Today a bulerías by Luis de la Pica along with a video and a rhythm and coordination activity for you to do from home.
Bulerías
Luis de la Pica
How to dance flamenco, flamenco travel in Spain, flamenco dance students and their experiences, interviews with flamenco artists, translations of flamenco letras (songs) from Spanish to English
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flamenco poetry
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Today a bulerías by Luis de la Pica along with a video and a rhythm and coordination activity for you to do from home.
Bulerías
Luis de la Pica
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Today, a beautiful letra and a difficult translation ...
From Tonás y livianas
by Manuel Machado
Quita una pena otra pena…
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Ever experienced pain and sorrow and struggled to truly feel into it even though you knew you needed to? Today's letra and video might be able to help with that. Below find a fandangos letra and a video of Rocío Márquez.
Fandangos
La pena grande que se llora
con las lágrimas se va;
la pena grande es la pena
que no se puede llorar;
esa no se va, se queda.
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I want to share a story with you about how I messed up dancing bulerías last weekend, how it left me feeling not so happy about my dancing, eight important lessons about flamenco (and life) I learned in the process, and how those lessons served me when I applied them to a sticky situation in my life.
So last weekend I took a workshop with Alfonso Cid. He shared bunches of bulerías letras with us (you'll find one below) and gave a very informative introduction to flamenco, with a focus on cante. He had us all singing and doing palmas and even got some of us up dancing.
Toward the end of the workshop someone asked Alfonso to address how to dance bulerías por fiesta, how to dance to the cante. (As you know, this is one of my favorite things.)
Yay! (and Olé).
Some people got up to dance, mess up or not mess up, and learn along the way.
I was one of those people.
And here is what I learned:
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Mercedes Ruíz, our teacher on the Flamenco Tour to Jerez, was awarded the 'Flamenco Hoy' prize for the Best Flamenco Dancer of 2015 (Mejor Bailaora). You can watch a new video of her below as well as read a flamenco letra on love.
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I'm in Jerez.
One by one the Flamenco Tour students are arriving. It's so exciting.
Tonight we get to know each other at the opening night tapas reception. Then we'll go to the Peña los Cernícalos to watch Ana María López's Fin de Curso. Tomorrow we begin our workshop with Mercedes Ruíz. The next day we start our bulerías class . . .
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Today I want to share a bulerías dancing tip with you along with a letra.
When I'm in Jerez on the Flamenco Tours, Ani offers all kinds of quick and dirty tips.
Here's one
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On the last Flamenco Tour to Jerez the ladies spent a good amount of time in the bar talking to José Luís and Maribel (our hosts). This is often the case as they are quite fun to chat with, and they make us feel at home. (Some people don't speak Spanish. I'm convinced this makes the conversations all the more fun.) So Luís loves flamenco letras and happily shares them with us.
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Another letra from this alegrías by David Lagos and one more video that I'm pretty positive will make your day all kinds of better as soon as you watch it.
Alegrías
David Lagos
A un lance de su capote
suenan la palmas en la plaza
y es que torea en la plaza
vaya torero Rafael de Paula
With a throw of his cape
the clapping sounds in the bullring
because he is bullfighting in the bullring
Wow, the bullfighter Rafael de Paula
You can hear this letra at 2 minutes 30 seconds, but I highly recommend watching the whole thing, especially one minute in when he sings his tri tri tri trans and the very end.
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Awhile ago I posted the first letra of this alegrías by David Lagos along with an unbelievably wonderful video of him singing it live accompanied by his brother Alfredo Lagos. Today find a couple more not to be missed videos of David performing it, along with the first letra. One is him live in Cádiz, and the other is him singing for Mercedes Ruíz dancing in a bata de cola during a rehearsal.
Que es chiquita y salerosa
no le pongáis tanta falta…
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I'll be honest. In the beginning, I wasn't a huge fan of flamenco singing.
It wasn't that I didn't like it.
It intrigued me that's for sure. But I didn't feel inclined to sit around and listen to it a whole bunch.
It didn't take long before that changed.
I guess it happened early on during my time in Sevilla, on that first flamenco trip.
And actually, while I was initially drawn to the baile, the cante played a huge roll in getting me hooked on flamenco ... and keeping me in it.
Just like the compás.
Well, you know how it is now.
Which brings me to the letra:
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David Lagos sang the following letra at our private show here in Jerez the other night.
Naturally, I cried, and I wasn't alone…
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On Friday I went to the Peña la Bulería. As you may recall, it is literally steps away from our apartments here in Jerez. I was feeling sleepy and my legs were not looking forward to standing on the hard marble floor after having spent a good deal of time in flamenco shoes and walking on hard streets that day, but once there I was glad I went. As usual.
A young singer named Enrique Remache was performing.
I heard many fantastic letras, like like this one, and jaleos, and took great pleasure in witnessing the reactions of the público.
Always one of my favorite aspects of seeing flamenco in Jerez. Men looking at each other and laughing with pleasure upon hearing a particular thing sung a particular way. I won't try to explain this. Just please visit Jerez sometime in your life, and see.
I also love seeing the mix of generations at the peña shows. Teenagers to people in their 70's voluntarily going to hear flamenco.
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Quite awhile ago I published this letra. It was fall not spring when I posted it, and at that time I was preparing to embark on the VERY FIRST FlamencoTour to Jerez. Now as I get ready for the sixth (yes sixth!) tour, I'm re-posting it…
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Today a song that Paco de Lucía composed for his mother from the album of the same name which he dedicated to her, Luzía.
Las cuerdas de mi guitarra
están llorando…
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The sun and the moon have been hanging out together in Portland today. I guess they're getting along.
(Below you can see the crescent moon I've been admiring in today's blue sky.)
Sol y Luna
El sol le dijo a la luna
vivir contigo no puedo
porque cuando digo blanco
tú siempre me dices negro
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We wrap up Ida y Vuelta month with one more guajiras. Check it out then watch Concha Jareño dance.
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The second letra in this month's Ida y Vuelta series. A guajiras letra and a video of Rocío Márquez.
Aquella noche, caía
la lluvia muy lentamente,
cantaba triste la fuente…
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It is Halloween, and I just returned home from the peña. I am in Jerez.
On the way I saw a family dressed up in zombie-style Halloween costumes. Their two dogs were dressed as jack-o-lanters.
We saw Manuel Agujetas Hijo sing with Domingo Rubichi accompanying on guitar.
Below is a letra por fandangos that he sang.
(You can hear El Chocolate singing it here.)
Fandangos
No me quites la botella
que yo me quiero emborrachar
no me quites la botella
voy a beber de verdad
y a ver si no pienso en ella
y yo la consigo olvidar
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