Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Flamenco At First Night

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Within the last few weeks, one of our CDP colleagues had a post that asked the question: what is the thing in your life that you most regret? At first nothing came to mind. I'm not obsessed by guilt and second guessing. You know, like the Little Sparrow singing Non, je ne regrette rien. But then I remembered something. Late one evening after dinner in Madrid, my wife and I crossed the Plaza Mayor heading for the Metro. As we left by the north gate, we passed a bar or club with doors flung open and the most intense, passionate flamenco music pouring out. Should we go in, order a drink, watch the show, soak it up? Well...I don't know if they'd want us and it's all locals and it's crowded and it's getting late and for heaven's sake they all speak Spanish and... So we didn't go in. I regret that. The place was so obviously hot - and genuine. What an idjit. What an experience I missed.

I like a lot of Hispanic music forms such as tango, salsa, meringue and flamenco. They have a combination of passion and sophistication hard to match in the north. One of the First Night performances was by Los Flamencos, a local group who practice the pure form of the art. All red and black, swirls and stomps over a strong but supple guitar. It was hot. Glad we stayed.

10 comments:

Sharon said...

This is a gorgeous photo! Beautifully composed!

Olivier said...

belle photo de danse et de fete.

Luis Gomez said...

Beautifully captured Bob!

Virginia said...

And we're glad you stayed as well! Ahhh that red and the terrific composition and movement. We watched the tango dancers along the Seine one night. Pretty amazing. Unlike you Bob, my camera wouldn't focus because of the low light and I came away with next to nothing to show for it. Guess freezing weather will slow down any tango dancing this time of year.

brattcat said...

You got a do-over, in a way. Lucky you. And judging by this shot you made the most of it.

Gunn said...

A great (action) shot!

Nathalie H.D. said...

I missed a few posts - geeez, St Louis DP has gone wild in my absence!
Wild and international.
From Japanese yesterday to Spanish today, what's next?

Love the photo. I wonder how you can get night action shots that aren't blurry. I haven't figured out yet how you can solve the fast action/low light equation with a camera. I'm a real beginner when it comes to these things.

Anyway, re Spanish dancing I'm glad you stayed this time. You won't have regrets next time around!

Louis la Vache said...

Outstanding photo! We're glad you caught this one and shared it with us!

cieldequimper said...

La sensualité... Très belle photo !
Did I wish you une bonne année ? I cannot for the life of me remember, sorry! So here goes: happy New Year!

Jackie said...

Thank you for your lovely words on my blog today - you're too kind!

This probably isn't going to make you feel good, but when I saw your picture the first thing I thought of was that I could leave a comment about when I was in Madrid a few years ago, and we wandered into a club just off Plaza Mayor and saw the most amazing flamenco you could ever imagine. Absolutely true - you missed an incredible experience (AND they gave me the most enormous gin and tonic in the world).