My upcoming book, titled “Flamenco and Bullfighting: Movement, Passion and Risk in Two Spanish Traditions,” examines correlations between the movements of flamenco dance and Spanish bullfighting. The manuscript is now in the hands of my pubisher McFarland Press with expected publication in 2015! A second book presenting my method for the notation of flamenco dance is also in the works. Stay tuned! I will announce publication dates as soon as they are determined.
The Flamenco Bulerías — an improvisational site of negotiation between personal freedoms and familial constraints
The inspiration for this paper was my experience as a participant/observer at a gypsy wedding, a boda gitana, in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain in the fall of 1999. The wedding I attended was being celebrated by a well-known gypsy family, the tribe of the famous flamenco singer, Fernando Fernández Monje (1934-1981), known as El Terremoto (in English, “The Earthquake”) (Vega 1990, 746). This gypsy family has produced many highly noted flamenco artists, such as the dancer and singer, Tía Juana la del Pipa (1905-1987), a great interpreter of the bulerías de Jerez and the mother of singer Juana Fernandez and dancer Antonio El Pipa, winner of the 1995 Premio Juana la Macarrona (Vega 1990, 607) (Caballero 1998, 321-2, 380). A highlight of my experience was the opportunity to witness...
Read More
Reflections on Intracultural Dance Research: Investigating the Kinesthetic Culture of Spanish Bullfighting and Flamenco Dance
The year is 1992; the location is the Casa de Campo park, located on the right bank of the Manzanares River just west of Madrid, Spain where I am taking private lessons from a Colombian matador, Jaime, in the art of bullfighting. In Madrid to study flamenco dance, I am testing the popular theory that knowledge of bullfighting leads to better understanding of the flamenco arts…
Click here to read the entire Cross-Cultural Dance Resources Newsletter
Read More