The gypsies have a rich and varied, multi-cultural history. Largely nomadic, gypsies are believed to have originally come from northern India and the first written record of their appearance in Spain comes from documents dated 1447, a time when the Moors had completed almost 800 years occupying the southern part of Spain. Music had always been (and still is) an important part of gypsy festivals and everyday life and, in Spain, they developed their own versions of local music, which in turn reflected the influences of the occupying Moors and local Catholic and Jewish populations.
By the end of the 15th century, as the Catholic kings of Spain completed their ousting of the Moors, a persecution of all non-Catholics got underway and continued for the next two centuries. The suffering and injustice of those affected during this time was the subject of many songs and music of the oppressed, including the gypsies, and is kept alive today even today, especially in the more serious forms of flamenco.
Traditionally, flamenco music and songs fall into three categories: jondo or grande (“profound” or “grand”), dealing with the intense and serious human emotions of death, anguish, despair, or religious conviction; intermedio (“intermediate”), generally less profound, but nevertheless with an emotionally stirring or moving story-line; and chico (“light”), covering the gayer side of love and romance, the countryside and a sense of fun. It is the flamenco dancer’s role of course to best capture the sense and mood of the story told in the music and song.
Flamenco retains a strong and continuous link with the earliest Asian origins of the gypsies. Take a closer look the next time you see flamenco performed seriously and you will probably notice the comparison with many traditions of oriental dancing. The elegant and graceful movements and gestures of the female dancers in particular will echo those of many other dancers in southern and south-eastern Asia, though perhaps with a little more force, emphasis and drama. Even the dancer’s use of the familiar castanets (castañuelas) is reminiscent of the oriental finger cymbals. Mind you, castanets are not as central to flamenco dancing as you might expect – they have only been incorporated into dances during the last hundred years or so.
The characteristics of flamenco dancing are probably well known. The flamenco dancer creates complex rhythmic patterns with an intricate display of footwork, distinguished by toe-and-heel clicking steps. To do this, special dancing shoes or boots (the zapatos de baile) are needed and this footwear generally has dozens of nails or studs driven into the soles and heels, and are partially reinforced to add stability. For all the increasingly frantic and compelling footwork, however, the upper part of the dancer’s body conveys grace and posture, studiedly undisturbed by the vigorous movement of the feet. The women wear long dresses with voluminous skirts, sometimes used to emphasise and show off the languid grace of the arm movements to even greater effect.
At this point, it’s probably as well to add a note on the art of spectating at a flamenco performance. However tempting you might feel it, do not try to clap the rhythm of the dance! The dancer is usually accompanied by precise hand-clapping or percussion, as well as by song and guitar. A characteristic rhythmic pattern is contratiempo, where the dance is accentuating exactly between the beats. To accomplish that, the dancer needs a very steady mark on the beat, which few spectators will manage and the music’s intricate rhythmic pattern gets completely disturbed. On the other hand, applause from an appreciate audience is very much welcomed – at any point during the performance. So there’s no need to wait until the end. If you see or hear a sequence that strikes you as particularly impressive, don’t hesitate to burst into spontaneous applause.
The flamenco we see performed today is the product of a relatively recent “discovery” and development of the dance during the 18th century. The first serious schools of flamenco dance started to appear between 1765 and 1860, establishing a firm position in the ballrooms of Spain. There developed what is considered by many to have been a “golden age” of flamenco during the period 1869-1910. During this time, in the many cafés cantantes (“music cafés”) of the artistic set, dances were steadily elaborated into more or less their present form. This is also the period during which the more serious forms of flamenco – the cante jondo, expressing the more profound emotions – came to the fore. Flamenco dance probably reached its zenith during this period and was the major attraction in many cafés cantantes, where the accompanying guitarists also became extremely popular and attracted an ever-increasing following.
Like the popularisation of many art forms, flamenco also saw a gradual loosening of its initially more disciplined dances and the music became altogether “easier”, as flamenco troupes began to travel and perform in countries all over the world. Certain “purists” of the art-form – intellectuals generally far removed from flamenco’s gypsy roots – sought a revival of what they considered “true” flamenco. One such intellectual and composer, Mauel de Falla, for example, organised a contest in Granada in 1922, specifically to promote authentic cante jondo.
Although the gypsies, as living ambassadors of the flamenco tradition were given a pretty torrid time of things during the Franco years, their dance nevertheless enjoyed something of a renaissance from the mid-1950s. Outstanding dancers and soloists from many small tablaos (successors to the early cafés cantantes) made their individually successful journeys to the great theatres and concert halls of Europe and beyond. Guitar players acquired great reputations with their sublime, masterly playing.
