Atlantica - 01.04.2006, Page 40

38 AT L A N T I CA
SEVILLEa
Flamenco was born in Andalucía, the swath of southern Spain
stretching about 4,500 km from the Portuguese border to the Spanish
district of Murcia in the east. There is some debate about the exact
geographic origins of this flamboyant form of dance and accompany-
ing percussion, guitar and singing, but its modern seat is a constellation
of cities in Andalucía: Granada, Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, and, most
famously, Seville.
Like ballet or NASCAR, flamenco has its own vocabulary that
enthusiasts throw around liberally. Alegría is a term you run into a lot,
indicating a kind of flamenco song that has an upbeat... beat. Duende,
which means “spirit,” is another, and is the essence of what captivates
flamenco audiences when watching a soulful performance.
Every flamenco tourist in Seville comes in hope of catching a glimpse
of honest-to-goodness duende. Some visit during big flamenco events
like the Bienal de Flamenco, or go to big venues like Seville’s Teatro
Central to watch flamenco celebrities from the international circuit per-
form. Others try to sniff out more intimate spaces, hoping they’ll catch
a rising star turning out a heartfelt performance to a small crowd.
And still others try to capture it themselves. Like tango and salsa,
there are dedicated students of flamenco throughout the world who
make pilgrimages to Seville to learn from the masters. Flamenco schools
are fixtures throughout the winding back streets of central Seville, most
of them run by dancers that teach everything from beginning classes to
courses for professionals.
Despite having given up dancing about a decade ago, I decided do-it-
yourself duende was my best shot at finding a glimpse of the real deal.
The next morning, after my cafe con leche, I started looking for a class.
THE INDUSTRY
It would be pointless to come up with an official count of the number
of flamenco schools operating in Seville today; the tourist-immersion
business is capricious, and the small studios open and close frequently.
I spent hours one afternoon on dusty side streets trying to find the
address of a school I found online. Turns out it was closed, but while
looking for it, I stumbled on two schools I hadn’t read about.
“There are a lot of competitors now,” said Monica Sanchez, a coor-
dinator at Taller Flamenco, a school in the bohemian Alameda de
Hércules neighborhood. (Alameda de Hércules, just north of the heart
of central Seville, apparently used to be a dodgy area, but now is occu-
pied by grow shops, veggie-friendly cafés and hip bars.)
Taller Flamenco has been in business for 11 years, and specializes in
fully loaded, week-long packages for beginners, in which students are
picked up from the airport and have the option to live in the school’s
apartments provided.
“Most of our students are women who are 30 or 40 years old,”
Monica explained. The women come to dance, and the men come to
learn guitar, which is also taught along with singing, percussion, and
Spanish. “Flamenco is therapy, you know? It allows you to express your-
self without anybody else – without a partner.”
In Taller Flamenco’s small, cool entryway, two notices were posted on
the bulletin board. One offered the services of a “Profesor de inglés” and
the other was for “Zapatos flamencos. Nuevos. Para mujer, 38, color negro.
Precio 30 E.” Shoes.
“You need to buy your own,” said Marie Louise Gorvild, one of the
BAILAR! Sign up for private classes or week-long flamenco courses
at Taller Flamenco, Calle Peral 49, +34 954 564 234, www.tallerfla-
menco.com, or take individual group classes and various workshops
at Escuela Flamenca Juan Polvillo, Calle Sol 84, www.escuelaflamenca.
com, +34 954 909 115.
SLEEP Any tourist map of Seville will draw a neat box around the
downtown neighborhoods for you. The most central, and also the most
inundated by tourists, are El Arenal, El Centro, and Barrio de Santa
Cruz, though I liked the Macarena neighborhood south of the famous
Basílica de La Macarena best. If I had a big budget, I would stay at the
lovely boutique hotel Alcoba del Rey de Sevilla (www.alcobadelrey.
com) just north of the church. But if you want to be in the heart of the
winding streets and small squares of downtown, you cannot find a bet-
ter location that the Hostería del Laurel (www.hosteriadellaurel.com).
The hotel itself is architecturally interesting, and reasonably priced. The
rooms are very clean, but they are small, and not somewhere I wanted
to hang out all day. Same goes for the Hotel Europa in the El Arenal
neighborhood.
EAT For breakfast, duck into Bar Laredo on Plaza de San Francisco for
a cafe con leche served by an old school waitstaff in white coats and
black ties. For a mid-morning snack, find yourself a thick Sevillian hot
chocolate at one of the many cafes in town. For everything else, pull
up a wooden stool anywhere you see pork legs hanging from the ceil-
ing. Order a glass of the house red or a beer, some green olives, a half
racion of aged Spanish cheese and a half racion of acorn-fed Iberian
ham. Olé!

Upcoming Flamenco Festivals in Andalucia
Potaje Gitano. July, near Seville.
Festival Torre del Cante. June, near Malaga.
Festival Internacional de Guitarra. July, in Córdoba.
Bienal de Flamenco. In September 2006. The biggest flamenco festival
held every other year in Seville.
See the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco at www.caf.cica.es
for more information.
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