Last flamenco show of the season 
By Angela Garcia

Performance
Junta Flamenca
Fri, Aug 31, 5 pm, 
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
200 pesos


Flamenco duets featuring a man and a woman usually have all the fire and emotion of a duel, the dancers’ eyes locked upon each other, the aggressiveness passing back and forth between partners as their abrupt yet compás-based strides complement each move in the upper torso.

As in American jazz, much flamenco is based on improvisation and a basic rhythmic and chord structure. The rhythmic structure in flamenco is known as compás. 

The essential mood of the cante, like many American blues songs, is one of despair and tortured emotions. This pena negra, or black sorrow, can be expressed merely by the mournful repetition of the word “Ay!” The siguiriya has been described as singing of pains without consolation, the exposure of one’s soul stripped bare.

Recurrent themes of cante jondo are the terror of death and the pain of love. 

With the passage of time, other forms of Spanish music interacted with the cante to form two sub-groups, the cante intermedio and cante chico. Cante intermedio most often describes working conditions and death, but with a less tragic feel than cante jondo. Cante chico is more lighthearted and happy than the other two forms. Most flamenco dancing is done to this style of music.

The Caliphate of Córdoba introduced the guitar to Spain in the ninth century, though no one is certain when the guitar was first used to accompany flamenco. We do know that flamenco guitar changed forever in the late nineteenth century as guitarist Ramon Montoya began to integrate tremolos and arpeggios learned from his classical training. 

Tickets for this last show of the summer season are available in the Teatro Santa Ana box office.