by Ramon Shiloh
Nestled in the hilly district of West Seattle, Flamenco Arts Northwest (FANW) is an organization dedicated to elevating students' appreciation of and discipline in the art of Flamenco. Founded in 1996 by Executive Director Marcos Carmona and his wife, Rubina, FANW has garnered a large following of fans, dedicated artists, musicians, and singers drawn to the rhythms of this emotional craft.
Rubina explains that Flamenco is one of the most complex genres in performance art, involving voice, guitar, percussion instruments, and dance. "It’s a very difficult technique. It’s very demanding. Any student who has experimented in any of the disciplines – dancing, singing, or guitar playing – is going to tell you that Flamenco is the hardest thing they’ve ever studied."
Although Flamenco is considered a Spanish art form, its defining elements are poverty, emotional hardship, and displacement. Born among dissident Christians, Jews, Arabs, and Gitanos in Andalusia, Spain, Flamenco's somber, controlled expressions are the product of many cultural influences.
The Carmonas, who are both of Jewish descent, emphasize their heritage's significant influence on Flamenco. "Among North American Flamenco artists, next to people of Hispanic descent, Jews are the biggest ethnic group. The singing is one-quarter Jewish," Rubina explains. "The music is a blend of Jewish, Muslim, Gypsy, European Spaniard, North African, and Middle Eastern influences. In the dance, there is a strong influence from India. Certain foot techniques are identical to kathak, a North Indian classical dance. This comes from the Gypsies who migrated to Spain from India in the 1450s, mingling their styles and rhythms with European and Arabic dances."
Flamenco in the Northwest
Rubina and Marcos have been performing throughout the U.S. and Spain for 30 years. Together, they form one of the most enduring and successful Flamenco ensembles, Carmona Flamenco, outside of Spain. The Pacific Northwest has been their home base since 1988, when they began performing regularly with dancer Ana Montes in concert and cabaret venues. Carmona Flamenco has also performed at the Allegro Dance Festival, appeared at the Kirkland Performance Center, and helped launch the Arts West and Music Northwest organizations.
“We did a lot to get Flamenco out there to raise awareness. In time, it grew enormously,” Marcos says. “We have also taught many students who formed what we now call guerrilla groups. They do their own thing and we are proud of that.”
In 1999, Carmona Flamenco released its only CD, “Reflejos,” which reflects the Carmonas’ respect and commitment to the art form. “We’re performing artists, not recording artists. That’s why we only have the one CD. We are constantly working to develop new material. We improvise, so we can instill variations into the same thing.”
Another group performing under the FANW banner is La Peña Flamenca de Seattle, formed in 1995 to showcase the talents of aficionados and emerging professionals who perform with Carmona Flamenco. La Peña currently includes 22 dancers, guitarists, vocalists, and other musicians of various ages and multicultural backgrounds. La Peña provides an engaging learning and performing environment, as well as a great social opportunity for adults and mature teenagers.
Over the past several years, the annual La Peña concert has moved from a small 90-seat hall to a beautiful 200-seat facility. Seattle area performances have also included the Broadway Performance Hall, On the Boards, Asian Art Museum, Folklife Fiestas Patrias, Nippon Kan Theater, Century Ballroom, Dance on Capitol Hill Theater, Hokum Hall, and the University of Washington Ethnic Cultural Theatre.
It's a Family Affair
Conveying a specific mood is at the heart of Flamenco. Rubina’s melodic cante (singing) is accentuated by a haunting depth likened to an emotional aria. Her rhythmic palmas (hand claps) keep time with the stomping of her feet in the baile (dance), preserving this beautiful art form in its purest form.
Rubina began her artistic journey in the Bay Area of California, where she grew up. “I’ve always been attracted to dance and music, so I’ve always pursued some type of musical education,” she reminisces. “I studied woodwind instruments in junior high and high school and sang in choruses. I didn’t have much opportunity to pursue dance until high school when I joined the modern dance department. Fortunately, I was able to have these resources in public schools.”
Rubina spent her college years studying Anglo American folk music, as well as Balkan and Greek folk dancing. She even spent a year and a half playing with Jerry Garcia. “When I was doing folk music in San Francisco, I met Jerry Garcia, Bob Hunter, and those folks before they were the Grateful Dead. We were doing Bluegrass together. I sang with them and started playing dulcimer and a little banjo. We played until they went their way and I went mine.” Rubina says as soon as she discovered Flamenco, she left everything else behind.
In March 2007, at the Ethnic Heritage Council’s 26th annual dinner and awards ceremony in Seattle, Rubina was presented with the Gordon Ekvall Tracie Memorial Award for her significant contributions to the preservation and presentation of ethnic arts in the Pacific Northwest. This honor is a well-deserved tribute to a woman who has spent her life passing on her knowledge and expertise to a new generation of Flamenco artists.
When you hear Marcos play the guitar, you find yourself lost in the breathtaking range and energy of his music. His traditional and contemporary performances include basic Flamenco guitar techniques, such as arpeggios (broken chords), alzapua (thumb technique), rasqueados (strumming), and picado. Each technique is designed to elicit emotion, emphasizing the dignity and elegance typical of traditional Flamenco.
Marcos’ artistic journey began in San Francisco, where he first learned to play the trumpet and violin. During high school, his love for the guitar was permanently sealed. Marcos joined the folk music movement in the 1960s but never strayed too far from the popular music of the time. When he discovered Flamenco, he knew he had found a genre that offered him unlimited challenges.
“It was the cante that grabbed my attention,” Marcos recalls. “That, to me, is the part I love the most. The guitar and the dance come next in terms of importance, not in terms of commercial success, but in terms of hierarchy. But, on the stage, it’s usually the opposite. The dance is looked at first.”
The Carmonas’ youngest child, 26-year-old David Carmona, has also become a permanent fixture of Carmona Flamenco over the past six years. His percussion style is extraordinarily hypnotic, accompanying his mother and father as they weave through the passages of song and dance.
David’s percussion instrument is the cajón (crate), a box played by slapping the front face with the hands. Traditionally, the cajón did not have an integral role in Flamenco, but it became widely accepted in the late 1970s. Associated with the Afro-Cuban Rumba, the hardest part of learning to play the cajón is mastering the complicated rhythmic patterns.
“David just fell into it. He has been a musician forever. We proudly raised him as one,” says Marcos about his son, who also loves Jazz, Reggae, and Hip-Hop. “With all these fusions, as a percussionist, he loves bringing his drum kit everywhere, which will give him the ability to do many great things down the road.”
One reason this enduring family has been so successful is their solidarity. “If I was teaching by myself, it would be a lot harder,” Marcos says. “If Rubina was dancing by herself, it would be a lot harder.
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