The cry launches a cante jondo, literally a deep song, a declaration of disappointment, suffering, heartache, death.
The cantaor massages the melody like a lover, or a warrior, elongating a phrase then pulling back, manipulating each word with a quiet caress or a fist to the face. “How do you teach someone soul?”ĮL GRITO, THE CRY, erupts from deep within, a place of anguish, desolation, exasperation. “Cante is about soul,” declares internationally acclaimed native New Mexican dancer and teacher María Benítez. “El cante es todo” (the song is everything). “El cante es el flamenco” (the song is flamenco), said Santa Fe-based dancer and teacher Antonio Granjero, who hails from Jerez de la Frontera, the cante cradle of Spain. For native and transplanted performers alike, the history, integrity, and inspiration of cante is not lost.
EL CANTE JONDO LORCA PROFESSIONAL
With a concentration of professional performers and students in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico is now widely considered the flamenco capital of the US. This set the stage for today’s flourishing flamenco scene. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that a flamenco performance tradition took root in the state, influenced by such pioneering local icons as Vicente Romero and María Benítez in northern New Mexico, Clarita García de Aranda in Albuquerque, and others. In New Mexico, Spanish classical dance and folkloric traditions emerged at local fairs and fiestas during the early twentieth-century Spanish colonial revival, and instruction in Spanish and Mexican dance was popular into the 1950s. Touring flamenco troupes and newly arrived flamenco immigrants were soon performing in New York, Boston, and beyond. The cantaor moved to the background, toning down more intense aspects of cante to perform more upbeat, applause driven songs.Īs flamenco’s entertainment value solidified in Europe, it also took hold in the United States. As dancers engaged the audience, the family circle expanded to a semicircle. Choreographed performances put dancers in the spotlight in dazzling costumes, serenaded by guitarists who often played long solos. Travelers, writers, and others sought the “exotic” qualities of flamenco, but above all, they wished to be entertained.Īs paid performers, many nineteenth-century flamencos adapted their tradition to suit foreign tastes. The Spanish-language meanings of the singer’s stories were undoubtedly lost on foreign audiences. The singer’s idiosyncratic vocal stylings were unfamiliar, perhaps even uncomfortable, to uninitiated ears. With flamenco’s transition to the global arena, however, cante was upstaged. shaped how we view, experience, and understand flamenco today.” “The transformation of a familial tradition into a respected art form. Occasionally, the bang of a wooden staff or cane on the floor or the clink of a blacksmith’s martillo (hammer) on an anvil enhanced the beat.īetween 18, the flamencos of southern Spain moved from society’s margins to center stage of flamenco’s golden era. Theirs was an intimate, stripped-down interaction that utilized the body’s basic instruments, from percussive footwork, to rhythmic palmas (hand clapping) and finger snapping, to graceful floreos, arm and hand movements.
The singer’s distinctive inflection and vibrant vocal trill inspired spontaneous dance with individuals engaging directly with the singer, who steered the mood, tempo, and direction. Their emotional oral histories and community narratives called family and friends to the kitchen table or the street corner to listen. Leading the conversation was the male cantaor or female cantaora. “Flamencos, those who are part of the flamenco community, were not professional performers but everyday people.” “Originally, flamenco was not performed before an audience,” wrote Nicolasa Chávez in The Spirit of Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico, the companion publication to the exhibition Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico. Shared at home or on the street, passed down from elders to youth, flamenco personified a cante-driven conversation about the daily life experiences of repressed minority peoples of Andalucía. But before the mid-nineteenth century, when dancers in flashy flamenco costumes and fast-strumming guitarists filled European theaters and cafes, flamenco was a community-based folkloric tradition with cante at its core. TODAY, ALONG WITH EL BAILE (dance) and el toque (guitar), el cante is among the trio of Spanish art forms that comprise the dramatic performance art of flamenco. The song was pure emotion, the sound of the soul itself.
Its mournful melody traced the grief, grit, and grace of los Gitanos, the Gypsies, expressing centuries of persecution, resistance, and, ultimately, survival. The song held a story of human experience.
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