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I’m back in Spain and somewhat sad to be so. My visit to Japan was marvelous, and it ended too soon. I didn’t have much time to see flamenco because, as was to be expected, I was busy soaking up the native culture. However, I was able to visit the El Flamenco tablao in Tokyo, where I met and interviewed the young flamenco dancer Jesús Herrera. I also had the pleasure of visiting an advanced dance class at Flamenco Studio Mayor and interview its founder, dancer and teacher Masumi Suzuki, known as “Mami.”
I will share all of these experiences with you in the upcoming days. Today I want to talk about the traditional Japanese art form kabuki. I was lucky enough to see two kabuki shows in the historic, working class Tokyo neighborhood of Asakusa. Kabuki is a combination of theatre, music and dance. It is a performing art that relies heavily on gorgeous make-up, hair styles, costumes and sets that are elegant and rich in color and texture. Even if the spectator doesn’t speak Japanese, the movement and the facial expressions are so dramatic that it is relatively easy to understand what is happening.
One more year, and it’s now 16, Seville welcomes one of fashion and flamenco’s most unique events: a fashion show in which both meet to present the season’s trends in dresses worn to Andalucia’s Ferias, Romerías and on the Spanish stage. We’re talking about the International Flamenco Fashion Salon (SIMOF), a fashion show that turns Seville into the location of a four-day party. From the 28th of January to the 1st of February, there four intense days on which the public can see over 1000 flamenco dresses! All of the outfits are unique and designed by the sector’s most prestigious designers.
The 2010 International Flamenco Fashion Salon was presented today. In the new edition of the flamenco fashion expo there will be 27 fashion shows and a total of 31 designers with over 1200 outfits. This is edition number 16, and it will also be attended by 90 companies in the flamenco fashion sector that will have stands in pavilion number 1 at the Fibes.
I am taking full advantage of my last days in Japan, and as that is the case, I don’t have much time to write and share my Japanese adventures with you at the moment. However, when I am back in Madrid, I’ll tell you all about my flamenco related experiences! I’ve already met Japanese flamencos, and it’s been an excellent experience.
For now, I would like to share a short video with you that appears on Flamenco.TV. By clicking here, you’ll be able to watch a little jota, the autochthonous dance of my beloved Aragón. Plus, the photo that you see to the left is one that I took of the jota being danced in the Procession of Flowers during the Fiesta del Pilar in Saragossa this past year.
I hope you enjoy this art form that is equally as Spanish as flamenco.
-Justine Bayod Espoz
Even though I have yet to meet any flamenco dancers or musicians (that I know of) in Japan, that doesn’t mean that the rest of you shouldn’t get to enjoy a little flamenco in my absence. I would like to remind my beloved madrileños (natives and non-natives) that Joaquín Cortés is performing Calé – a collection of the best pieces from the six shows that Cortés has choreographed and directed throughout his 20 year career – at the Nuevo Apolo Theatre, Plaza Tirso de Molina 1,until the 17th of January (the day I return from Japan).