Gypsies; Dancing
 

After reading a frozen thread about "Gypsies in Rome", which focused only on pickpockets and some sort of argument about political correctness, I wanted refocus, and point to the great dance artist and choreographer Juoquim Cortes, a Spanish gypsy, who has emerged worldwide in the last couple of years as a major artist.

I was lucky to see him perform in NY a few weeks ago, and saw his show Pasion Gitana ("Gypsy Passion") last year.
He combines his ethnic tradition of flamenco with his training in classical ballet, and the result is once of the most intense, moving and original things you can imagine. Naturally, his star is rising fast. If anyone ever has the opportunity to see him, here or in Europe, try to, he is amazing!

Joaquin Cortes is a huge international star, specially in Europe. For those who may had watched the TV special that Jennifer Lopez filmed in Puerto Rico (transmitted like 5 times on USA TV back in 2002), he was the solo male dancer that accompanied her during one of her songs. He was absolutely mesmerizing!! Loved him!! I just read an interview photographed in the house he bought his Mom in Madrid. I am looking forward to see one of his shows.

This artist sounds wonderful !
I am perplexed as to why the Rome thread was frozen; I think the word gypsy means different things to different people, it is often used to describe a bohemian lifestyle.

Oxfort dictionary defines gypsy as:

"a member of a nomadic people of Europe and North America, of HIndu origin with dark skin and hair, and speaking a language related to hindi."

There was another thread a few months ago on gypsies and I recommended the book "Bury me standing."

Sorry for the mispelling!, Yes, he's a huge star in Europe and beginning to be known widely here in the states.

I know the book Bury Me Standing, and agree it's a good suggestion!

Chatters, there's also a great documentary about him showing on cable, I just saw it, and hopefully it will be repeated.

Who knows why the thread was frozen, perhaps one of the people who was following it thought it had turned too negative or something. I kind of stopped following it after the first 10 posts or so, when it started to read more like an argument, I lost interest.

I'd rather talk about Joaquin Cortes, or Flamenco, or Gypsy culture!

Thanks for passing on this information. I too am a big flamenco fan and highly recommend the movie TANGO! Also, if you love the music, check out CDs by Cameron.

A few of the best films I have seen with Flamenco are made by Carlos Suara..
Carmen, with Antonio Gaddes
El Amour Brujo and Flamenco

I believe the previous "Gypsy" thread was more about the beggars in Paris.

Rhe oddest thing is when in 1978, Cortes opened for Bob Dylan in Switzerland.

P.S. I love spanish films and though my favorite director is Carlos Saura, I never saw the film, "Flamenco"with Cortes but did see Pedro Almodovor's "the Flower of My Secret." with him

I'm also a big flamenco fan (have been taking flamenco dance classes for a few years) and can recommend a few albums for anyone interested:
El Camaron de la Isla - Castillo de Arena (my favourite flamenco album), José Mercé - Aire (the most successful flamenco singer ever, apparently),
La Macanita - Xeres.Jerez.Sherry. Another couple of modern flamenco artists worth checking out are Vicente Amigo and Tomatito.

If you are really interested in flamenco, I'd recommend checking out www.flamenco-world.com - an excellent resource.

By the way, there's a new French film that came out here (in France) in August called Exils, about two kids on a road trip from France to Algiers, via Andalucia. I saw the trailer a while ago and there seems to be lots of flamenco in it. Has anyone seen it? I don't know what it's called in English...