A Night of Flamenco 

By Tammy Martin, Fiorella Torrejon and Christelle Hunt-Thomas

This evening started with my first taste of Cava, which is a Spanish sparkling wine similar to Italy’s Prosecco, or France’s Champagne. Both Champagne and Cava come from grapes, sometimes the same grapes. But Spain doesn’t have the same restrictions on where these grapes can be grown as France does, so you get a sparkling drink with all the flavor and none of the price tag. Salud! 

Showtime - the Flamenco setting was intimate. Plush chairs were set around a wooden stage in a darkened room with warm red lights, making everything glow. This is done so you will concentrate on the performance. Flamenco is a very emotional style of dance. The dancers, or  “bailador”, try to express their deepest emotions by using body movements and facial expressions. In a Flamenco performance, it is customary to shout your bravos during the performance, clapping while the show is going on. I enjoyed the seriousness of the dance, but I also couldn’t help thinking the singer looked like Tom Hardy and the male dancer in the blue suit looked like Charlie Day (from Sunny in Philadelphia). But what a performance! Fiery, passionate, wonderful. All that a Flamenco should be.

--TM

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I enjoyed the flamenco show very much since I have never experienced one like that one before. Since I am Spanish, I grew up singing and dancing to all types of music including flamenco, and since especially love dancing, I was always very intrigued by the amount of passion and strength that this type of dance requires. I was able to notice how every dancer has their own flow but was able to also adapt to their partner when need it. Flamenco dance has been around for hundreds and thousands of years and originated in the south of Spain, mainly in Andalucia and Mursia.

We also got an option for a drink before getting into the show (which btw was a nice starter to enjoy the show) and I chose Cava to try which later on found out that was a very similar drink to sparkling wine but originated from Spain.

--FT

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The Flamenco performance that we got to see was honestly the best part of the trip for me. I love listening to music in all different kinds of languages and in this performance, it really hit upon the kinds of things I love. The mixture of cultures stood out to me the most and I thought the dancers looked so amazing in their outfits. The entire time I was just sucked into the singing and the dancing that had so much emotion in it. It was clear that the people dancing really loved what they do and I enjoyed seeing how they all supported each other while being on stage. It was the best part about this trip by far and even though it was the first time I've ever seen that style of dancing, it won't be my last. It's something I'd love to see a lot more because there's nothing I love more than listening to music and seeing people dance. There's a lot of beauty in the two because they're a universal language and can really bring people together even if they don't understand what's being said. It was a great experience that exceeded my expectations by a long shot. 

-CHT