Olé!

For our last night in Barcelona we went for the Trafalgar option of seeing a Flamenco performance. Hats off to our extremely awesome travel director MJ, she made sure that rather than seeing a sub-par tourist show, we went to. Spanish 'Tablau' to see some of the best flamenco dancers in Spain who specifically come to Cordobes (the restaurant/stage) to dance here. She booked the tickets3 months in advance to make sure that we had centre stage and the first 2 rows from the stage. What a legend!

A Tablau is a very intimate setting, there is a maximum of 180 spectators, the stage is very small and the performances are almost entirely improvised. That includes the singing guitar and dancing - all improvised, it's incredible watching how they communicate and feed off each other.

The sometimes the singers set the mode and tempo of the song either by the rhythm of their clapping or by how they open up with vocals. Sometimes it's the guitarists and sometimes it's the dancers with just a couple of clicks and a stamp of their foot, then the guitarists seize the beat and leap in with stunning guitar work.

The passion and energy these performers put into this is palpable, your heart rate rises and you can feel the heat of their Fuego! coming off the stage. I have never seen anybody move their feet so fast, the women were beautiful and the men were proud - honestly I think that if the men were less skilled and less passionate the performance would look a bit funny, but you couldn't help but appreciate the sheer talent happening right in front of you.

They allowed us to take some photos at the end so here's a couple I took on the phone, the rest are on the camera:

It was a fantastic night, one that I won't ever forget.

Brandon.