User:Jdewandeleer/Tablao de Carmen

Tablao de Carmen is a flamenco tablao created as a tribute to Carmen Amaya.

It is located in the Andalusian quarter within the Spanish Village, "Poble Espanyol", of Barcelona, on the mountain of Montjuïc in Barcelona, Spain. A restaurant lounge with a Spanish menu.

Context
In 1988, Sunchy Echegaray founded the Tablao del Carmen, during in the pre-Olympic phase of Barcelona. A time in which Barcelona was surrendering to urbanism, to design, to the technological future. At a time when the avant-garde, modernism and design were valued; the Tablao de Carmen opted for the traditional classic and to highlight the naturalness of flamenco venues.

Her desire was always to set up a bar that would be a tavern with flamenco, that would represent the natural flamenco atmosphere and honor the memory of Carmen Amaya.

The name
"Carmen", by Carmen Amaya. The Tablao de Carmen was conceived as a tribute to the bailaora Carmen Amaya (Barcelona, November 2, 19181 - Bagur, Gerona, November 19, 1963), a friend of the founding family.

Flamenco
Flamenco is a musical style, an artistic discipline that encompasses singing, dancing and guitar playing. According to the Real Academia Española, el cante is the "action and effect of singing any popular Andalusian song". El baile is the dance that accompanies the singing. And el toque, "the action and effect of playing the flamenco guitar".

In the traditional tablao, the flamenco show is conceived as a succession of different interpretations of various beats, by musicians and dancers. Each artists' performance is independent of the previous one and the one that will follow. Each of the different dances or songs performed express different feelings.

The staging is in the hands of the sound of the guitar strings, the rhythm of the clapping, the gestures of the dancer, the heel tapping and the silence.

When flamenco ends with the fin de fiesta by bulerías, it is understood that what has been concluded has not been the narration of a story, but a demonstration of culture.

Carmen Amaya
From gypsy parents and humble origins, Carmen Amaya grew up in the Somorrostro, a marginal shantytown in Barcelona, then located between the train tracks and the sea, and demolished in 1963.

Her father was a flamenco guitarist known as the "Chino". He would take her to work with him for hours at a time, and while she sang and danced he would guide and correct her. Carmen developed her own style, dancing on the sand of the Somorrostro beach and accompanying her father in bars and taverns to earn a few coins. Little by little, contracts and requests for performances in local theaters began to flow in.

At the age of 11, Carmen and her family performed in honor of King Alfonso XIII in 1929, on the inauguration of the Spanish Village. ''"Poble Espanyol". "Those in charge of protocol at the Royal House asked Carmen to address the monarch as "Majesty". As soon as the head of state appeared, the bailaora stepped forward and told him in a loud voice: "Va por usté, zeñó rey"... From that day on, the friendship between the later dethroned king and the queen of dance was unbreakable... "'' El Mundo  wrote in its article “Los recuerdos ocultos de Carmen Amaya”.

At the age of 12 Carmen was already part of one of the most important dance companies of that time. Her rise to fame was astronomical and international, and during her lifetime she became a legend whose reputation survives to this day. Carmen triumphed in the great theaters of Europa, the Estados Unidos and Sudamérica.

She was praised by such 20th century personalities as Charlie Chaplin, Fred Astaire, Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Orson Welles, Marlon Brando, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt…