FLAMENCO History

Pictured is beautiful flamenco dancer Laksmi Basile (lakshmibasile.com).  The lush, sensuous and technically brilliant Lakshmi Basile 'La Chimi' is the only American flamenco dancer to win two National Awards in Spain. She moved to Spain to study Flamenco and became perhaps the world's finest  flamenco dancer.

The world's leading Flamenco dancers and performers appear each year in California. Along with sizzling costumes, exotic dancers and dramatic stage lighting, audiences are caught in the spell of this addictive, seductive music and dance.

HISTORY OF FLAMENCO - Flamenco is a folk art and culture from Spain dating back to the 16th century. Flamenco, considered a art form,  involves a synthesis of cultures--Gypsies, Moors, Arabs, Jews and the indigenous Andalusians--with singing, dance, guitar and rhythmic punctuation by hand-claps. Andalucian folk songs were accompanied by bandurria, violin and tambourine originally.

In the late 1800s the first cafe cantante opened in Seville and it became the greatest age of flamenco performance.  Guitarists were in demand and competition was fierce. In their efforts to outdo each other, the players introduced new techniques, tricks and outrageous acts of showmanship such as playing with a glove at one hand or with the guitar held above their head.  By the 1910's flamenco cafes were in decline and soon disappeared.