Juan Martin

[shanmonster]

Tonight, elanya took me to go see Juan Martín and his Arte Flamenco Puro group perform at the Playhouse. He was incredible (and is considered one of the top three guitarists in the world). Luisa Chicano danced the most, with singer Nuria Martin also doing some dancing.

Just watching Juan Martin play was enough. You don't even have to hear the music to recognize the skill. His hands flew without effort. Fingers on strings looked like industrious spiders at high speed, or hummingbirds' wings. But the music was the best, of course. It suffused the air and filled my ears, joyful at times, mournful at others, an aural dance of dry lands and ocean vistas.

Nuria Martin has a throaty, dusty voice. Unfortunately, she was also sick, and between songs, coughed and sniffed frequently. I wonder what she sounds like when she's not ill. Her voice was wonderful in spite of her cold.

At first, when Luisa Chicano danced, I wasn't enthralled. Although her dancing was good, it didn't move me. I enjoyed her upper body work, her tall posture, and her powerful arm positions. I enjoyed her dance with Nuria Martin more, but still preferred prior flamenco dance performances I've seen. However, after the intermission, Luisa danced again, and this time, she really threw herself into it. The dance was passionate, and by her facial expressions, it was obvious she was living in the moment. This dance I loved. This dance everyone loved! And at the end of it, although the night's show wasn't yet over, she was rewarded with a standing ovation.

All three performers looked amazed at their reception, and Juan thanked us (imagine that!).

When the night's show was finally over, the ovation was thunderous.

I am inspired. Although I cannot find a flamenco teacher around here, I want to work on the movements I learned in my meagre two classes of a year or two ago. So if you see me at work with one arm up in the air behind my head, and the other out in front of me, hands circling away decorated with undulating fingers, you'll know what I'm doing.

Comments

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

This is completely off-topic, but I sent you and f00dave an email this morning regarding my being in Fredericton on Saturday, and it's stuck in a queue, not being accepted by bigfoot dot com. Having problems with your mail server? I was trying to find out if you two are free to have brunch with Tricia and I on Saturday.

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

Use my spiffy Gmail account: f00Dave@gmail.com! Bigfoot isn't "our" mailserver, it's a free redirector thingie.

And I'm free anyway, not sure about Shan. I can't spend *too* much time, as I'm way under the gun, but whatever...

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

I'll resend to that address, thanks. Looking at a quick brunch, not a long thing, since we'll want to be in Halifax before sundown. Hopefully you know a good place to eat!

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

Sure. The Farmer's Market is our usual "before at at noon" Saturday thing, though we can also sit down for a 45-minute lunch special somewhere if that's more appropriate. I did get your email, and will respond with details there...

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

Glad you got the email, and have (obviously) replied. "Farmers' markets" down here are generally excuses for poor traffic flow in the interest of purchasing second-rate produce at a high premium. I take it there's a cultural difference at play here? We'll defer to your local knowledge, especially since I had such a terrible meal in Fredericton last summer.

On a completely different note, how's the weather likely to be? Should we be packing raincoats and umbrellas, or is weather.com unreliable?

[f00dave.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's lots of crap at the Market, true, but the sausage/schnitzel/(ethnic) food carts are pretty good. The Samosas are amazing (indoor vendor), and there's a great cheese booth, though that will probably interest you less.

As far as good food in "short time", your options are: 1) troll around the Market with us for 45 mins or so, 2) sit down at the Palette for 45 mins or so. The Market wraps up at around 12:30, though, which limits your options if you get in later. ;-)

The weather here should be "nice" (~25C, which is probably -9000F or something surreal), though I wouldn't count on there either being rain or not. If we're indoors, it doesn't matter, of course, but you might want to bring one umbrella anyway. Canada gets wet from time to time. Heh. The forecast I usually use is for clouds and possible intermittent showers, but that's also 48 hours out, which means the variability is a little high.

[minstrel70.livejournal.com]

What makes you think I don't eat cheese?

Something tells me we won't make it in time to get the full Market experience, so it sounds like the Palette, whatever that is, will be the plan.

Umbrella: check. Thanks! (Oh, and contrary to popular belief, some of us south of the border do, in fact, speak Celsius. 25C = 77F, which will be a pleasant change from the 30C we're having here)