”, “I would like to experience authentic flamenco, not flamenco for tourists” and so on and so forth. I get a surprising number of these requests from my blog readers, and I think that it’s high time I addressed this controversial issue.
So here I go. Are flamenco shows just for tourists? (more…)
I have a confession to make. As a kid, I had this odd pastime where I would look at my watch to see the seconds count down, then look away for a couple of minutes while counting the seconds in my head, and then look back at my watch to see whether I’d stayed in time. Sounds nuts? Maybe.
A couple of decades later, I discovered flamenco, and realised that my addiction to counting seconds was actually my love of rhythm. And you can’t beat flamenco when it comes to rhythm, which in the world of flamenco we call the compás. The flamenco compás is key. It’s flamenco’s underlying driving force, its metre, and it’s oh-so-important —and can be oh-so-difficult to master. (more…)
Going to a tablao (flamenco venue) is a fantastic way to experience flamenco in Madrid, but not the only way. What about hitting a flamenco bar?
The experience may even prove more interactive — you may end up making friends and/or dancing flamenco yourself until it’s time to head for chocolate con churros! So, in an attempt to help you have a very flamenco night out, here are my favourite flamenco bars in Madrid — a mix of tapas bars, clubs and, well, strange holes in the wall. Get ready to have the flamenco time of your life. (more…)
The earliest memory I have of a zambomba (or friction drum) is of my uncle Pedro playing it in a very a-musical fashion while the rest of the family sang one of the four Christmas carols that constituted our repertoire.
When I first started dancing flamenco in New Zealand, back in 2008 (oh, lord!), I resorted to the only pair of high-heels that had survived my move Down Under. They were fine for sevillanas, but once I started learning tangos de Málaga, and I was most definitely hooked on flamenco dancing, I decided it was time for me to invest in a pair of proper (and pricey) flamenco shoes. I had no idea where to start looking, or what exactly I was looking for. Does this ring a bell? Let me tell you how to go about buying Spanish flamenco shoes online (from anywhere in the world).
There aren’t enough evenings in a week – or euros in my bank account – for the fantastic flamenco shows and recitals programmed for this October in Madrid. These are the shows that I wouldn’t want to miss, ideally – but most of which, alas, I realistically will miss!
Whether you’re continuing your love affair with flamenco dancing or just starting, there are endless options for flamenco dance classes in Madrid. The wide range of teachers and schools that a Google search will throw up can be a bit overwhelming – so let me give you a few clues that will hopefully guide you through the maze.
It’s advertised everywhere in Madrid – on huge banners in the Metro, on bus stops, in the mainstream media and of course through specialised flamenco channels. Suma Flamenca, Madrid’s most important flamenco festival, is upon us. The month-long festival boasts more than 300 shows and concerts during June in different venues throughout the capital. And with such a huge program, choosing what to see can prove a tad overwhelming. So let me help you out with a few recommendations.
Of course, listening to flamenco is bliss. But also it’s fun to watch on the screen. There’s a long tradition of flamenco within Spanish cinema, and flamenco films are a fantastic way to get a glimpse of the art.
I know how it feels – it’s that time of the year again, and you still have no overwhelmingly exciting plans on the horizon. The silly season brings to Madrid a realm of flamenco Christmas fun – take advantage of it!
So, what is flamenco? That’s a big question. Let me give you a brief-ish answer. Flamenco is folk music from Spain. It developed in Andalusia over centuries, and took its current form in the 18th century. Its origins are still murky, as there isn’t much documentation about the early forms this music took.