Flamenco: Between Popular Culture and High Art

Wednesday May 1, 2002
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC USA

• Flamenco: An Overview of its History and Development
  Henry C. Jova, flamenco guitarist and connnoisseur, examines the history of flamenco music, the cultural environment which surrounds it, and its evolution into its current popularity.
• Images of La gitana: Paintings of Female flamenco Dancers
  Art historian, Spanish dancer and dance critic, Dr. Nancy G. Heller (university of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) explores the romantic and realistic images of the flamenco dancer whose temperament seduced Spanish and non-Spanish artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, among them: José García Ramos, Joaquín Sorolla, Federico García Lorca, Gustave Dore and John Singer Sargent.
• Flamenco Poetry: Of Desperate Love and Unrelenting Sorrow
  Dr. Ellen W. Echeverría, Coordinator of the Spanish Language Program (The George Washington University), analyzes the verses of poets, from the Middle Ages onwards, whose lyricism and sentiments are expressed in the music and dance of flamenco.

• Soleares (de Cádiz and Alcalá) sung by Cuquito de Barbate to medieval verses. Accompanied by guitarists Henry Jova and Jesús Serrano.
• Seguiriya sung to the poem of Manuel Machado "Las penas que se publican"
• Soleá por Bulería sung to the poem "Romance del Amargo" from "Romance del emplazado" ("Ballad of the Summoned Man") Federico García Lorca.
• Tangos sung by Cuquito with the entire ensemble: guitarists Henry Jova and Jesús Serrano, cajón player Jason Vera y Aragón and dancers Edwin Aparicio and Anna Menendez.
• Fandangos (del Gloria and de Huelva) sung to Medieval, contemporary and popular verses by Cuquito with guitarists Henry Jova and Jesús Serrano.
• Caña danced by Anna Menendez with the entire ensemble.
• Alegrías de Cádiz danced by Edwin Aparicio with the entire ensemble.
• Bulerías performed by the entire ensemble.

9:03pm After all these years, I finally have a picture of the Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lawrence Small who incidentally is a flamenco guitarist himself.

He's pictured here with local flamenco guitarist/teacher Paco de Málaga.

(My thanks to Marta Chico Martín for this photo)