A taste of blood

Flamenco art emerged from the margins of society, from an awareness of humiliation, fear, poverty and contempt, roughly two centuries ago. Influenced by Arabs, Jews, Roma, non-Roma and Black people, among others, it has become an emotional, musical and civic language, one of the most universal of artistic languages. Visceral, passionate and striking, it addresses the emotions directly and leaves no one indifferent.

Cante jondo has something of an open wound in human consciousness through which our ancient history, pain and joy speak. It is a realm of feeling where pain and pleasure meet, an extreme state reached by both listener and singer. This communion produces duende. To define and capture this miraculous moment at the summit of flamenco, one must have absorbed and loved it from the beginning. In García Lorca’s words: “Duende is a power, not a work; it is a struggle, not a thought. It is not a question of ability, but of a truly living style: of blood, of ancient culture and, at the same time, of creation in action.”

An artist with grace, touched by duende, crosses the boundary of the human and turns flamenco into a divine art.

Flamenco accompanies, consoles and shelters those who take part in it in every circumstance of life: lullabies to put children to sleep; circle and swing songs for childhood games; threshing songs, street cries, forge songs and mining songs for work; alboreá and yeli for marriage; carceleras, deblos and tonás for solitude and abandonment; tangos, alegrías and bulerías for family celebrations; fandangos rocieros and saetas for prayer; and, in pain and death, the balm of soleá and the cry of the seguiriya.

Most dances seek to free the body from its weight and achieve weightlessness. Other cultures, by contrast, strike the ground with their feet and forget flight. Flamenco dance uniquely asks dancers to keep their feet on the ground while raising weightless arms to caress the sky. Perhaps this tireless search for freedom and beauty, between sky and earth, is the best metaphor for flamenco.