EIKO at La Chumbera: 26 Apr. 2008
Eiko Takahashi is one of the best known flamenco dancers in Japan. She has lived in Granada for nearly 10 years since she was invited by Mariquilla to teach Sevillanas at her academy. Eiko has made the historic Spanish town her second home for her flamenco, living among local ginatos. She has developed her own style of flamenco dancing, with gracious aire and gracia as well as deep knowledge of flamenco cante and folk songs in Granada.
Only in order to see her performance, did I fly to Granada for the weekend. It was a very short stay, but I could still appreciate the grace and beauty of the place – rows of white houses, cobblestone lanes and pretty patterns on them, Alhambra Palace showing its face from any corners, the blue sky, orange trees… I also enjoyed seeing things such as a man horribly singing to a flamenco CD in his house, a waitress clapping and a waiter singing to a Rumba Flamenca CD played in their bar, a man looking up at Alhambra Palace to play the guitar. It was a pity that there were quite a lot of ugly graffiti on houses and historic buildings, though.
La Chumbera, a small flamenco-specialised theatre, is located on a hill in Sacromote area. The backside of the stage is fully glazed, so that you can see through Alhambra Palace. For Eiko’s show, the venue was almost to capacity and there were quite a few tourists as well as local people and some Japanese people staying in Spain at that time. The show started around 9.30pm. Alhambra Palace behind the glass window was illuminated and looked mysterious. Eiko, who danced in front of the beautiful scenery of Alhambra Palace over the hill, was even more beautiful than the treasury building.
She made her first appearance in a bright red dress, dancing into the music which was possibly Fandango de Granada (Maybe something different… The guitar sounded like Paso Doble with triple measure, though). The choreography was in a way modern comparing to her normal style - holding up the skirt then let it go down to the rhythm, turns after turns elegantly… Her turns are so rhythmical and accurate, as if she doesn’t need any effort.
Then, the show moved onto Tango de Granada. She was still in the red dress and remained seated for the first part of the music. She was trying to do the clapping to encourage her band, but she must have got something in her eyes while dancing earlier, as she kept rubbing something off from her eyes. She suddenly stood up and disappeared from the stage, then came back after a few seconds as if nothing happened. Finally she started to dance.
Her gracious Tango de Granada involved a lot of movements representing Granada’s traditional life style, such as sowing a field with seeds, hand-washing the skirt, playing on the swing… Even when she was fixing her earrings while walking, or when she picked up a dropped accessory from the floor and threw it away into the backstage, every movement of hers was fit the music. I could feel her sincere respect for the culture and legend of flamenco. I hope the local people, if not the tourists, could appreciate her deep affection for Granada through her dancing.
As soon as Eiko had gone to leave two singers on stage for their cante solo, some tourists started chatting. They got several ‘Sh!’ from local flamenco fans until they finally became dead quiet and faced to the stage again. I thought it couldn’t have happened if it had been Japan or the UK, in different ways – in Japan, you wouldn’t ignore cante solo like that; in the UK, nobody would give you a sensible ‘Sh!’ so that the site would remain noisy. The first song was Martinetes and the second one was Fandangos or Granainas (sorry, I’m not sure actually).
Eiko came back on stage for la Cana in a shiny green-ish dress with darker coloured rucks for extra flaring.. The song was uniquely characterised with Arabic or Islamic sounding chorus parts like ‘eee, eee, eee…’, which turned the music into something exotic. She received a jaleo saying ‘Que gracia!’ from the audience especially for her trademark of ‘bull-fighting act’ (impressions of fiesta de toros). It matched so well with the music and atmosphere she had been creating.
The show was nearly concluded by Eiko’s speech in Spanish, by which she thanked to the audience and expressed her respect for her second home. Finally, fin de fiesta started off with one of the singers dancing, followed by Eiko. I expected that she would let the musicians dance, including the guitarist by taking away the guitar from him, just like she normally does in Japan. Although this didn’t happen, she entertained us with her recent favourite movements of ‘volaera’, a windmill. I couldn’t help putting a big smile on my face, as big as her volaera circles rhythmically made by her arm.
The show itself was shorter than I expected, but I learned that she is more spontaneous and relaxing than when she is in Japan. I suppose that flamenco artists working in Japan don’t normally know Granada style of flamenco including the guitar and songs, as Granada is a minor place for most of the professional flamenco artists. At la Chumbera, she was like the green scenery, fresh orange scent, pure stream, artistic cobble pavements, reddish sand, bright blue sky of Granada.
Eiko Takahashi is one of the best known flamenco dancers in Japan. She has lived in Granada for nearly 10 years since she was invited by Mariquilla to teach Sevillanas at her academy. Eiko has made the historic Spanish town her second home for her flamenco, living among local ginatos. She has developed her own style of flamenco dancing, with gracious aire and gracia as well as deep knowledge of flamenco cante and folk songs in Granada.
Only in order to see her performance, did I fly to Granada for the weekend. It was a very short stay, but I could still appreciate the grace and beauty of the place – rows of white houses, cobblestone lanes and pretty patterns on them, Alhambra Palace showing its face from any corners, the blue sky, orange trees… I also enjoyed seeing things such as a man horribly singing to a flamenco CD in his house, a waitress clapping and a waiter singing to a Rumba Flamenca CD played in their bar, a man looking up at Alhambra Palace to play the guitar. It was a pity that there were quite a lot of ugly graffiti on houses and historic buildings, though.
La Chumbera, a small flamenco-specialised theatre, is located on a hill in Sacromote area. The backside of the stage is fully glazed, so that you can see through Alhambra Palace. For Eiko’s show, the venue was almost to capacity and there were quite a few tourists as well as local people and some Japanese people staying in Spain at that time. The show started around 9.30pm. Alhambra Palace behind the glass window was illuminated and looked mysterious. Eiko, who danced in front of the beautiful scenery of Alhambra Palace over the hill, was even more beautiful than the treasury building.
She made her first appearance in a bright red dress, dancing into the music which was possibly Fandango de Granada (Maybe something different… The guitar sounded like Paso Doble with triple measure, though). The choreography was in a way modern comparing to her normal style - holding up the skirt then let it go down to the rhythm, turns after turns elegantly… Her turns are so rhythmical and accurate, as if she doesn’t need any effort.
Then, the show moved onto Tango de Granada. She was still in the red dress and remained seated for the first part of the music. She was trying to do the clapping to encourage her band, but she must have got something in her eyes while dancing earlier, as she kept rubbing something off from her eyes. She suddenly stood up and disappeared from the stage, then came back after a few seconds as if nothing happened. Finally she started to dance.
Her gracious Tango de Granada involved a lot of movements representing Granada’s traditional life style, such as sowing a field with seeds, hand-washing the skirt, playing on the swing… Even when she was fixing her earrings while walking, or when she picked up a dropped accessory from the floor and threw it away into the backstage, every movement of hers was fit the music. I could feel her sincere respect for the culture and legend of flamenco. I hope the local people, if not the tourists, could appreciate her deep affection for Granada through her dancing.
As soon as Eiko had gone to leave two singers on stage for their cante solo, some tourists started chatting. They got several ‘Sh!’ from local flamenco fans until they finally became dead quiet and faced to the stage again. I thought it couldn’t have happened if it had been Japan or the UK, in different ways – in Japan, you wouldn’t ignore cante solo like that; in the UK, nobody would give you a sensible ‘Sh!’ so that the site would remain noisy. The first song was Martinetes and the second one was Fandangos or Granainas (sorry, I’m not sure actually).
Eiko came back on stage for la Cana in a shiny green-ish dress with darker coloured rucks for extra flaring.. The song was uniquely characterised with Arabic or Islamic sounding chorus parts like ‘eee, eee, eee…’, which turned the music into something exotic. She received a jaleo saying ‘Que gracia!’ from the audience especially for her trademark of ‘bull-fighting act’ (impressions of fiesta de toros). It matched so well with the music and atmosphere she had been creating.
The show was nearly concluded by Eiko’s speech in Spanish, by which she thanked to the audience and expressed her respect for her second home. Finally, fin de fiesta started off with one of the singers dancing, followed by Eiko. I expected that she would let the musicians dance, including the guitarist by taking away the guitar from him, just like she normally does in Japan. Although this didn’t happen, she entertained us with her recent favourite movements of ‘volaera’, a windmill. I couldn’t help putting a big smile on my face, as big as her volaera circles rhythmically made by her arm.
The show itself was shorter than I expected, but I learned that she is more spontaneous and relaxing than when she is in Japan. I suppose that flamenco artists working in Japan don’t normally know Granada style of flamenco including the guitar and songs, as Granada is a minor place for most of the professional flamenco artists. At la Chumbera, she was like the green scenery, fresh orange scent, pure stream, artistic cobble pavements, reddish sand, bright blue sky of Granada.
