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Dancing up a storm

The word flamenco summons a flurry of images – the swirl of a ruffled skirt, the rasp of a guitar and the clacking of castanets. But after being seduced by a live performance in Madrid, Apoorva Dutt finds that the dance form is much more than an assortment of clichés.

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The first thing that hits you while watching a flamenco performance is its sheer athleticism. The dancers stomp and pirouette till beads of sweat fly from arched brows and drip from the tips of sharp noses. The dancers at Madrid's Corral De La Moreria are accompanied by a guitarist and a musician shaking a tambourine. We are halfway through our meal, with half-drunk glasses of red wine being raised to admiring cries of “Salute!” while all my preconceptions of flamenco are totally eroded.

Most of us have never seen a live flamenco performance. But the word 'flamenco' quickly summons a flurry of images – the swirl of a blood-red, ruffled dress, the whip of a fan, the rasp of the guitar and the frenetic clacking of castanets. So my visit to Madrid's Corral De La Moreria, one of the most famous flamenco shows in the world, has an element of deja vu. Located on a small, inconspicuous bylane in central Madrid, you enter Corral De La Moreria through a set of small wooden doors that swing open into a small room furnished with a table and a chair. One wall is covered with photographs and when I look closely, I find black and white photos of a grinning Frank Sinatra, a clearly inebriated Mohammed Ali, and a young, awkward-looking Al Pacino with a girl hanging off his arm. Other patrons at Corral De La Moreria have included Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali. I then realise I may have underestimated the appeal of a performance at the historic venue.

Another door leads into the main sitting area. The tables crowd around a small wooden stage that is only slightly more elevated than the rest of the restaurant. Established in 1956, Corral De La Moreria has played host to some of the best flamenco dancers ever. Today, Maribel, 27, is one of Spain’s best-known flamenco dancers. With the help of a translator, she explains the long years of training required to become a professional flamenco dancer. “Spanish people are very culture-proud,” she says. “For example, many modern Spaniards don't approve of bullfighting, but we accept it as a cultural tradition. Similarly, flamenco dancing is considered one of the hallmarks of Spanish society.” Flamenco is believed to have originated during the period the Arabs ruled Andalusia. The golden age of flamenco is considered to have ended at the beginning of the 20th century during which time its variations like the more serious form of cante jondo found popularity. Originally, the flamenco was not set to music and was simply accompanied by the clapping of hands known as toque de palmas.

In our mind's eye, this mesmerising dance can be reduced to gimmickry. But in reality, the dance form is more than just a flip of a skirt. Two male dancers join the troupe halfway through. Each performer sets a different pace. One slowly encircles the group with purposeful strides, while another dances with a woman in what is clearly a stylised courting ritual. He implores on one knee, stomps petulantly, then returns after a brief flirtation with another dancer to the female dancer who finally concedes and dances with him as the crowd cheers the unfolding mini-romance.

Maribel says performing can be more emotionally tiring than physically exhausting. “Flamenco is meaningless without the correct expressions; that can only come with feeling,” the performer says. “My teacher used to regularly collapse in tears after a performance because he would recall painful memories to charge his performances. And he was one of the best of his time.”

Formal training for the flamenco is a relatively new phenomenon. Barely 50 years ago, the dance form was passed on by old hands in informal settings. However, it has also been plagued with controversy. There are two camps — one comprises traditionalists who fear adulteration, while the others, known as nuevo flamenco, take the liberty of sampling from any idiom. "Nuevo flamenco was influenced by South American dance, which shows in the fandango (a South American couples dance) and the cantes de ida y vuelta (road trip songs),” says Maribel. The performer belongs to the pro-innovation camp. “Flamenco is a living, breathing art form. To attempt to contain it in tradition is missing the point.”

The performance at Corral De La Moreria ends with one of the female dancers dancing furiously at the edge of the stage for 15 minutes, without a pause even as her companions exit gracefully after repeated curtsies. The dancer is one misstep away from falling into a bowl of gazpacho but that never happens. The clapping and cheers reach a crescendo just as the dancer, seemingly on the verge of collapse, finishes with a speed that leaves her feet and the edges of her skirt a complete blur. She finally pirouettes, careens to a halt, and stares into a room seduced into pin-drop silence by her sheer talent. She takes a bow, and the room goes wild.

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