Flamenco and Oriental – A Study in Contrasts
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Southern Spain, especially the region known as Andalusia, was the cultural capital of Arabic Empire for 800 years, as well as the cradle of flamenco. Although flamenco’s musical and dance roots can be initially traced to India, historical studies have found evidence that Arabic and even Jewish instruments, rhythms and singing all played a fundamental role in the development of this intriguing music. While I was living in Spain to study flamenco in the early 80’s, artists such as Lole and Manuel were among the first to explore the connections and contrasts of Arabic and Flamenco music. Lole, whose father is Egyptian, was the first to sing Oum Kalthoum classics accompanied by flamenco musicians. A flurry of innovative and creative music fusing these two musical forms followed. The relationship between these two dance forms has been my personal passion for the past 20 years. The past 10 years has seen an ever increasing interest in Spanish/Oriental Fusion in both dance and music on an international level.
In much the same way that Middle Eastern Dance can refer to oriental dance, ROM, baladi, shaabi, and folkloric forms, the term Spanish dance includes a wide variety of forms, such as the “gypsy” flamenco, classical Spanish dance (as represented by such famous companies as Antonio Gades), regional folk dances and sometimes even Mexican and Latin dance. This article will focus primarily on oriental and flamenco.
With over 30 and 20 years of these dance forms behind me respectively, many of my oriental dance colleagues are curious about what they understand to be the influence of oriental dance elements in flamenco. Both are considered to be “seated” dance forms, but oriental dance posture is more of a gentle softening of the knees, which enable the natural release of the hip, than an actual seated position. The knees and the feet are also kept close together, except in a few movements such as the large hip circle and the horizontal figure 8. Contrarily, the flamenco “seat” is a deep plie, as in Indian dance, with the legs often in external rotation and the knees open, particularly during the slower stationary ‘marking’ movements and turns. However, during fast footwork sections, the dancer markedly decreases the bend in the knees, (like the oriental “soft knee” position) and usually keeps the feet close together and parallel.
Unlike highly structured forms of dance such as classical ballet, flamenco and oriental dance forms are highly individualistic, in the sense that there are as many ways to interpret their vocabulary of music and movements as there are dancers dancing. Both demand the emotional maturity of a dancer who has lived a full spectrum of life’s many experiences translate mere technique, movement and music into an artistic statement. Both are extremely sensual. However, this is about where the resemblances end.
Oriental is the epitome of femininity! The archetype of feminine energy! We even primarily engage and thus reinforce our YIN (feminine principle) muscles to correctly execute our oriental dance movements. These YIN muscles include the abdominals and the adductors of the thigh and many of the body’s flexors. The texture of its movements is soft and fluid, permanently transitional. Its moods are predominantly joyful, playful, saucy and sweet. Its energy flow is external, open, inviting and giving. Its centers of energy are in the abdomen, pelvis and hips. It is specific, isolated and controlled movement within a sea of relaxation. It is profoundly connected to the floor but still floats above it.
Flamenco is masculine. Its moods are tough, powerful, defiant and in your face. It is pure “kidney” dancing with a predominance of very male YANG extensors muscles such as quads, gluteus maximus and the large erector spinae muscles of the back to create its movements. The textures of its movements are alternately internal contained stretch and sharp angular exaggerated extension. Its moods are tragic, angry, defiant and ultimately proud. Its energy flow is internal, solitary and exclusive. Its centers of energy are the upper chest, the kidneys and the thighs. It is the tightly wound-up tension of a great cat waiting to spring, every muscle ready to explode into the unexpected. It pushes into the floor and through to the earth, while the upper body stretches up to the heavens.
The hip movements are extremely different in these two dance forms as well. In oriental dance the hips will either drop or lift in vertical movements directly under the rib cage or twist and shift outward past the position of the feet and/or knees. In other words the hip is the furthest point away from the center of the body and usually the primary focus of the movement. In flamenco the hip is released into a dropped position as the foot is pressed or percussed into the floor. After this initial contact, it will gradually shift slightly upwards or out to accommodate the weight shift in the feet. The movement focus is most definitely on the foot. Another primary group of movements in oriental dance involved rhythmical shimmies or alternations of the hips to follow the music, while in flamenco the feet interpret the complex rhythms. Another movement that is found in both flamenco and oriental is called a pelvic rotation. The oriental version is usually small, slow and subtle, performed with the feet close together and often with the focus on one side. The flamenco interpretation reflects the African roots of the black slaves from the New World Colonies with feet wide open and the rotations large and exaggerated.
Finally the arms, so often believed to be similar in these dance forms are also extremely different. An oriental arm is soft, gentle, floating up out and away from the torso or embellishing our movements. The hands are soft and quiet with gentle flexion and extension movements of the wrists and fingers to create rippling wave-like patterns. The flamenco arm is powerful with constant strong muscle tension from the ribcage through to the elbow. The positions are angular, as in Indian dance and although they occasionally reach into full extension, they generally frame the torso and the head with curling and twisting motions controlled by rotations of the wrists. The wrists and fingers are tense and stretched into maximum extension and flexion. Movements can be extremely slow and controlled with elbows lifting and opening or rapid and circular.
Many people are also curious about the relationship between the Spanish castanet and the finger cymbals. They are often very surprised to discover that the castanet is not a typically flamenco instrument, but is used predominantly with classical Spanish dance, as well as with many of the regional dance forms including Sevillanas and Fandangos de Huelva from Andalusia. Because these two regional dances come from the cradle of flamenco, they have become included in the “flamenco” repertoire but are still regional folk dances. The castanets are attached to the thumbs with a cord-like sting, pulled tightly to keep the two halves open. Then the left fingers close over the left castanet to keep the beat and the right fingers fill in the melodies on the right castanet. Our finger cymbals are attached to the thumb and middle fingers. The base beat is kept with the right hand and the left hand fills in the melody. We are able to play finger cymbals with oriental dance, beledi, and folk forms such as Ghawazee.
In summary, although several similarities can been found between flamenco and Indian dance and even flamenco and Turkish Rom, there are almost no elements of oriental dance that resemble flamenco, either technically or energetically. This is one of the reasons that it is extremely challenging to undertake fusion projects of these two forms, but such a project will certainly provide the dancer with an amazing experience in juggling anima and animus, the feminine and masculine aspects of our selves. Most Arabic/Spanish fusions which I have seen to date are performed to “rumbas” with Arabic and Spanish vocals. Although the rumba is sometimes performed as a fun and crowd pleasing finale in a typical flamenco performance, this form was directly derived from Latin and Caribbean music and does not offer the vocal patterns or the emotional impact that makes flamenco such a powerful art form. These certainly do not offer either the musical or rhythmical elements needed for oriental dance. I am still waiting for music, which truly fuses our wonderful Arabic rhythms and instruments with the soul rending singing and relentless rhythms of flamenco.