Flamenco

I just got back from seeing a flamenco show at Casa de la Memoria (House of Memories – sounds overly dramatic, no?). It was awesome. It was a thing organized through our program – 12 € for a pretty impressive show. I mean, thats not actually that cheap at all, but I still loved it, and I had already paid for it anyway.

The show was in the courtyard of a gorgeous old building in the city's historic barrio of Santa Cruz (I sound like an ad don't I?), with 2 rows of chairs lining 3 of the walls and a cascade of vines from above covering the fourth. They had fresh flowers and candles for decoration, and a stage in the middle of the courtyard. First, the guitarist and singer did a song, then they had the female dancer come out for a song, then a guitar solo song, and then the male dancer. I don't think I've ever seen a male flamenco dancer – its actually pretty neat – not like tap dancing or irish dancing in the least even though essentially its the same thing. Its distinctly....flamenco.....and also distinctly masculine, surprisingly. The dancer himself, however, wasn´t so much. As Hannah pointed out, he looked like some sort of love child between Fabio and Antonio Banderas - thin, dark, with curly black hair almost down to his waist.

When we left the place everyone was commenting to each other how much they liked it. I saw my (very american) friend Seth wandering out of the doorway, twirling his hands distractedly, like the dancers. He informed me that he's going to marry a flamenco dancer and that he had a man-crush on the guitarist's hands.

Today I heard two bands practicing at the bank of the river. Its kinda cool to walk along, the lights shimmering in the still water of the river, the Torre de Oro towering on the bank and the cathedral in the background, hearing spanish marches float out over the water. I expect that they're practicing for Semana Santa.