Flamenco Dance

Description

Flamenco (Spanish pronunciation: [flaˈmeŋko]), in its strictest sense, is a professionalized art-form based on the various folkloric music traditions of Southern Spain in the autonomous communities of Andalusia, Extremadura and Murcia. In a wider sense, it refers to these musical traditions and more modern musical styles which have themselves been deeply influenced by and become blurred with the development of flamenco over the past two centuries. It includes cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), baile (dance), jaleo (vocalizations), palmas (handclapping) and pitos (finger snapping).^[1]

The oldest record of flamenco dates to 1774 in the book Las Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso.^[2] The genre originated in the music and dance styles of Andalusia which is mostly related to the Middle-East^{[citation needed]}. Flamenco has been influenced by and associated with the Romani people in Spain; however, its origin and style are uniquely Andalusian.^[3][4]

Flamenco has become popular all over the world and is taught in many non-Hispanic countries, especially the United States and Japan. In Japan, there are more flamenco academies than there are in Spain.^[5][6] On November 16, 2010, UNESCO declared flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.