Day 44 continued: flamenco

  That night we went to a flamenco show. It was in a tiny room with a small stage and small barrels to sit on. The whole experience was very intimate. We sat with our sangria and listened to a band of 2 guitar players and a singer. She had an amazing deep strong voice. They each stamped a foot and she clapped as well to keep the rhythm going. But the main form of keeping in time was watching each other, especially the 2 guitarists. They were looking intently at each other the entire time, reading the signals of what was to come. The dancer was absolutely beautiful. She would start tapping her feet to signal to the band that she will start dancing and this is when the singer would know to be quiet. Due to the informality of the show we were able to ask the performers questions. The dancer said often she improvises the moves - there is a lot of visual communication between dancer and musicians too. Of course the song was in Spanish but when we asked the story behind the music, she said there wasn't really one. It's about love and the town but there isn't really a flowing story. I found this a little disappointing at first but it's nice to be able to sing about different aspects of life without having to follow a story.