flamenco

Two nights of flamenco in Spain....
I waited until just before I left, but I am really glad that I got the chance to see some flamenco while in Sevilla. The first night we went to a bar that has free flamenco performance each night. The interesting thing about this bar was that they had 2 different prices for drinks, 1€ for the spanish and 1.50€ for forgeiners. Not that it was advertised as such or anything. I went to the bar with my best accent, hoping to get the locals fee, but sadly I did not pass. One of our Sevillan friends explained later that it wasnt so much the accent as it was what you said and the attitude that you said it in. Supposedly, if I wanted to be charged 1€ I needed to yell across the bar 'Nino! dame un copa!' or something to that effect. Since that was definately not happening, I had to settle for my 1.50€ tinto de verano for the rest of the night. It was worth it though for the free flamenco show. The same Sevillan friend said that the singer was not that good, but it all sounded great to me. The sound of flamenco is very unique, I would describe it as nasaly, emotional, and loud, in a chanting kind of style.
The second night we went to a small theater called Casa de La Memoria. The show was in a small outdoor terrace area, with tiled walls and ivy growing down one of the walls. There were candles and flowers decorating the grounds as well. The group consisted of one guitarist, one singer, and 2 dancers (one female and one male). I didn't realize that there were male flamenco dancers, but man was this guy talented! Both dancers were so amazing, with such control and emotion in their dance. It was a beautiful show that went by so fast.