I have a quick question for you!
If you had to define in one sentence, musically speaking, what the aim of the game is when we play, dance and sing flamenco together, what would you say?
It is a seemingly simple question but it reveals our own relationship to flamenco and allows us to take a little distance from what we do, our objectives, our learning and our practice.
Why not take a few minutes to try and answer it for yourself, before reading on? 🤔
Done? 😉
I would be very happy if you want to click ‘reply’ and share your thoughts with me, as there is obviously no absolute truth here.
The Flamenco Game
It is interesting to consider flamenco as a game.
But a collaborative game, not a game where we face someone or another team.
The main goal of the flamenco game is to bring all the elements of a baile, a toque or a cante to life all together (letras, falsetas, escobillas, llamadas …), and be able to CONCLUDE them all together.
This is where the concept of REMATE appears.
“Rematar” means “to close,” “to conclude,” or “to top off.” The remate is a climax, the end of a progression that ends and the resulting release of energy.
Depending on the main actor of the moment, whether it is the dancer, the singer or the guitarist, the others must put themselves at her/his service and accompany her/him until the resolution of the musical sequence.
All members of the flamenco team must be able to rematar the singer’s letras, the guitarist’s falsetas and the dancer’s steps. In order for that to happen we have to understand what everybody is doing, so that we can each anticipate the remates correctly.
This is something really tricky, because if we fail to rematar all together, as a team, everything we have built before will
have been for nothing!
As a team, everyone must be at the service of the common goal.
The Reward
How do we know we have reached the goal? How do we know when we have won the game?
When we get a big “ole!” from the musicians and the audience, that is sincere and spontaneous, this is the ultimate reward of all our efforts to build this tension, to lead it to its resolution and to achieve the remate.
Whatever we do, let’s be “team players” and share the rewards together!
I hope this way of seeing things inspires you! Try to spot this team spirit in everything you hear or see. You will learn a lot by taking a closer look at why a remate is so effective, why a cierre is so touching, by observing each person in the cuadro and their behavior.
Take care of yourself , listen to cante and play palmas and aim for the “ole”! 😉
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