Root Magazine

Journey to the Heart of Flamenco

Travel in Andalucia

From Andaulcia.org, a guide to travel along the path of Flamenco.

Visit these pages for guided tours created specifically for those who love Flamenco:

Telematic Flamenco Guide

Routes through the Flamenco Territories 

There are still very few who, in a illustrated and planned form, come to Andalucia to enjoy the flamenco tourism.... to offer the traveller who plans to visit Andalucía, to those who are travelling through or simply living in it, a useful and colourful tool, to start to know the history of flamenco and to learn to differentiate one style from another, and at the same time dispose of the necessary addresses and activities that favour, in many cases, a first contact with Flamenco in Andalucía.....

Cádiz expresses itself through ´cantiñas´; Málaga through ´jaberas´, ´jabegotes´ and ´verdiales´; Córdoba through ´zánganos´ and ´fandangos´ through Lucena; Granada through ´zambras´, ´roas´, ´granaínas´ and ´medias´. If there weren´t any heterogeneous, on the other side of the pond, they lent us the ´guajira´, ´milonga´, ´vidalita´ and the ´rumba´ and afterwards the invention of the ´colombiana´ by Pepe Marchena. In effect, Andalucía is a melting pot whose understanding abounds more than acorns and chestnuts, of dragnets and trapnets. A part of its soul is built on cave dwellers, Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Christians and converts, bricks in a musical wall to which the gypsies added their battlements: the ´quejió´ (complaint).

Following images are from the 11th Biennial Courses & Performances from the Andalucia website

Guide to Sevilla Flamenco

Paco Sevilla's new Guide to Studying Flamenco in Sevilla promises

the best deals in lodging, dining, and shopping, as well as a complete guide to dance, guitar, and cante instruction.  It includes an extensive list of Internet cafes, hints on how to find telephones, buses, and restrooms, and suggestions on how to travel safely.

Since the "Read more" link is not functioning, we'd love to recommend this book however we're not so sure of its reliability or exactly how recent this information is.

root Magazine wants to hear from our readers.  Have you read this book, used it, would suggest it to fellow travelers?

True Global Dance

root is all about global dance culture as we try to connect the forms, passions and places where humanity comes together in movement.  Mad respect goes out to this guy who takes our tagline to the next level!

Truly dancing to his own drummer, click the link to see:

Man Dancing

A Short Film of Beauty

The Winter of the Dance

A short film about dance, inhibitions and freedom.  Ok, so summer has just begun but watch this and remember it when winter comes around again. 

The Winter of The Dance is a short documentary about art, inhibition, and dancing on street corners. Like most great jazz the film was an experiment. It had a budget of Zero and was recorded in the “film clip mode” of a point and shoot digital still shot camera no larger than a cellular phone.

A film for every dancer to watch and gain renewed inspiration from.

Bhangra & Brasil

Letter from the editor:

An update on this past weekend in the City by the Bay - San Francisco.

Saturday night was spend at the Rickshaw for Non-Stop Bhangra.  The thumping Punjabi party beats mixed in with Dancehall and even Reggaeton flavors kept my ears ringing into Sunday morning.  Dance group DholRhythms performed to a backdrop of Bollywood movie clips and a live tabla player in the DJ booth.  The diverse crowd was all smiles and hands-in-the-air till closing.

Sunday morning, alarm clocks beeped across the city as Brazilians woke up early to catch the World Cup live.  Brazil beat Australia 2-0 and thousands put on their green & yellow to catch Seu Jorge give a free outdoor concert at Stern Grove.  I wish I spoke Portuguese so I was able to sing along with the rest of the audience as they know every word to every song.  Caught up in the moment, I spent an hour in line for an autograph chatting with friends who spend their lives between Brazil and San Francisco.  Amazingly Seu Jorge signed CDs and talked with fans for hours after his performance.

Keeping with the theme, our Brazilian taxi driver (lamenting the fact she had to work and couldn't join her friends to see Seu Jorge) drove us to a Sunday evening Pagode party.  One of the joys of a smaller city, a cluster of fellow dancers from Energia do Samba were already at the bar.  Live musicians played in the tiny bar packed to capacity in a dancing sea of green & yellow.  Again, everyone sang along perfectly to each song as they danced samba & forro.  There is something about the music and Brazilian culture (and the fact that Brazil won the World Cup game that morning) that made everyone feel like a long lost friend.

root will be reporting on Bhangra soon!

Marcy Mendelson

Editor

Flamenco Music Review - Part III

Ojos de Brujo - Techari - Meaning 'Free' in Caló (a Gypsy language) is the third album from this group.  An experiment in pushing this form of music even further than previous works, they collaborate with musicians from varied disciplines without ever losing the spirited passion of flamenco.

Todos los Compases - Sólo compás - This album should be in the library of every student of Flamenco music and dance.  It is a breakdown of meters that will train your ear and is perfect for practice between dance classes.  Esflamenco.com writes 'The meter will no longer have any secrets for you.'

Flamenco Woman - Various Artists - Celebrating women musicians over the generations, Flamenco Woman brings together famous names and rising stars. 

Flamenco Music Review - Part II

Paco de Lucia - Cositas Buenas - Listening to this album inspired the beginnings of root.  I don't know where to begin about Paco.  Amazon reviewers have it right when referring to the master guitarist's work as 'Mephisto-like technique' and 'probably the finest album Paco's put out since the seventies'.

Carmen Amaya- La reina del embrujo gitano - Esflamenco.com writes 'The most temperamental, tragic and passionate figure in flamenco dancing was also capable of expressing the captivating emotion of the gypsy race as a cantaora (flamenco singer).'  There are a few tracks where one can even here the sound of the dancer's feet.  A classic for any afficianado of the artform.

Radio Tarifa- Temporal - Named after a ficticious radio station, Radio Tarifa fuses North Africa and Spain in multi-layered grooves that create a new form of fusion for other bands to aspire to.  Listen closely for Afro-Cuban and Mediterranean influences as well.

Flamenco Music Review - Part I

An eclectic selection of great flamenco works, both classic and inspired fusion.  You thought we'd be reviewing Gypsy Kings?  Think again!  Some of root's favorite artists in no particular order:

Joaquín Cortés  Gipsy Passion Band - The world famous dancer brings us his musical direction where he composes, directs, and plays percussion.  It is almost Cuban-flavored in parts and can be considered a fusion record.

Diego El Cigala - Picasso en mis ojos - Brilliant modern cante (flamenco singing) album as a tribute to Picasso.

Tomatito - Aguadulce - One of the flamenco world's leading guitarists, Tomatito's audience reaches far and wide.  This album features a collaboration with his daughter, Mari Angeles Fernandez Torres.

Killer Moves in East Oakland

Hip-hop hyphy culture - hyphy being a derivative of the word hyper - is the latest form of letting go of inhibitions in the dance.  This story from the San Francsico Chronicle talks about youth getting together to express themselves, their energies and feelings within a community space.

Everyone involved in the program is younger than 22, and they've see more death than most adults twice their age....."A lot of the youth we serve are not used to anyone caring about them," said Jacky Johnson, 21, a Youth Uprising organizer. "A lot of people see these rowdy youth with dreads and gold teeth and they just want them to go away. We're embracing these young people as long as they play by the rules here."

Read the full article here:  San Francisco Chronicle
Click here to watch a dance competition in action:  Hyphy Dance Battle

For more information on Youth UpRising and their community mission:  Youth UpRising 

Words from a Flamenco Teacher

A clip from Carolina Lugo's website reveals her lifelong passion for dance:
 

Ms. Lugo made her professional debut at the age of 14 with Ms. Lola Montes. She toured extensively for nine years performed in major concert halls in the United States and Internationally as well as with leading symphonies throughout the country. Ms. Lugo has danced as a guest artist with the Los Angles Opera was also a featured dancer with the Los Angeles Symphony and has danced as a featured artist at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. She was a company member of Rosa Montóya Bailes Flamencos for five years.

From Carolina herself written for root....

My experience as a Flamenco-Spanish dance teacher/director, has taken me down many paths, many exploratory journey's about myself, people and the world of dance. First of all, teaching teaches you, the teacher. I think of teaching not just as a craft, but an art, a profession that needs to be taken seriously, especially when it comes to teaching children and youth who are serious and aspire to pursue a career in the dance world.

 

I believe that my students are a reflection of me, so I take seriously the amount of time I need to take with each student to insure that they are learning. I consider the individual's natural abilities, musicality, technical strengths and weaknesses, memorization skills and whether or not the student has an eye for details; if he/she is a visual, auditory or combination of the two type of learner.

 

As a teacher or director, the above factors are important to consider when choreographing a dance for a group of people or for a soloist. Of course, the more skilled the dancer or dancers are, the more complex the choreography can be.

 

For a new beginner student entering a classroom in Flamenco-Spanish Dance for the first time, she/he should expect to feel overwhelmed for the first month of classes. This genre of dance is highly coordinated with syncopated, pulsating rhythms and accentuated beats. New students need to allow themselves an 8 week window period to acclimate themselves to this art form. This time period allows the student to see if they like this dance form and are able to pick up some of the technique and the teacher to assess the students abilities and musicality for this dance genre. It is the responsibility of the teacher to give the student an honest opinion whether to continue their studies or try something else.

Carolina

www.carolinalugo.com