We went to an inspiring concert of Flamenco music and danceby Antonio Guerra and his company, in a grogramme called “Flamenco con mayúsculas” or “Flamenco in capital letters”. It turned out to be a total feast of guitar, song, dance and percussion. They were 7 men (no women), seated most of the time when not dancing: the leader, 2 powerfully emotional singers, a brilliant guitarist producing a flow of melody and rhythm to match the changing pace and mood, and 3 others who provided the clapping rhythmic support. Thundering rhythms, energetic and inventive dance moves. From such simple ingredients – even using the chairs to mark the beat at one point – they built complex and thrilling numbers, normally ending with a rousing Olé! from the appreciative audience.
It looked like a contemporary version of the art, for example, they all wore dark suits and waistcoats instead of matador-style outfits.
The show closed with a brilliant encore – they all simply came back on and stood around for a relaxed jam, each – even the singers – taking a turn to dance a short feature; it was obviously that they really enjoying themselves, and the audience loved it.
ps An oddly dated (and unnecessary) touch was the occasional thin cloud of dry ice pumped in from one side …
pps Did you spot Jeremy Corbyn in the video? Who would have thought he’s such a good dancer!
Apart from that, we did a lot of whiling away the time – reading, music practice, Elaine busy writing, editing and publishing, had lunch at the beach, worked on the tan, collected a few more pebbles …
After much trial and error I fainally managed to get some reasonable flight shots of the Collared Doves that sit on the chimney pots and coo all day:
And this Bird On A Wire/Serin sat and sang loud and clear for us:
Early start on the last day to get Elaine to the airport for her flight back, and then I set the controls for Seville …
RB's journal 
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