February 7

2-7
Last night we went out to the Ballet Folclórico de Madrid, which was a sampling of folk dances from all around Spain. It was amazing! There were so many different kinds, and yet all of them were distinctly Spanish. Each region had its own costume, with lots of bright colors and fringe that fanned out when they spun. There were also tons of castanets (I think they call them castañuelas or something); almost every dancer had them in every dance. I’m still trying to figure out how they play them. There was such control with the precise rhythms, and everyone played exactly in unison. Patricia told us the theory behind how to make a sound: you hang them from your thumb and shake your had to get it to click, I guess. They also made a sound like a drumroll, where you run your fingers along it really fast, which sounded really cool. But she said it’s really hard to master. All I know is that every time I’ve tried I haven’t been able to do it. Maybe now that I’ve seen it done and tried to study the technique I’ll be able to do it better. There was a group of musicians along the back wall of the stage that played for all the dances. It was mostly guitars and bandurrias, which are lute-like instruments, and a regular lute, but there were also accordions, drums, tambourine, a string bass, and singers. It all sounded very Spanish. There was one set of dances that used a bagpipe band! It was so cool, albeit unexpected. There were two bagpipes, but they weren’t the traditional Scottish kind with three drones and all. These had one drone that stuck up over the shoulder, and there was one thing that looked like a drone that came off near the chanter part on the bottom. I don’t know if there’s a specific name for that kind of bagpipe. They were fantastic, though. I’ve never heard bagpipes play so well in tune, whether they were playing unison or harmony. They played with a drum and . . . and . . . oh, what was the other instrument? Crap, I can’t remember. Maybe some kind of stringed thing. That along with the castanets, of course. It was really cool.
The first half we had to sit up in the nosebleed section (which actually wasn’t super high because it was a pretty small theatre) because we came in late. This makes me mad: we were waiting on one of the girls, Katie, who’s always late. We were supposed to meet at 7:45 for an 8:30 show, and by 8:30 she still wasn’t there. We actually forgot about her at first and started walking to the theatre, and then someone realized she wasn’t there, so Patricia and a couple other people went back for her and the rest of us went on. Around 8:30 Katie called one of the girls in our group and said she was at the metro station but didn’t know where Patricia and the others were. She said she was late because she was drinking with a guy who kept begging her not to leave. And she said she hadn’t taken into account the time it would take to travel to the theatre. My two cents: if you get lost or something that’s one thing. But if you’re going to be late because of something like that you need to call so that the rest of us can go in and watch the show. It wasn’t fair for her to ruin it for everyone else because her drinking buddy didn’t want her to go. So we called Patricia and she came on back with the tickets so we could all go in, and then I think she waited for Katie outside. We were only about 5 or 10 minutes late, but it was still frustrating. And then we got stuck up at the top. Which was actually not too bad, because we could see all the cool formations of the dance. It seemed like a lot of it was based on different shapes. There were some that worked primarily with circles, and different ways of manipulating the circle while still all holding hands. Another dance involved mostly straight lines and squares. That was the set with the bagpipe band. We were still close enough that we could see most of the details, but far enough away to see the big picture, too.
The second half we went to the seats on our tickets, which were first and second row! I was in the front. It was harder to see the formations from there, but it was really cool because we were probably 10 feet away from the stage so we could see everything! The stage was low enough that we could see the dancers’ feet and everything, along with the details of their costumes. I spent a lot of time trying to see how they played the castanets, but it mostly just looked like they were flicking their hands around.
At the end of each dance, or even in the middle of them after something particularly good, people in the audience were shouting things like ‘ole’ or ‘guapo,’ just like all the stereotypes of bullrings and stuff. It amused me. Also, sometimes the dancers would shout things too, while they were dancing. It gave it a very informal, folksy feel. Which I guess is the intention.
So after this night of amazing dancing most of the group decided to go to a black and white party that someone’s friend was having. I was the only one who didn’t want to go, so I got to take the metro home all by myself at like 11:30 at night. The theatre is at the north end of the city, so it took like an hour. And all the while, there were getting fewer and fewer people and I was getting more and more nervous. Finally I got to the last time I had to change metro lines, and the sign that normally says how long until the next metro said the next metro will not admit passengers. Oh no! So I wasn’t sure if there was going to be another one after that that would, but there were a few other people waiting so I decided to wait. No metro ever came that wasn’t admitting passengers, so I don’t know what that was about. But I had to wait about 15 minutes for the next one to come. I was so relieved when it did, let me tell you. There wasn’t really anything shady going on, and there were enough people waiting that I didn’t feel really uncomfortable, but I was so ready to be home. And then of course when I got off there was a guy puking in the metro station. Gross. Anyway, it wasn’t a pleasant metro ride home.
Today I’m going to the Royal Palace with Katie. (Not the same Katie that was late.) I’m excited; I’ve seen pictures and it looks beautiful. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Bethany