Enjoy Flamenco: the art closest to life / 探访佛拉明戈：最贴近生活的艺术

My story of Flamenco begins with Carmen that I saw a few years ago. In the lobby on the first floor of the stage tavern, Carmen stretched her elegant arms, knocked on the tiles and danced to the rhythm of the song 'love is like a free bird'. The dance was extremely fast, with a powerful force hitting the ground and a charm rhythmic, while the whole body maintained a natural ease, as if separated from the footsteps, maintained its independant pace in the wild rhythm.And Carmen sang, "love is a bird. No one can tame it.Even if it is intimidation, coercion, it is indifferent, honeyed words as useless.Even if you do not love me, I also want to love you, as long as you are taken a fancy to, you can be careful!"In the soft light, this gypsy woman became the embodiment of freedom and love.

说到弗拉明戈的故事，还得从《卡门》说起。几年前，第一次看《卡门》的舞台剧，在舞台小酒馆的一楼大厅，卡门舒展着柔美优雅的手臂，敲着瓦片，伴随着《爱情像一支自由的小鸟》的节奏起舞。那舞步极快，用一种强大的力量击打地面，极富韵律，同时，整个身体却保持一种自然的舒缓，仿佛和脚步分离了似的，在狂放的节奏中翩翩起舞。在这样的脚步中，卡门唱到：“爱情是一只小鸟，谁也别想把它驯服。纵然是恐吓、威逼，它都无动于衷，甜言蜜语一样没用。即使你不爱我，我也要爱你，只要你被窝看中，你可就要当心！”这个吉普赛女人在柔和的灯光下，变成了自由和爱情的化身。

Later, I knew that this performance belonged to flamenco.The dance style of flamingo has inherent explosive force, hitting the ground with toe, sole, heel to form a kind of violent rhythm. At the same time, arm, wrist stretches out, with a disposition of elegant and tender, that totally contrast with lower part of the body. It should be noted that flamenco is not only a form of dance, but an art form combining singing, dancing and instrumental accompaniment.It originated with the free gypsies, and after several journeys, gypsies came to Spain and it gradually became popular, contributing to musical classics such as Carmen.

后来，我知道了这就是弗拉明戈。佛拉明戈的舞蹈风格极具内在爆发力，用脚尖、脚掌、脚跟击打地面，形成一种狂暴般的节奏，同时，手臂、手腕、躯干也伸展开来，优雅柔美，与下半身形成强烈的反差。需要说明的是，弗拉明戈不仅是一种舞蹈形式，而是集合唱歌、跳舞和乐器伴奏与一体的艺术形式。它原本起源于自由的吉普赛人，后来几经跋涉，吉普赛人来到西班牙，并逐渐流行开来，成就了诸如《卡门》等音乐剧的经典。

When I travelled to Marseille a few years ago, I watched a flamingo performance in the streets. I was impressed by the fact that the audience were transfixed by the dancers on stage, and were chanting "ole" (" come on" in Spanish I think) to the beat.

在几年前的马赛街头，我看到了街头佛拉明戈的表演，我还记得底下的观众都被台上的舞者感染，纷纷喊着欧嘞（应该是西班牙语“加油”的意思），随着节奏打着拍子，令我印象深刻。

So when I came to Spain this time, I could not miss such an opportunity. In Barcelona, we chose a night to watch Flamingo show at the flamingo theater. Before theperformance, the dance teachers had a flamingo teaching interaction with us. The teacher had different beats, and we followed the teacher's rhythm dance. The beat was changing from slow to fast, at last we couldn't really catch up with the rhythm of the teacher, but the teacher seemed quite relaxed. It seems that this rhythm is nothing to them.

此次来到西班牙，自然不能错过这样的机会。我们选择了一个晚上，在巴塞罗那的佛拉明戈剧院观看佛拉明戈演出。在正式表演开始前，舞蹈老师们与我们进行了佛拉明戈教学互动，老师喊着不同的拍子，我们就跟着老师的节奏舞动。拍子由慢变快，最后脚步实在跟不上老师的节奏，就此作罢。而老师还是相当轻松的样子。看来这样的节奏对于他们，都不算什么。

The formal performance begins with a line of dancers in front, followed by two singers and four instrumentalists, which formed the complete flamingo art form. The dance varied from one solo dance to group dance, with obvious arabic-style music. Although we couldn't understand the lyric, but we were appealled by their whole-attention performance and reponded to them by shouting Olé. The video below was the transition where the female dancer changed to the male dancer, and the iconic expansion skirt of the female dancer was very impressive.

正式表演开始，前面舞者一列，后面还有两个歌者和四位乐器演奏者，从而构成完整的佛拉明戈形式。舞蹈有一人独舞，也有多人舞蹈，配合着具有明显阿拉伯风情的音乐，虽然听不懂，但是舞者们全情投入的表演也将观众们感染，欧嘞的声音此起彼伏。下面这段视频便是其中女舞者向男舞者的过渡段，女舞者的标志性的大摆裙，令人印象深刻。

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDlL8lC8Ys

In Madrid, we went to the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas and watched flamingo perform. The performers allocation in Madrid was classified into three group: dancer, singer and bandsman, which was much the same as that in Barcelona.

在马德里，我们又来到马德里斗牛场，观看佛拉明戈演出。马德里的佛拉明戈演员配置分为三个组：舞者、歌者和乐手们。这样的配置与巴塞罗那的演出大体相同。

However, the actor's performance was more casual, like a group of old friends getting together to drink, when suddenly a dancer had an inspiration and then improvised, followed by a flexible adjustment of tunes. At the call of the female dancer, the male dancer also stood up and danced with the female dancer. This art form made us feel that life is dance and dance is life.

但是演员的表演更显的随意，像是一群老朋友聚在一起喝酒，哪位舞者突然有了灵感，便即兴而上，歌者在舞者步伐的带动下，灵活的调整哼唱的调子。在女舞者的呼唤下，男舞者也站起来，与女舞者相伴而舞。真正的让人感受到：生活便是舞蹈，舞蹈便是生活。

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK5O8jfPd8I

All photos and videos without marking sources in this article were taken by me. My Spain trip was over in this moment and I wish everyone could enjoy it, thank you!