Andalucia: La Casa de La Memoria de Al-Andalus (by Michelle)

In Seville I saw the best flamenco I've seen yet. David watched the kids in the hotel and I went out with some students. The setting was in a simple, elegant courtyard of a 16th century Sephardim home in the old Jewish section of Seville. The venue name is translated, "The House of the Memory of Andalucia" and includes a small museum and library dedicated to remembering the Sephardim and Moorish pasts in Andalucia. The courtyard was lit by candles with chairs all around the outside and a delicate ivy running up one wall behind the musicians. The performance consisted of one guitarist, one singer, and one male and one female dancer. If your impressions of flamenco are of a cheery dinner theatre show with polka-dotted flouncy dresses, well that can be found, but not at this venue. It was intimate and earnest and the opposite of anything cheesy.

Musicians and dancers were both incredible. The performance was intense, earthy, austere, amazing, and beautiful. The combination of venue, skill and emotion made for an evening I'll never forget. My pictures are poor because (and thankfully) they only allow photography in the last few minutes of the night and so you get what you can get.

A lasting mental picture was this: The students and I were outside on the sidewalk raving about the experience when the two 20-something dancers (now in their normal clothes) left together surrounded by a crowd of about 10 much older people. I assumed that these were grandparents or relatives. This image supports what I've read about authentic flamenco being a family, generational quest. So interesting.

THANK YOU DAVE. Next time we'll go together.