Continued...

After tea we went back up the enormous hill to the hotel for dinner. Dinner was alright, bland Spanish buffet, but we made it through without anyone singing "Happy Birthday" which is good. When we finished we headed up to the room to get ready for flamenco. Once we were all dolled up, we opened a bottle of champagne for my first drink. It was delicious! Just as we were about to leave for the caves, it began to our. Several people were actually refusing to go out in the downpour. It hadn´t even occurred to us to bring our umbrellas to Granada. FInally we called a small fleet of taxis to take us to the show.

We pulled up in front of the building and ran from the cab into the shelter of the "cave." The cave was really a sort of small tunnel-like room with whitewashed walls, brightly colored lights and gleaming copper pots dangling from the ceiling. The walls were covered in black and white photos of flamenco greats, famous toreros and Spanish celebrities, like the beautiful Antonio Banderas. The room was long and narrow and each wall was lined with chairs. We took seats near the center and a waiter came around for drink orders. As soon as he left, the show began.

Flamenco is difficult to describe. It´s essentially a dance and music that conveys complete passion. Even after having studied it for the past month, I understand very little. In this "espectaculo" there were several female dancers (they only dance one at a time though) and a few males. There was at least one guitarist and several different people singing and clapping. Hands become an instrument of their own in flamenco, clapping out seemingly impossible rhythms at ridiculous speeds. The women´s dresses are elaborate, fitted on top and gaudily ruffled on the skirt. Many are vibrantly colored and covered in large polka dots. Their hair was pulled back and adorned with combs and flowers, but quickly fell down as soon as they began to dance.

They danced for about an hour. Flamenco is very sensual, but not in an overly graphic or offensive way. It involves a lot of arm and hand movement as well as an emphasis on the stamping of the feet. Flamenco singing comes from deep within the singer´s throat and is quite a challenge to try to understand. They play with the syllables, stretching some and then squeezing the rest into the short time left by the exaggeration of the first.

At the end of the performance they pulled in people from the audience to attempt to dance with them. My friends were kindly informed that if they mentioned it was my birthday, they would be killed. The warning worked and I wasn´t even asked to dance. Several people did have the courage to dance and it was quite enterataining. One of the real dancers has a brother who lives in Spokane with his Mexican wife. How crazy is that? She just had a baby. Maybe you helped deliver it, Mama.

When we left, the rain had stopped and it was only eleven. The night was young and we headed out to celebrate.

XOXO