A personal flamenco journey 10

               3. flamenco , bullfight and ballet

 

 

 

 

 

  Tramping about Madrid I happily came across a flamenco book titled !flamenco! s . I opened the book once and again everywhere on the road and in cafes or the hostel. Reading the book ,I stopped walking and sat down at a corner on the road for a while, caught in particular by the lines as 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.'

 

 

 

  In Jerez at the moment of feeling thirsty for someone to speak in English, not in Spanish, the words kept in the mind with ,I fortunately enjoyed long talks with two ladies, one of whom was Shasa Bermouth, a bailaora living in Jerez and the other, Mary an American  retired nurse. Mary said she flies every year to this city to join the historic Jerez International Flamenco Festival held in February and during her stay here she Learns flamenco baile from Shasa. We three met in Mary's apartment located in the gypsy quarter of Santiago. Below is a part of our talks we shared that day.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                  

 

                       flamenco is down ; ballet is up

 

 

 

Mary : 'flamenco dance is down ; Ballet is up', This simple passage is thought to be enchanting and impressive, when I encountered with it for the first time .A flamenco writer, Robin  working in Jerez once said it to me. He has his studio 10 minutes away by walk from here. I am reading his flamenco book titled 'Song of the Outcasts'. You as a flamenco should read it.

 

 

 

Shasa: I would like to add another ｅxpression with the same meaning to it: baile is tied to the earth; but ballet takes to the air.

 

 

 

Gohk: I love both ｅxpression. When it comes to flamenco baile. the two ｅxpressions are to the point.

 

 

 

Shasa: Hi, Gohk! Mary is a true flamenco, a faithful affacionado. She has been absorbed in it. In flamenco dialogues she always have her eyes sparkling .She is deeply interested in Duende, what Garcia Lorca said.

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Gohk: Ole'

 

 

 

Shasa:( singing a line of Tona)

 

y alivien mi sufrimiento

 

and ease my suffering.

 

 

 

Gohk: At my last day here in Jerez I get a chance comfortable and free. Now I am enjoying to talk with both of you speaking in English. During my stay in Spain, ignorant of Spanish I have been driven to an constant  restlessness. I was at a loss that few Spanish here will speak English. They seemed to keep Spanish only. They are very kind and generous to foreigner trampers like me ,but seemed to be indifferent to other cultures and languages, in particular to English .

 

 

 

S: Well, You are partially right. Spanish 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 painting of ｅxpressionism in that both are deeply introverted: Both can be 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: Right. 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: To put it concretely, how ?

 

 

 

S: For example, as mentioned before, ballet takes to the air, seek 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." And 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 this 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. Frankly speaking ,thanks to Gohk, I happen to enjoy not Spanish but Californian dish.

 

 

 

G: Gracias, Mary. Walking to the downtown here, in spite of myself 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, you were interested in.

 

 

 

 

 

...........

 

...........

 

M: Okay. Sahsa.

 

   And Gohk, you too like espresso ? or regular? 

 

 

 

G: Regular. please. As for coffee American 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 a 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.  By the flamenco writer 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 blacks in the United States, especially the early blues and New Orleans jazz.

 

 

 

G: In that point, we Koreans, too, have a music in parrallel with flamenco,  Pansory, a Korean traditional folk music also has unconquerable suffering in it.

 

 

 

S: oh, Gohk ! You led me to have an encounter with the Korean Cante,during my stay at your hometown In Korea. I was moved to heart-brokenness by a 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 the 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: Oh, it 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 intoxicated ,too.

 

 

 

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. It 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: you are a real flamenco!  Mary, another question. Why 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 the striking contrast of light and shadow, of Seville. And aonther time the alegrias Eva was dancing reminded me of billows of the sea of Cadiz surging upon the shore