The Taos Flamenco Society is a group of flamenco enthusiasts. We meet from time to time to practice our performance skills. We are located in Taos, New Mexico, USA. The group is also referred to as the Peña Flamenca de Taos.
Meetings are open to all dancers, singers, and musicians who have an interest in performing flamenco. Some members are beginners. Some are advanced. All levels are welcome.
It is a participatory group. We sing, dance, and play with and for one another. There is no audience. There is no teacher. We share what we know.
We encourage everyone to sing. There are some good singers in the group, but most of us are guitarists or dancers. So far, our collective cante isn't that great. Nevertheless, we think singing helps us understand baile and toque. Besides, it's fun.
The group is gradually building a common repertoire. We recently made it through an alegrías--albeit awkwardly. We also have been working on tangos, fandangos de huelva, bulerías, sevillanas, and rumba.
At present, there are no regularly scheduled meetings. Various interesting projects are, however, still underway among group members, and some other kinds of gatherings are being talked about. There is a email list. If you would like to be informed of upcoming activities, please contact Philip Ansteth.
Mariam sang two pieces, one of her own composition. Julie, who lives in Dallas and came up from the Maria Benitez workshop, tried out several songs that she's been working on: tientos, alegrías, tanguillos, rumba, guajiras, tangos . . . Julie and Kathy also harmonized on the sevillanas "El Adios" and "Mirala cara cara". At one point, Daniel and Julie were trying out guajiras. Julie held her tone until Daniel found the chord she wanted. I've seen that done only once before. Neat stuff. And they did it without dropping the compas! Oscar brought the sangria. As they say, a good time was had by all.
Thanks to Rita and Kathy for some of the best tapas yet! We worked on alegrías. We're on the verge of being able to get through the whole piece, with baile, toque and even cante. (Okay, the cante isn't much, but the rest will be good once we practice it some more. Tangos and Sevillanas are in a similar state.)
Quite a few people from Catalina's class stayed to dance sevillanas. Kathy sang. We worked on some instrumental sevillanas, and also on the tangos choreography. Thanks to Allegra and Francisco for adding a WWW link to this site from theirs.
We worked on sevillanas and tangos
The anticipated visit of a Cuban band didn't materialize. But there was plenty to eat: queso manchego, aceitunas, and chorizo. We also went over some new sevillanas and--apropos of the Cuban theme--tried out a bit of son ("Chan Chan"), a bit of guajira flamenca, and a bit of habanera de Bizet.
We had tapas to snack on thanks to Molly, Kathy, and Rita. Daniel analyzed bulerías compás. Oscar played some falsetas. Cisco improvised some verses por rumba. We practiced bulerías, sevillanas and alegrías. There were 11 participants, including three newcomers. Our group singing improves gradually. We surveyed the group to see who might be going to this summer's seminars in Albuquerque and Santa Fe. (See www.feelflamenco.com and www.mariabenitez.com .) No one had any definite plans to attend.
Three participants. April was sevillanas month. At this meeting we worked mostly on "El Adios." We figured out the guitar chords in three keys to accommodate various voices. And we analyzed how the meter of the letra fits with the melody. It was a fruitful session, although lightly attended. Next month, we'll try telephone reminders in addition to the email notices. We also discussed ideas for May meetings. (See above.)
Nine participants. We practiced some of our previous material and got through the first part of the new sevillanas, "El Adios." And we made some progress on the alegrías too.
We actually made it through the whole alegrías!
Also, we spent some time preparing for a performance for a benefit dinner for Taos County Arc. That occurred March 21. Several members of our group were pictured in the Taos News story about that event. (Taos News, March 27-April 2, page B16. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any online version of that story.)
We also are planning to perform at an upcoming event for the Talpa Community Center.
For more information, contact Philip Ansteth, 575-776-2468.