Federico García Lorca and flamenco.
March 1, 2022Flamenco lyrics
August 12, 2022BY SAÚL CASTILLEJO GARCÍA
Learn about the origins of flamenco dance
In order to talk about the characteristics of flamenco dance in this period, we must resort to a series of specific sources, such as travel literature, which will allow us to create a complete narrative.
Likewise, the documentation generated by the 'enemies' of these dances, the local press that reports events of theft, prostitution and other scandals, photographs and loose documentation, such as posters (which do not allow us to generate a complete but complementary narrative) serve as information to reconstruct the characteristics of what the flamenco dances were like at this historical moment.
We must take into account the difference in narrative that we will find in the travel literature of the nineteenth century with respect to that of the eighteenth century; in romanticism we will have more visibility on the landscape, but on a pre-existing landscape.
After the War of Independence, the romantic travelers romantic travelers their interest in Spain. Imbued by this spirit, they will focus on looking for the difference, experience the sensations and emotions, investigate it and feel it to its fullest possibilities. They are interested in the people because it is different from what they know.
However, we find a number of disadvantages; travelers tell what is different, what is strange to them, so we will not find a complete narrative of the flamenco situation through their testimonies. Many times they place the attention, for example, on the clothes, with which they can establish relations with respect to their culture. At the musical and dance level, the description of the singing, guitar playing and dancing is very open, general and not very precise, so we cannot determine exactly what they saw, but it serves as a starting point.
Speaking of the nuclei of the first singing cafés, we find particularities such as those of Granada, whose bad relationship with the roads and connections will not stop the abundant foreign presence that comes to visit the Alhambra.
Regarding Seville, we note that it was a city where this type of dancing was persecuted, by law, by morality and by custom. Dancing in this context was only well regarded if it was in a private professional way. However, this city will generate the first dance academies, the first business spaces that will charge for an entrance to officiate dances, which will generate demand and will even develop them to generate independent and specific spaces.
From 1880 onwards, with the cafés cantantes we will observe that many of the elements of the dance designed for foreigners, such as the last step of the olé and the vito, will disappear. In this decade, the flamenco show of the café cantante will acquire a special consolidation and differentiation, in which the dance will progressively detach itself from the aesthetics of the bolero school, progressively moving away from elements such as the castanets. We observe innovations in the costumes that modified the dance such as the bata de cola and the shawl, by the hand of figures such as Pastora Imperio and the wide-brimmed hat.
During this period (1880-1920) we find a flamenco group of between ten and fifteen artists, mostly female and young -especially in singing and dancing- who were regulars at each venue.
These cafés were places for nightlife in which, in spite of being the nucleus in which great figures of dance such as 'La Malena' or 'La Macarrona' developed , the dancers did not dedicate themselves solely to one profession. They alternated between show business and prostitution or customer service. In this sense, we understand that the majority of the public were heterosexual working class men, so the dances were adapted to their liking, enhancing a certain sensuality and femininity.
We find a great variety of schools and dances performed mainly by women, mostly solo, producing a sexual division of the dance. In addition, at this time the roles in the cuadro were not fixed or professionalized separately, so the same dancer could also sing. Men could appear as dancing figures but their role was usually to accompany the woman or, if they danced solo, they discarded the sensuality.
These are showy dances, conditioned in part by the architecture of the space, and which, depending on the tendency (feminine or masculine), can be more elegant and delicate, with precise and circular movements and decorative footwork, -associated with the feminine tendency-, or dances in which the footwork acquires greater importance, complemented with a certain savagery and body contortions, -associated with the masculine tendency-.
As examples collected by the traveler É. Bouchet in Souvenirs d'Espagne we see the Macarena or 'belly dances', related to Granada, which are characterized by performing contortions, twisting the bust and hips and using the zapateado repeatedly, the bolero or the seguidilla.
As collected by Rocío Plaza in Los Cafés Cantantes de Sevilla y las imágenes fotográficas de Emilio Beauchy (2018), travelers such as Hans Parlow described a rather sensual atmosphere reflected in the dances, stylized with light dresses, a shawl wrapped around the bust and a flower attached to the temples. Finally, if we look at the styles of flamenco, we find the alegrías as the fundamental women's dance from which the rest of the dance styles will crystallize, expanding towards the tientos-tangos, the soleá and the garrotín (in women) and the farruca and the zapateado (in men), among others.