On Friday night I experienced a new understanding of the Spanish culture. My program took us on a weekend trip to Ronda and Seville. Ronda is about 2 hours away and Seville was about another 2 hours from there. The night we got to Seville, our program took us to an authentic Flamenco performance. It was one of the incredible artistic performances I have ever viewed. I had no preconceived notions of Flamenco, and honestly thought that it was a partner dance. I was extremely wrong. 

                  The room was dimly lit, with high ceilings and pillars touching the sky. Vines crawled up the pillars and a rather small wooden stage was centered in the room. A sense of mystery lingered in the room as I waited for what was to come. Then two men entered the room and brought 2 chairs on the wooden stage and sat down.  One man carried a guitar with him and the other was empty handed. The man with the guitar started tuning the guitar, an unspoken signal for the room to go quiet. His fingers spontaneously strummed the guitar like a daddy long leg crawling along its web, creating a melody so unpredictable that everyone was entranced. He didn’t just strum the guitar; his individual fingers picked each string and created a rhythm that sounded like stereotypical Spanish guitar music but at the same time was completely original and authentic. A few minutes into the guitar playing, the man sitting next to him started singing in a tone so powerful, everyone was extremely surprised by what came out of his mouth. His eyes were closed, and you could tell the effort he was putting into his singing by the squinting of his eyes and the movement of his hands. It looked like he was about to cry every second from the amount of emotion he put into his singing. The tone of his voice reminded me of what I would think of when I think of traditional Middle Eastern of Indian music.  I wondered how someone came to know that they embodied this talent. His voice came from deep down inside of him, in a place that I doubt most people ever dare to venture with their voice. It was the most vulnerable and expressive song I’ve ever heard anyone sing.  The music was a sponge, absorbing and entrancing us, and no one noticed the elegant woman in red waltz in. She was dressed in a skin tight crimson dress that was form fitting all the way down to her ankles, where the dress transformed into endless ruffles. Her hair was slicked back into a snug bun, with embellished barrettes decorated her head. There was no smile on her face, rather a look of intrigue and caution, but also of ferocity and intensity. She glided onto the wooden stage and didn’t just dance; her dance moves seemed to attack the stage. The woman’s feet fiercely stamped the stage, she whipped her ruffles from side to side, and her fingers artfully curled around themselves, like a harpist strumming her instrument, as she elegantly moved them around her body. She pounced from corner to corner as if she was a tiger on the prowl. Her dance told a story of love and passion and downfall and triumph. The room resonated with emotion and tension, and everyone was awestruck by this novel way of telling a story.

                  From this performance I feel as if I came to a better understanding of the Spanish culture, but mostly the Spanish people. The Spanish people are fierce, passionate, and fiery. They are blunt and not afraid of life. Rather, they seem to understand the primary beauties of life, like love and music. Things that come to mind when one thinks of Spain are Flamenco, soccer, bull fighting, and food. All of these things are implanted deep down in the roots of the culture. They were ingrained into the culture with effort from tradition, love, and family. Yet even though these traditions are old, they still make the Spanish people who they are today. There is always a story and always something new to learn. So much history and so much pride lies in this society, and it was something so new that it took me to actually see this Flamenco performance to come to this realization. I have definitely come to a new appreciation of the Spanish culture, and I am excited to keep trying new things so that my understanding of this culture will grow even more.

Location: Seville, Spain