Joe Duggan (Reporter)
THE sound of daytime flamenco has started echoing round Palma’s Teatre Sans.
The beautiful venue – originally a palace built by an olive-oil merchant – is hosting lunchtime Flamallorca shows, organised by expats Andy Marshall, Bjorn San Pedro and Bilbao-born Julio Piñero.
Julio linked up with the gypsy community when he created the Flamenco Association in Red Balear and started organizing concerts and events, explains Andy.
“Flamallorca came from what we saw as a need to build a platform to promote the art and culture of Flamenco with artists from the island,” he told the Olive Press.
“It’s in their culture, their way of acting and being as persons, but only some of them feel it, practice hard every day and live the hard way of being an artist on an island where they just make a handful of shows each year.”
A platter of tapas greets customers upon arrival before an excellent three-stage show gets underway in the venue’s domed cellar.
As the sonorous tones and accompanying guitar of cante jondo swell around the chamber, the lunchtime crowd are connected to the centuries-old soulfulness of Spain’s own blues.
Next stage of this musical triptych is performed in the theatre’s courtyard, an elegant dance by a traditionally-attired raven-haired beauty.
Finally, we retire to the main hall, where musicians and dancer rotate around the room, at one stage tapping out a rhythmic beat on a kitchen table in the style of gypsy families at home.
Flamenco’s full range – energetic, sombre, playful – is all here, performed by a local group of musicians, four of whom hail from Mallorca.
This is an excellent way to while away an hour and a half, for both the flamenco first-timer and aficionado alike
