Flamenco: Conflicting Histories of the Dance

by Michelle Heffner Hayes

Overview

This analytical history traces representations of flamenco dance in Spain and abroad from the twentieth century to the present, using histories, film, accounts of live performances, and practitioner interviews.

Beginning with an analysis of flamenco historiography, the text examines images of the female dancer in films by Luis Bunuel, Carlos Saura, and Antonio Gades; stereotypes of flamenco bodies and Andalusian culture in Prosper Merimee's Carmen; and the ways in which contemporary flamenco dancers like Belen Maya and Rocio Molina negotiate the stereotype of Carmen and an idealized Spanish feminine that pervades "traditional" flamenco.

Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476613123
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	11/21/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	212
File size:	4 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michelle Heffner Hayes, dancer, choreographer and dance scholar is currently a professor and chair of the Department of Dance at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Michelle Heffner Hayes, dancer, choreographer and dance scholar is currently a professor and chair of the Department of Dance at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Introduction: Flamenco’s Exotic Currency     

1. DESIRING NARRATIVES: FLAMENCO IN HISTORY AND FILM     
Conflicting Histories     
Origin Points     
Romantic Excursions     
La Edad de Oro/The Golden Age     
Transformation Abroad and Tourism at Home
Purity and Preservation     
The Ideology of Flamenco Histories     
The Desiring Subject     
A Choreographic In(ter)vention     
Film Narrative as a Discourse of Desire     

2. PURISM, TOURISM AND LOST INNOCENCE     
Flamenco Bodies: Essence or Effect?     
International Exposure     
Model Exotics     
Paradise Lost     
The Taint of Tourism     

3. IMAGINING ANDALUSIA     
Divine Inspiration: Origins Reconsidered     
Passionate Nature: The Academic Appeal of a Universal Humanity     
Sober Clinicism: Demystifying the Other     
(Re)discovering the Women in Cante     

4. FATAL FILMIC FLAMENCAS     
The Spectre of Carmen     
That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)     
Marked: The Character of La Novia in Blood Wedding (1981)     
Carmen Revisited (1983)     
Love, the Magician (1986)     

5. REALISM REINVENTED     
The Documentary and Nacionalflamenquismo 124
Sevillanas (1992) and Flamenco (1995)     
Opening Credits (Sevillanas)
Opening Credits (Flamenco)     
The Performances (Sevillanas)     
The Performances (Flamenco)     
Sevillanas Flamencas, Sevillanas Gitanas     
Endings: Sevillanas     
Endings: Flamenco     
Flamenco Women (1997)     

6. REINTERPRETING THE EXOTIC     
Calculated Unruliness     
Strategic Presence     
Practiced Spontaneity     
The Dancing Lesson (Anaheim, California, 1995)
The Problem of Improvisation/Giving Up the Ghost     
Rising from the Ashes: Spain’s Position in the New World Order     

7. “SOMOS ANTI-GUAPAS”—AGAINST BEAUTY IN CONTEMPORARY FLAMENCO
Belén Maya     
Pastora Galván     
Rocío Molina     

Chapter Notes     
Bibliography     
Index

Editorial Reviews

an informative contribution to the growing field of flamencology. The author offers a unique approach to the field of study”—Journal of Folklore Research; “meticulous...a great book...the quality of the research and investigation of the subject is awesome”—Books4Spain.

From the Publisher

"meticulous...a great book...the quality of the research and investigation of the subject is awesome"

Books4Spain

an informative contribution to the growing field of flamencology. The author offers a unique approach to the field of study

Journal of Folklore Research