The Dance of Fire
Flamenco is the dynamically measured music and flamboyant dance of the Spanish Romani gypsies known as “Gitanos.” It evolved around the campfires of a persecuted people always on the run from government authorities, a form of much needed release from constantly struggling to survive and not be forced to assimilate into the “civilized” populations of Europe. Flamenco is the dance of total abandonment to a unique guitar time signature that creates a whirling vortex of fire in the night, the dancers becoming inextinguishable human flames.
“There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.”
– Vicki Baum, Grand Hotel
“The figure of the cantaor lies between two great lines: the great arc of the heavens on the outside and the zigzag of the serpent in his soul on the inside.”
– Federico Garcia Lorca
“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
“Come Fairies, take me out of this dull world, for I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame!”
– William Butler Yeats
“Cuando paso por tu vera y me roza tu vestido, hasta los huesos me tiemblan.”
– Solea por Bulerias
“Flamenco is the means through which man reaches God without the intervention of saints or angels.”
– Luis Antonio Vega
“Flamenco is life… it is like an injection of morale that lifts the spirit, so that one can go on living.”
– Rafael Maya
