Dance Around the World

This week's Spotlight of Dance:

Flamenco Dance

As dancer's our creative minds wonder to anything that is new, fun, and challenging. It's in the blood of a dancer to learn more, learn new steps, routines and learn from other cultures. This week's spotlight of cultural dance is the Flamenco Dance. 

To understand a new culture or dance, it is best to learn some history of how it originated. The 'Flamenco Dance' is Southern Spanish native dance and music. It is a combination of singing, guitar and dance and they are known for their rhythmic sound of hand clapping and finger snapping. The Flamenco we watch today is influenced greatly by multiple cultures. Early Greek, Roman and Indian music helped flourish this intensive passionate Spanish dance. 

The dancing style expresses strong emotions, pride through the rhythm of the feet. This style of music and dance is based on personal improvisation and the spontaneous traditional performance is a visual of their immediate feelings expressing the dancers personal emotions by interpreting the drumming and singing. Often the motionless start to the dance is the moment the dancer is feeling the beat and will then spring into a flamenco dance with inspiration from the music.

Flamenco dancer (Bailaor) will express the great history of flamenco and its culture. This is often shown with graceful arms while enormous energy is put into the strong movement of their feet creating the iconic beat that is flamenco. 






Shoes are very unique in the way they feature a small area of nails embedded in the toe and heel to create the sharp rhythmic clapping sound. The incredible footwork within the Flamenco dance is all involving precise heel and top beats to add to the music. 

Native Spanish dancing is a beautiful and powerful tradition for this culture. Here is a quick video from the streets of Spain, with spontaneous and passionate artists playing for the tourists. 

Happy Dancing Xx