After our trip to the Alhambra a couple of us decided to go out and explore the night life of Granada where we ended up at a pub/disco. After dancing for a couple of hours and having “happy drinks” the club owner approaches me and pulls me to the side. In my head I’m thinking “what did I do now?” because god knows nothing good comes out when the owner of the disco pulls you aside. He then makes me a job offer asking me if I would be willing to teach Monday through Thursday salsa classes. It was hilarious to me at first, but really, a lot of these discos play salsa music, yet no Spanish person knows how to dance it. I found it very peculiar that with most Spanish girls, dancing is the art of getting your feet out of the way faster than they can step on them.
We were tired of the drunken amateurs in the bars and clubs, so we went looking for professionals. The second night, our receptionist at the hostel offered to make a reservation for our group to see a Flamenco show at a place near La Alhambra, Le Chien. When we got there we had front row seats reserved; unfortunately the tables for “6” were intended for 4, but we made it work. The show was inside a cramped gypsy cave which only required about 25 people to fill the room. With a pitcher of sangria, and later, beer, we loosened up a little and prepared for the show.
An old man and a guitarist came to the stage and began to perform for the first 30 minutes . We all were all a little concerned that we had misinterpreted Flamenco to imply a dancer would accompany the song just as the old man singing (72 years old) stands up and literally begins to dance as if he were having a heart attack. All of us were like “no way did we pay to see this old man dance and sing for 2 hours!” Thankfully an announcement was made to summon the real dancer. In only a few minutes a beautiful woman in a white and navy gown walked through the crowd, onto the stage to steal the show. I really enjoyed the performance, and learned to compare the differences and similarities between Spanish and Mexican cultural dancing. Flamenco dancing is much more in touch with the sensuality of your body, and knowing how to keep that sensuality while stepping fast and very rigid. Folklorico, Mexican traditional dance, is similar to this, but the foot work, the attitude of the dance, and the ambient is much more different. But God, if I were to get stepped on by a Flamenco dancer, my foot would never work the same again.
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