Chapter 1255 Flamenco Dance Steps
Now is the time for mutual conversation. The second and third floors of the Lord of the City’s mansion have a lot of guest rooms prepared for these guests to discuss private matters.
Although this banquet was hosted by the Lord of the City to gather influential people to discuss strategies against external enemies, a dance party to liven up the atmosphere and strengthen relationships was also necessary.
Even those great nobles were no longer holding back their status, but instead, they were pulling their beautiful female companions onto the dance floor to lead the dance. They had participated in such social activities too many times, and their dance moves were very skilled.
Seeing that someone wanted to approach us, I immediately pulled Jayad up and invited him to dance. Older Brother Jayad was stunned: “I don’t know how to dance.”
“It’s okay, Flamenco can be danced even if you’re just jumping around. Coming to a banquet means dancing, otherwise, what’s the difference between that and going to Jerusalem and not seeing the Weeping Wall? Right, Miss Leo Man?” I asked.
“Ah? Uh, that’s right.” Lorna was distractedly thinking about how the sect personnel would approach Older Brother Jayad and what kind of tests they would propose. She didn’t even notice someone approaching and answered subconsciously.
As a Briton, she naturally felt that attending a banquet required dancing. Although Parul’s description was a bit strange, it didn’t seem wrong.
“Come on, Older Brother Jayad, hurry up, don’t miss the first dance.” I saw that person walking over and immediately pulled Older Brother Jayad. He didn’t resist and was thus pulled into the dance floor by me.
As soon as that person saw us enter the dance floor, he was instantly awkward where he stood. He couldn’t possibly enter the dance floor to discuss matters, and it didn’t seem strange that the dance party started with the first dance. He could only retreat dejectedly.
The light rhythm of the castanets accompanied by the beautiful guitar melody spread throughout the venue. As soon as I entered the dance floor, I involuntarily started to dance, my feet tapping to the rhythm of the music.
Unlike traditional noble court music, Flamenco is usually a solo or group dance. If two people dance, it’s a partner dance. Of course, to avoid embarrassing guests who didn’t know how to dance, the Lord of the City hired professional dancers to lead and demonstrate in the center of the venue.
Flamenco has a very low entry barrier, but it is very difficult to master advanced steps. The reason why it’s easy to get started is that Flamenco dance steps originated from the impromptu performances of Gypsies around a bonfire after meals, with no strict requirements.
Gypsies are a nomadic people. They began their wanderings from the regions around North India and Iran, traveling across the Middle East and Eastern Europe from ancient times to the present, and are now spread throughout Europe.
Their most significant characteristic is that they travel in family groups, using caravans as homes and transportation. They wander around, performing magic or circus acts for a living. I even went to a Gypsy fortune teller once, and she was very accurate.
Their musical style is greatly influenced by the Indian and Arab regions, with a strong sense of rhythm. The guitar usually serves as the main melody, accompanied by human humming, and castanets to keep the beat. The surrounding crowds, if they don’t have instruments, can clap their hands to the rhythm to add to the excitement.
Gypsies actually live quite a difficult life. They don’t have stable incomes, and their culture is too unique to integrate with the local ethnic groups, making them exploited and oppressed by lords everywhere.
Iberia can be considered a region that accepts them more, so there are a large number of Gypsies in Iberia. In the Castilian language, they are called Flamenco people, meaning refugee farmers.
And the dance steps they perform are naturally called Flamenco Dance. After incorporating some elements of the local tango, it even became one of the national treasures of Iberia, with many people from commoners to nobles knowing how to dance it.
Although the Gypsies live a miserable life, they never bow to destiny and reality. In Gypsy music, there is no loneliness, sadness, or sorrow, but only passion and romance.
This is actually not difficult to understand. Reality is already so tragic, so why should the songs speak of helplessness and suffering?
Their songs and dances are entertainment for families and ethnic groups, a pastime to encourage their people to reignite their passion and courage and forget the tragic reality. That’s why the entry barrier is low. Because it’s family entertainment, there are rumors that Gypsies are born knowing how to dance Flamenco.
But precisely because of this, Flamenco is very infectious, and many audiences love to watch it. This can earn them a lot of tips, and soon Flamenco became a regular performance item for Gypsies to perform for outsiders.
Since it has become a performance, it naturally needs to be good-looking to attract guests to keep giving tips and asking for encores. Therefore, Flamenco dance quickly developed professionally.
The Flamenco dance style emphasizes the inner strength of the body, with strong and highly elastic footwork. It requires continuously striking the ground with the soles of the feet to match the rhythm, coordinating the body, and maintaining a constant arc in the arms, torso, and legs, with provocative or powerful movements.
But unfortunately, I have never practiced it. Wanting to dance with Older Brother Jayad was just an impromptu idea, so I could only imitate the opened arms, quick turns, large bends of the arms and body, and continuous foot-tapping of the leader.
However, it was indeed quite fun. Flamenco dance is very infectious. Many people in the venue, even though they don’t know how to dance, were dancing wildly. The leader also appropriately chose simple steps for everyone to follow.
Compared to me, Older Brother Jayad was much better. Although he was as clueless as I was at first and even a bit flustered, once he let go, he immediately began to improve rapidly and could keep up with the music and the leader’s rhythm.
This was not the end. After keeping up with the rhythm, Older Brother Jayad began to pursue the dance moves. His body movements gradually became more standard, aligning with the leader.
I don’t have Older Brother Jayad’s stamina or body coordination skills. Now I’m the one who can’t keep up. How embarrassing, I was the one who proposed to dance.
Soon, many of the onlookers were attracted by Older Brother Jayad’s dancing. Although his rapid improvement was far from professional, for some reason, his dance moves were incredibly infectious, making people involuntarily tap their feet to his rhythm.
So, these people split into two groups: one group went down to dance with Older Brother Jayad, and the other group clapped their hands to his beat.
The leader quickly noticed the discordance in this corner and also found the source of the discordance. He was displeased, feeling that his professional level had been challenged. So, he immediately switched to a very complex set of dance moves. Although the rhythm was the same, the difficulty of the movements was completely different from before.
Unexpectedly, Older Brother Jayad immediately imitated him and perfectly reproduced it in the next beat, even executing the exaggerated knee bends and footwork perfectly.
The leader was slightly surprised and then performed another move that was even more difficult and professional. Older Brother Jayad also immediately followed and performed it.
