Need suggestions for shows with just guitar+dancer

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Jon Boyes

Posts: 1377
Joined: Jul. 10 2003

Need suggestions for shows with just...

Following the departure (back to Spain) of the dance instructor I was working with, I have a meeting next week with one of her students to start putting together a set to do some shows.

Given that we do not have a singer, any suggestions for palos that would work? For example, I think Sevillanas and Farruca are safe bets (I've done these with just a dancer before anyway) but I think Alegrias would be tricky unless it was 'simplified', know what I mean?

Anyway, any suggestions for approaching this kind of gig gratefully received, particularly if you have done it yourself (Florian, Ricardo, Mark2, Jim O?) though I'm open to any ideas folks have on things we could do.

Thanks.

_____________________________

Spanish Guitarist in Devon, Cornwall and Somerset

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 22 2006 9:54:47

photog

Posts: 24
Joined: Feb. 19 2004

RE: Need suggestions for shows with ... (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Hi what about Rumba? Fandangos/ Tangos/ Solea I have used all these with 1 to 2 dancers. It depends on what your dancer is happy with. Rumba used to go down really well and Sevi. Good luck.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 22 2006 14:06:39

Ricardo

Posts: 14860
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC

RE: Need suggestions for shows with ... (in reply to Jon Boyes)

Think of it like this. The singer makes your job easier, but if you are dealing with a dancer that only knows her choreography, keep in mind that a letra of say Solea, is only 8-9 compases of the dance. If she can cut letras and focus on the rest of the dance where you do falsetas and escobilla type rhythms, it should be great. But if she can't you can do 2 things. Compose faletas that are the length of the letras needed, and play that where the letras go. Solea goes into Solea por bulerias typically so you need something there too, and for bulerias at the end. For the bulerias de Cadiz for example, I made a falseta that is based on the melody of the cante, yet is still driving rhythmically.

The other safe thing to do, is simply play the chords for the missing cante during the letra sections, embelishing and doing interesting rhythms as much as possible. This is good for just incase a singer does show up or happens to be there, you have the skeleton of the dance worked out. Musically this is not so interesting, but in my experience the audience doesn't mind. Chordal strumming alone luckily is pretty interesting in flamenco. I have done both ways w/no singer there. Ideally the dancer can deal with you just doing falsetas of any length you choose for where the letra should go. Whatever you do, don't bore yourselves simply because you have no singer, but keep in mind the structure.

Ricardo

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Feb. 22 2006 19:49:19