The Los Farruco show!

I have just returned to my hotel at 2 am...It was most intense and incredible evening.

Earlier after climbing down the narrow staircase from Jookoo's roof... I walked across town to the dance studio, the one tucked into the beautiful courtyard across town.
It often takes me a few tries to find it... with a few knocks on doors that look right but open onto the wrong courtyard...
I get there... and of course, I have the time wrong... and I have to come back in an hour... which is fine because that means I can hike across the cobblestone streets BACK to the square with the Teatro... and maybe find someone scalping tickets.






The Farruco show is apparently NOT to be missed. It's one on the hottest shows of the festival. Everyone is talking about it and it has been sold out for weeks.
The Farrucos are one of the Royal gypsy families. Their dancing heritage goes way way way back. Their family surname is actually Montoya.
The grandfather patriarch is dead now, but the sons, mother, aunt, sisters and grandsons carry on the legend..
There are hundreds of others in the family...
My new business Miguel (shoe maker/designer) is friends with the Farruco family… and tells me all the family lineage which I just can't keep straight.
He says he went to one of their wedding celebrations where 500 were invited, and 1500 turned up!

I have trouble finding someone to buy tickets from... I meet Jill who is searching too.
I have to run back to my private class with Maria Jose... having struck out...

I run there... class is great! Maria Jose works me very, very patiently on one darn llamada until I have it just right... I've heard stories about other teachers this week, and I can't believe how lucky I am to have found her.
She is so patient with me. A very generous and non judge mental teacher. And I am learning.
When we are finished, I run back to the Teatro .... Miguel spots me and tells me to meet him after the show, even if I don't get a ticket ...and he'll makes sure I meet Farruca, and Farruco as he says they are friends…..

I wait in the cold with Jill outside the same glass doors that met my nose just 5 or so days ago...
and suddenly an older british man says "ticket?"
AHHHHH! YES!
I abandon poor Jill, (whom I hope will forgive me some day) and get into the absolutely packed theatre to watch one of the most exciting shows I've ever experienced.
I end up sitting next to the British man who's name is Robin Totton. He turns out to be a friendly man, and local Flamenco aficionado. You may know of him already from a book he wrote about Flamenco. He lives in Jerez..... knows Gary from Vancouver… and says Gary (I've heard this before) is one of the few foreign guitarists the gypsy's like playing with.

The power coming off that stage was unbelievable.
I have had an average of 3 hours sleep for that last week.... my face still hurts, and my whiplash has gotten worse..... my asthma has returned full force.... and you'd never know it - the energy that surged through me watching this.
It matters not.
The audience was filled with the local community....they screamed, and haloed and encouraged and did palmas... and stamped and told each other to be quiet.... what a wonderful un-ruly bunch they were!!!

And OH DEAR GOD THE SHEER MALE BEAUTY ON STAGE!!!!!

No sets ... no props... just them.
Pilar Montoya ("La Faraona")....huge and beautiful..... Her bulerias were full of furious energy, and she actually LEPT off the stage and she must weigh in at 250 lbs at least! Then sometimes she hardly moved anything except her belly and hips to the beat with her arms stretched high in the air... her face jammed right into the face of the singer in front of her.

Farruca (Rosario Montoya) was incredible.... she danced with such elegance and power. And when her son (Antonio "Farruco") and her nephew (Juan Antonio-otherwise known as "El Barullo") joined her onstage it was so exciting. They would literally LEAP out from the wings, and swoop around her... the three of them forming some kind of crazy power triangle.
The audience would go WILD every time.
"El Barullo" entered the Theatre like a Cannes festival movie star, in red scarf draped over a black velvet suit - cut snug and tight..... swarmed and followed by television news cameras..... That boy REALLY knows his publicity stuff...... He strutted elegantly, and full of the royal "WE".

At the end when everyone did bulerias por fiesta, a tiny tiny wee little Farruco boy came out... looked like he was maybe five or six.
He was a miniature version of his famous... male family members.
He was dressed in a tiny elegant white suit and shoes... and a black shirt to match his almost waist length jet black hair.
He danced the bulerias with Maria Vizarraga .... coaxing out the burst of dance from him - by singing to him bent over from a couple of feet away.
He was absolutely brilliant!

Afterwards the crowds gathered in front of the Theatre ... it was cold... and yet no-one was leaving..
I met up with Monica... and told her about Miguel, and we decided to wait for him.
He found us... and then at one point he led us to the back side of the building where a crowd was gathering at the stage door.
It was mostly gypsies waiting to meet "their " super stars. (they definitely have certain ownership on this one!)
The big luxury bus was waiting, and the crew was already loading the wooden stage flats into a truck....
We realized that they must be going on to another gig, as the crew was moving like lightening - they were OUT of there.
But Miguel asked if I wanted my picture taken with Farruca, because she would spot him , and let him through...
I thought -hey - why not! (By this time I am caught by the fever and am a full fledged groupie!)

So we are waiting with the crowd outside the stage door. At one point the crowd used their pent up energy by doing bulerias por fiesta , and the singer was a little boy about... I'm guessing 11 or 12. And he was good.
We moved over right into the edge of the circle with them, and did palmas with the crowd-it was wonderful
Then the stage door burst open... and Farruca's son (the handsome new patriarc of the family) led the whole family out into the crowd stationed between them and the bus.
It took them forever to make their way 1/4 of a block! The crowd attached themselves to their idols like one single organism stroking their hair, and yelling and talking pictures, and they were all so loving, and patient and open to it all.

At one point Miguel moved us closer to Farruca, and asked her if she would have her picture taken with his friend.
She said yes... and put her arms around me in a well practiced photo-op pose and smiled. My god, she is so beautiful up close!
The family genes not only contain the blueprint of creative genius... they have physical beauty and charisma as part of the deal.

So then as life would have it.... MY CAMERA BATTERY DIED !!!!!!!
So once again, I learn some crazy life lesson.... ah let's see what it is this time....... YES !
- Buy many batteries as you can carry, and always have them at hand - DAMN.

Monica , Miguel and I, decide to go and warm up somewhere and have tapas... we follow behind the Farruco bus as it slowly winds it's way through the narrow streets, and the most tenacious of the young girls in the crowd, stoke the windows where Farruco is sitting... and try to take more pictures with their cell phones.