Visiting the Flamenco Museum, by Nathaniel Casper

On September 24, 2019, I visited the Museo Baile de Flamenco. When I heard that Flamenco was a good dance I thought, "Oh, this is going to be just like the dancing out on the street right?"
Oh, how wrong I was! The musicians began to play. Mostly, they were playing on the guitar but they also used castanets, & a small drum. I wanted very much to take a photo of the dancers, but unfortunately, the musicians stated at the beginning that you cannot make any recordings whatsoever because of intellectual property-copyright laws. The Flamenco itself was incredible because each dance had a different rhythm and beat to it. The first dance started out very slow, and at first, it was dominated by the female, who was seemingly ageless (at times she seemed like an older woman but she moved so gracefully I thought she was a younger woman). The female dancer moved slowly & gracefully as she began to twirl around, and eventually incorporated her shawl into the dance. When the female dancer incorporated her shawl into the dancing, she was still even more elegant, like a scarlet ibis cornered by a predator but yet refusing to yield. What I surprised with, in visiting the museum, was learning that Flamenco has had many different influences over many centuries: Native Andalusians have contributed to the development of the dance, of course, but cultural scholars & dance historians have debated that there are similarities to as well as influences from multiple dances from different cultures including, just to name a few: the Sephardic Jews who inhabited Spain until their expulsion by the "Catholic Monarchs" of Isabella & Fernando. Also, another significant influence comes from Romani People. Some scholars, according to the museum exhibits, have even traced the roots of Flamenco partially back to the Muslim Moorish People who inhabited Iberia from 711 to the fall of the Emirate of Granada, hundreds of years later. These claims by scholars could very well be true because if you look at the movements of some Romani dances & certain North African dances, some of the movements are somewhat similar (though a little different from) the Flamenco we know well.
I was also fascinated to learn, that each particular Flamenco dance communicates a particular message. A few dances communicate emotions such as love. Other dances communicate a message of sadness or despair. Still, other Flamenco dances communicate a message of joy & happiness or even sexuality. In a way, Flamenco is an integral part of Andalucian Culture, just like the dishes of Paella with rice/meat or seafood or Flamenquin (my personal favorite of Andalusia) or Andalucian Gaspacho. These foods & other parts of regional culture, make Andalucia separate from the larger Spain. The United States in a similar way is characterized by stereotypical "American" foods, which form an integral part of our diet on special occasions. Such foods which are considered typically "American" include Apple pie, Macaroni & Cheese & venison.

Getting back to the dancers, the woman continued to twirl with grace and then the male dancer stepped in. The male Flamenco dancer embodies the typical traits of what many Americans might consider their "idealized Andalusian man" such as dark black hair, a tall thin body, & intense brown, black or at times blue eyes, showing the genetic mix of Andalusia. The male Flamenco dancer began the first dance by stomping his feet & clapping rhythmically. Later however; the male incorporated many, many twirls into his dance, twirls interspersed with the stomping of the feet & rhythmic clapping. The female Flamenco dancer also embodies the idealized Andalusian female: an entirely elegant combination of beauty & grace, who seems ageless, for she carries herself elegantly & even regally.