Flamenco in Barcelona

Once again our trip advisor/organizer, Elisabetta, did an excellent job of selecting THE Flamenco Tablao to visit. (There are many available of course, but quality varies.) This one is called Tablao de Carmen, named for the famous Flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya. She has a "rags to riches" story and is probably the single most influential person in the development and renown of Flamenco.

More about the Tablao and Carmen

We thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and show. This particular Tablao is located inside Poble de Espanyola which is a replica of a Spanish village, with different areas of the village representing the different regions of Spain. It is a tourist venue however our guide recommended it since all the shops are owned and operated by artisans -- no "made in China" junk sold -- so if you want authentic pottery, leather, etc., this is a good place to shop. We didn't go early enough to really enjoy the Poble, so will do that next trip.

Poble de Espanyola

Entrance to Poble Espanolya

Classic architecture of the Spanish village

 Tablao de Carmen

Our first taste of Sangria

So we learned that Flamenco is music, song and dance fused together with story-telling. It is very emotional, and the intensity of the dancer's, singer's and musician's focus is obvious. There are various Palos--musicals styles within Flamenco--but it appears that the combinations actually performed maybe mixed based on the moment in time.

One of the dancers

Here is a short video of one of the dancers. Very hard to capture the spirit of the moment in video, and of course I have someone in front of me whose head is in most of the video. Sigh!