Michelle Heffner Hayes adds to the contemporary scene of flamenco research and scholarship with this book. Hayes uses a multidisciplinary approach by incorporating anthropological, post-modernist, post-colonial, film, and feminist critiques and theories and applying them to a multitude of flamenco histories. In using the term “history” Hayes refers to multiple forms of representation that tell the story of flamenco. These include nineteenth-century Romantic travel writers, early-twentieth century scholarship, documentary film and fictional cinematography, and live performance during the past decade. The book is divided into seven chapters and also contains chapter notes, a bibliography, and an index. Hayes uses the narratives to portray the development of and reason for the image of the flamenco woman as the desired “exotic other.” The various incarnations of this image and how and why people incorporate that imagery into their own histories is the main theme of this book. The continual theme of the female dancer as the exotic other and how this ideal is used, interpreted, or re-invented is carried throughout the book.
Chapter 1, titled “Desiring Narratives: Flamenco in History and Film,” introduces the premises for the following chapters. The author discusses how the colonial gaze of the onlooker, tourist, or foreign flamencophile has affected and influenced how the world understands the traditional art form of flamenco and the role of the female dancer within that tradition. Chapter 2, titled “Purism, Tourism and Lost Innocence,” deals with travel writers of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The development of Prosper Merimeé’s Carmen and how this character became the idealized image of flamenco women is traced. The author divulges how past foreign flamencophiles used, co-opted, re-invented, or re-interpreted the romanticized folkloric roots of flamenco and how these authors claim their own authority over the histories they have written.
In the third chapter, “Imagining Andalusia,” Hayes compares “scholarly” works on flamenco written during the twentieth century. She discusses foreign flamencophiles who have lived amongst the practitioners of flamenco in Andalusia and how these authors claimed to “know” flamenco from the inside and therefore were entitled to write proper historical narratives. These writers emphasize a nostalgia for flamenco’s past and the “pure” aesthetic. This purist aesthetic is deeply shaped and influenced by the image of the female flamenco dancer.
In the fourth chapter, “Fatal Filmic Flamencas,” Hayes returns to the image of Carmen as portrayed in fictional Spanish cinema. She discusses how the image of the flamenca was used to represent a general image of Spanishness in twentieth-century film. She also looks at the early collaborative films of director Carlos Saura and dancer Antonito Gades, known for creating the modern flamenco dance-drama. Hayes uses these films to compare and contrast the central role of the female and how her presence and actions are pivotal to every other role in the films.
The next chapter, “Realism Reinvented,” discusses the modern flamenco documentary. The first part of the chapter relies heavily on previous research by anthropologist William Washabaugh, who studied the documentary series, Rito y Geografía del Cante Flamenco, which aired during the Franco years. Hayes continues Washabaugh’s discussion on how artists used traditional imagery to combat nacionalflamenquismo under the Franco dictatorship. Hayes then continues her discussion with the documentary style of filmmaker Carlos Saura and his films Flamenco and Sevillanas. According to Hayes these works used multi-textured/multi-layered imagery to portray both traditional and contemporary themes within flamenco.
Chapter 6, “Reinterpreting the Exotic,” continues the discussion of the image of the exotic other and how modern flamencas of the early-mid-twentieth century fit into that category. Most of the chapter deals with Carmen Amaya’s success in the United States. Hayes discusses Amaya’s great skill, technique, perceived “wildness,” and her ability to break from traditional feminine imagery by wearing pants. Amaya conquers the world with a new exoticized image of the gypsy dancer as firecracker.
The last chapter, “‘Somos Anti-Guapas’—Against Beauty in Contemporary Flamenco,” is comprised of theatrical critiques, interviews, and descriptions of performances by three of the most important flamenco artists of the past decade. Hayes discusses how women are breaking barriers and creating a newer image of the flamenca. Theatrical critiques illustrate the general acceptance or rejection of these new modes of interpretation. The chapter is summed up by describing the dancers as modern, innovative, and abstract, while simultaneously being upholders of an age-old tradition. While this chapter is extremely informative, this reviewer would have liked to have seen more of the book devoted to this contemporary subject matter.
Overall the book is an informative contribution to the growing field of flamencology. The author offers a unique approach to the field of study by including contemporary documentary, fictional film, and live performance. Little work has been done previously to include these genres in the general history and discourse on flamenco. Even so, several items are worth mentioning. The book lacks a formal conclusion and instead sums everything up in the last two paragraphs of the final chapter. Given the extensive introductory chapter, a stronger conclusion is called for. Also missing is a glossary of Spanish and flamenco terminology that would prove helpful to those new to the topic.
Hayes shows that she is well-equipped to research, interpret, and dissect flamenco histories from a multiplicity of vantage points. Given that most histories and narratives on flamenco are written by men, Hayes provides a fresh perspective on the future and continuance of the flamenco tradition and its women into the twenty-first century. The author joins the ranks of contemporary women flamenco scholars such as Loren Chuse and Ninochka Bennahaum in bringing new research to the forefront on a usually ignored piece of flamenco history.
--------
[Review length: 941 words • Review posted on April 27, 2011]