Flamenco in Emails10

                     3. Flamenco baile and Bullfight

   

Tramping about Madrid I happily came across a flamenco book

titled '!flamenco! '. I opened it once and again everywhere

on the road and in cafes or the hostel. In retrospect , the scene

 still lingering in my eyes is it that happily I alone sat by the wayside,

with this book under my arm , caught in particular by the lines

below:

 

 '...that the movement of gypsy dancers was so impersonal

as to transcend anything trivial or ephemeral in the motion,

and to translate it into eternal terms...'

 ' Man alone against the bull; man alone confronted by fate.

The struggle is essentially the same.'

 

Vivid in my memory is another scene. It is the scene in which

 in Jerez  I happened to enjoy the trialogue with Shasha,

flamenco bailaora and Mary, an American retired nurse

enjoying dinner over vino. It was  when I was very anxious

to meet anyone to talk with  in English, not in Spanish! 

For then I was  spending hard time in Spain because of

my ignorance of Spanish. Mary said she flies every year 

to this city to join the historic Jerez International Flamenco

Festival held in February and during her stay there

she Learns flamenco baile from Shasa. 

At my last day  in Jerez fortunately I had a  chance to talk

on flamenco with the two in the latter's apartment

 located in the gypsy quarter of Santiago.

Below is a part of our talks we shared that day.

 

  ' below'

 

Mary : 'flamenco dance is down ; Ballet is up', 

This clear short  passage was impressive to me,

when I encountered with it for the first time .

Robin, flamenco writer  working in Jerez once said so.

He has his studio 10 minutes away by walk from here.

I am reading his flamenco book

titled 'Song of the Outcasts'.

 

Shasa: I would like to add another ｅxpression

with the same meaning :

baile is tied to the earth; but ballet takes to the air.

 

 Gohk: I love both ｅxpressions.

It is thought that Both ｅxpressions are to the point

to understand flamenco.

 

 Shasa: Hi, Gohk! Mary is a true flamenco,

 She has been hooked by it.

She is deeply interested in Duende and Garcia Lorca.

 

 Mary: please stop, Shasha. you push me too high.

 

 Shasa:( singing a line of Tona)

 .......y alivien mi sufrimiento

 .......and ease my suffering.

 

 Gohk: Plseas go on. I love your voice of the cante .

As you know, today is my last day here in Jerez.

Now I am enjoying to talk with both of you speaking in English.

During my stay in Spain, owing to my ignorance of Spanish 

I have been driven to an constant  restlessness.

In Spain I met few Spanish will speak English.

They seemed to keep Spanish only.

They were very kind and generous to strangers like me ,

but some indifferent to other cultures and languages,

in particular to English .

 

S: Well, You are partially right.

Spaniards are regarded even as people of big mouth

because they are loud and noisy in talking.

But they are generous and considerate.

 

 G: In a sense, flamenco resembles the paintings

of ｅxpressionism , for example those of Van Gogh

or Munc etc,in that both are deeply introverted:

Both are ,say,called the art of cry .

 

 S: Right. flamenco is a sort of art different

from what is called 'art for art's sake'.

Flamenco has no room for such a concept

so ethereal and dainty.

It arises not out of an effort to create an esthetic image

but from  an elemental need to find one's place

in the midst of chaos and cruelty..

 

M: In this regard flamenco is a profoundly intimate art,

which is what differentiates baile flamenco 

from classical ballet.

The movements of the two are exactly the opposite.

 

 G: How ?

 

S: For example, as mentioned before, ballet takes to the air,

seeks to be light, almost weightless in its movements and

to hover by using spectacular gymnastics,

while flamenco dancing is concentrated downward

toward the ground, " the most intense energy right

on the spot, tied to the earth, stamped into it." 

The two are in contrast to each other,

in that Classical ballet is extroverted, on the other hand,

flamenco is introverted  in nature.

 

G: I agree. In the modern paintings of  ｅxpressionism

you would feel such intense energy of introvertedness.

Van Gogh's self- portrait would be a good example of it. 

 

S: sure. he is such a profoundly intimate artist.

His painting must have been created under a condition

of strong intoxication.

 

M: I agree. 

 

S: As you know, basically different sets of aethetics

govern classical ballet and flamenco.

Ballet dancers  are youths in top condition with willowy,

asexual physiques.

Flamenco ,on the other hand, is of a basic element

of eroticism. But flamenco's eroticism has nothing

to do with the vulgar frivolity of ????tourist attractions

that only the sex appeal of their female dancers.

 

 

  Flamenco and Jazz

 

  S: Then, I am hungry, Mary.

what is ready for this evening?

 

 M: Oh, main dish? beef and bread .

Of course, ready is Sherry, too, for our Guest!  

I hope Gohk to like it. 

 

 G: Gracias, Mary. Walking to the downtown here,

I was led by an intoxicating sweet smell of wine.

Was it  what is called Sherry?

 

 S: Sure. Sherry comes in ethnology from Jerez,

the name of this city.

You can meet  the sherry repositary 

on the way to the Fundacion Andaluza de Flemanco,

Andalucia's major centre for the study of flamenco. 

 

( And Sahsa wants coffee )

  M: Okay. Sahsa.

 And Gohk, you too like espresso ? or regular? 

 

 G: Regular. please. Americano is preferable,

but regarding art and literature, 

I prefer European to American.

 

 S: you mean you love aesthetic poets like Baudelaire

more than American writers?

 

 G: In the exception of Poe, maybe so.

How about you, Mary?

 

 M: Gohk, you must be a beauty digger.

As for me, Lorca is my favorite, of course,

during my stay in Jerez.

 

 M: I have thought that Flamenco and Jazz are analogous

to each other , in that both come from an elemental cry of

the people mired in poverty and unconquerable suffering of life. 

 

S: absolutely. Improvization, as in American Jazz ,

plays an important role in flamenco.

 

???? M: Oh, Robin indicated one for their resemblance. 

He thinks that  Flamenco is tragic-

or else, by reaction, festive.

There is an obvious parallel- though one misleading

if taken too far-with the music of the American blacks ,

especially the early blues and New Orleans jazz.

 

G: In that point, we Koreans, too, have a music

in parrallel with flamenco. 

It is Pansory  a Korean traditional folk music.

It also has unconquerable suffering in it.

 

 S: Oh, Gohk ! You led me to have an encounter

with the Pansory, during my stay at your hometown In Korea.

I was moved to heart-brokenness by the  hursky voice of

a Pansory singer.

 

 G: As for dancing,  you would find a alikeness

between Flamenco and Salpury, a Korean traditional dance.

 

 M: Really? very interesting.

 

 

 

                     Flamenco and Bullfight

 

 S:. Hi, GohkI, what book is it with you? Is it !flamenco! ?

 

G: Right. I love it. These days I cannot resist a lure to open it

whereever I go.

 

 S: You must be intoxicated by flamenco.

 

 G: Yes in a sence.Oh, your saying reminds me of a question .

In the book, I read ,

' the ultimate bond between flamenco and the bullfight is duende'.

What on earth is duende?

 

M: Duende? When it comes to the meaning of it.

I prefer to recommend Pohren's book, The art of flamenco .

 I think it easier to understand the meaning through the book. 

Just a moment I wiil be back soon

with the book I have now on the bed,

 

 S: she is kind of,flamencoholic .

 

G: You are right.

 

 M; Hei, Gohk read the line here.

By the author, Duende is the exposure of one's soul,

 its misery and suffering, love and hate,

offered without embarrassment or resentment. I

t is a cry of despair, a release of tortured emotions,

to be found in its true profundity. only in real life situation,

not in the make-believe world of theatres and nightclubs.

 

 G: Oh! you are a real flamenco!  Mary, let me ask another question.

Why do they like to compare the flamenco to the bullfight?

Because both are of the same origin or style?

 

M: Personally I love Eva Yerbabuena dancing.

one time when she dancing in black suit

I was reminded of a bullfighter pointing a knife at the bull

before him in a bullring in Seville,

in the striking contrast of light and shadow in it.

And aonther time the alegrias Eva was dancing

reminded me of billows of the sea of Cadiz

surging upon the shore