Flamenco: A Human Experience

• Elements of Flamenco
• Theories about Flamenco
• The Andalusian Story
• The Gitano Claim
• Populist vs. Socialist
• The Heart of Flamenco
• Sources

Flamenco has no simple past or explanation.  My own experience with this folk dance and music style, beyond television and movies, was apparently not the real thing, at least in some scholars' eyes.  The old man would have passed for a hobo.  His soulful songs, even sung in their native Spanish, brought tears to my eyes with the emotion his voice carried.  The young man's strumming and slapping of the amplified acoustic guitar was both exotic and dynamic.  The dancers, one older and one younger, made me envy their flamboyant dresses swirling as the energy; the seductive looks and graceful yet powerful swinging of arms and hips that is characteristic of the art entranced onlookers.  They called to the audience, teasing and suggesting.  The percussion of their feet arousing the beat within the audience carried me along as well, making me wish they were my feet.  If what I experienced at the American Folk Festival in '06 was a watered down commercial version of Flamenco, I know I would love even more the passion of the purist Flamenco.  If one word could be used to describe Flamenco, that would be it, passion.  It is representative of the passion of its people, although it is debated just who those people are.  A simple explanation of Flamenco does not do it justice, however a summarization of its social, cultural and political significance might suffice in giving the reader a feel for Flamenco just the same.

Elements of Flamenco

Flamenco invokes images of crowded, smoke-filled Spanish taverns reverberating with rousing male voices and the beat of wooden shoes on wooden floors accompanied by syncopated guitar and the flash of colorful skirts and scarves where everyone gets involved somehow in song.   Janero describes Flamenco as a "dance form with roots in the folk traditions of various cultures."   Arising from a number of sources - gypsy songs possibly from India, Hebrew incantations, Moorish rhythms, and Andalusian folk songs - Flamenco emerged as a professional dance style in cafes in 1842 (Janero, p. 334).  Washabaugh approaches an explanation of Flamenco from a gender perspective - there are male and female aspects of Flamenco.  The elements of a Flamenco song, or cante, include emotion-charged coplas (lyrics) accompanied by the percussive strumming and tapping of the toque, or Flamenco guitar playing.  Washabaugh looks at these elements as the male portion of Flamenco, elements that create “dark and musty experiences of male-bonding” that is part of Flamenco itself.  In contrast the female portion of Flamenco is dynamic and colorful - an in-your-face release of sound, passion and provocation through dance and rhythm (p.4).

Theories about Flamenco

It is fairly undisputed that the home of Flamenco is the Andalusian region of Spain. According to Washabaugh, there are four theories as to the basis of Flamenco:

• 1. It is Andalusian
• 2. It is Gitano, or gypsy
• 3. The populist point of view that it is a voice of resistance
• 4. The socialist point of view that is a phenomenon that brings classes together

The Andalusian Story

After hundreds of years of evolving, Flamenco came into its Andalusian character by the end of the 18th century. It (p. 32). The last half of the 19th century became known as the “Golden Age of Flamenco” It is during this time that it became a popular tourist attraction in itself, some say tainting its true form with commercialism (p. 33). Rich European travelers gathered in cantinas to be bedazzled by ‘professional’ Flamenco entertainers. This contrasted with Flamenco’s prior existence as an art form often performed at private weddings and other community events where lines distinguishing between audience and performer were blurred. In the early 1900’s the opera flamenco attracted even more watchers. These “spectacles” “obscured true Flamenco” argue purists (p. 33). In 1922 a not so successful attempt to bring the true Flamenco back into the light was attempted through the Concurso del Cante Jondo, a two day contest of song. Cante Jondo, meaning “deep song”, was the term used instead of Flamenco to distinguish it from the popular form of Flamenco then reigning (p. 34). The commercial ersatz Flamenco was popular until the 1960s when intellectuals sought out the true Andalusian Flamenco (p.34).

The Gitano Claim

The Gitano argument is that Flamenco is the ethnic music of the gypsies (Washabaugh, p. 34). During hundreds of years of persecution the Gitanos created cante Gitano, songs that expressed the pain of the gypsies. It is contended that these songs were somewhat underground, reserved for private events like weddings and baptisms (p. 34). It is argued that the Andalusian Gitano Flamenco was obliterated by commercialization and Gitanos were “prostituted” as Flamenco performers in the cages cantantes in the mid-nineteenth century (p. 35). Papapavlou argues that Flamenco can be both gitana and andaluza. She maintains that, from the point of view of the people themselves, both groups can use the same arguments to claim Flamenco as their own. Being pure is perhaps the most essential criteria of being Flamenco. Flamenco is often characterized by its community in terms of being truthful, deep and evocative - bringing tears to those who experience it and exposing the emotions of those who perform it (Papapavlou).

Populist vs. Socialist

Rather than focusing on ethnic origins the populist view looks at Flamenco as a voice of opposition and “cultural resistance” (Washabaugh, p.36). Suffering from prejudice and persecution the lower classes of Andalusia expressed their suffering through song and this is how Flamenco was developed. Once again, after 500 years of being the “voice” for the lower classes, it is commercialism that is blamed for changing Flamenco into something else (p. 37). In the late 1900s the resurrection of pure Flamenco brought this voice back to be heard as a true representation of the art form (p.36). The sociological view of Flamenco contrasts with the populist view particularly in its assessment of the transition the dance form went through its commercialism. As Flamenco became popular it remained a voice of the lower classes but a voice that was heard by the upper classes (p. 37). The cafes cantantes were places where Flamenco performer’s stories were heard by their oppressors allowing a voice, or vent, if you will (p.38). As Washabaugh puts it “the song…performs a double catharsis, exposing and relieving both the pain of the poor and the guilt of the wealthy” (p.36). Both segments of society could walk away from the performance feeling a sort of relief.

The Heart of Flamenco

There is little fault to be found in any of these perspectives although perhaps the most poignant and pure would be that of Papapavlou - that it is the characteristics of Flamenco, its honesty and passion, that make it what it is, not its origins or affects of society. In this perspective the performances experienced by this author are not merely commercial facsimiles of Flamenco as the songs experienced were quite effective in evoking heart-gripping passion and eye-tearing understanding, even more remarkable in that the words of the song were not even understood. These different perspectives do however come together to provide a deeper understanding of Flamenco. An art form of passion, it reflects the emotionalism and histories of both Andalusians and Gitanos. Its soulful-ness encompasses the gamut of romance and seduction, oppression and resistance, and perhaps the very nature of human experience, rousing feeling more than anything else - the very essence of art itself.