Flamenco para todos

Note: if you want to skip my rambling, there's an album here.

A packed day today, getting home at close to midnight. Intercambio first thing, and from there I went on with Norwegian friend S and British friend C to the all-day Flamenko (sic) para Todos festival in the park. The entertainment was almost non-stop for the whole day, and there was food and drink on hand too. We instantly bumped into guiri and F when we arrived, so we joined them for a drink. 

We were in time to watch the presentations by four different flamenco dance schools, two in Almuñecar and two elsewhere. I'd expected this to be fairly amateurish, but no. The dancers ranged in age from five-year-olds to adults. As we entered the park, three small girls were flouncing around in flamenco dresses and elaborate hair and make up. S asked their mum  if she could photograph them and they instantly struck the appropriate stern-faced flamenco poses. Later they and other youngsters (including a lone boy) performed on stage with equal aplomb. The adults were good too, and their teachers performed beautiful solos. This is María, a member of the Almuñecar flamenco dynasty who are the driving force behind the festival.

After her performance we went off to find something to eat. Unfortuately we picked yet another bar with woefully slow service, so we missed the next show, which guiri and F said was excellent, but caught the last performance, featuring a large group of adult dancers in bright dresses. When they had finished their performance they all hurried out to gather round the front of the stage and watch, spellbound, a solo by a dancer who was presumably their teacher. She was very good as evidenced by the fact that the musicians came back on stage for her (the pupils had been performing to a backing tape).

It was after five by now, so we headed home, in my case to put on a lot more clothes for the evening show. When I got back I found guiri and F already seated and Norwegian S soon joined us with her husband R. The bill was singer Kiki Morente and dancer Manuel Fernández Montoya. They are both well known, at least around here. The latter was quite something. I have never seen such bad taste in stage costumes. Denim and sequins anyone? Earlier he was dressed like some 1930s lounge lizard in a satin jacket. He also had the most incredibly tight trousers ...

As you can see he is quite chunky for a dancer. He spent quite a lot of time striding round the stage begging for applause, but in the moments when he did dance he was impressive, drumming his miked-up heels like machine guns and even doing Nijinsky style leaps. Guiri reckoned he had enough material for one great dance, which he'd split over three. "He would be knackered at the end, but that's what dancers are for."

We were confused at the end of his performance, because we assumed the two headliners were performing as a duo. But it turned out that his singer was not Kiki Morente, who was on next, after a pause. S and R left -- it was late by now and quite damp and chilly. But we hung on with the aid of blankets and gloves, and it was worth it -- Kiki is a very good singer, with more subtlety and control than most flamenco singers. I can rarely understand more than half the words of flamenco songs, but it's all about the expressive singing, so it doesn't really matter. He had a boy band of clapping singers and they all did an a capella encore at the end. Sample here. It was a really excellent festival, let's hope it becomes a fixture.