Flamenco, tap dance, and Afro-Peruvian zapateo (part 2 of 2)

Another major differences are in the rhythms.  The underlying rhythms in flamenco are more complex than in either tap dance or Afro-Peruvian zapateo.  I'm not saying that the rhythms created with the feet are more complex, because I don't think that's true.  In all three of these dance forms, the best dancers create some really exciting and complicated rhythmic patterns.

But the underlying rhythm in tap is usually 1,2,3,4, while in Afro-Peruvian, it's 1,2,3,4 or 1,2,3,4,5,6.  In flamenco, the underlying rhythms is called compás, and it's usually based on a count of 12 with accents in very different places depending upon the flamenco form the dancer is performing.  Placing the accents correctly is part of the essence of compás.

 
Here is Flamenco singer Antonio de la Malena beating out the compás of bulerías, one of the Extras in our drama, "Domino:  Caught in the Crisis."

Even another major difference is the music.  In Afro-Peruvian zapateo, the music isn't very important or very elaborate.  In tap dance, it's usually something chosen out of the contemporary rap, or rock, or swing scene.

In flamenco, the music is very important and comes from a long tradition.  The music is not as important as the singing, but the dancer is not supposed to do flamenco footwork, taconeo, while the singer is singing.  The singer is more important than the dancer, and must be respected.


 Some pretty fancy zapateo by the world champion, Freddy "Huevito" Lobaton. 

And then, there is body posture.  In flamenco, the body and hands and head all go towards the same expressive purpose of the feet, and are supposed to compliment and make more concrete the sentiment, the emotions, inherent in what the singer is singing.  In addition, the way of moving the body and head is like looking at a bunch of still images.  The dancer moves from one pose directly into another.  When the flamenco dancer is doing taconeo, the body, head and hands are often fluid, to provide continuity.  When the dancer is not doing footwork, the body and head move abruptly, while the hands provide the fluidity. 

  
This tap dance is the exception that makes the rule...LOTS of body position and hands and...

In tap dance, and in Afro-Peruvian zapateo, the body usually isn´t that important.  Of course there are movements and positions to learn, but the real essence of these two dances is in the feet...or, occasionally, the hands.

To sum it up, although all three of these dance forms use the feet as elaborate percussion instruments, they really don´t resemble each other much once you get beyond that initial threshold.

NOTE:  I would have liked to include a video of Riverdance (remember Riverdance?) in this post but already had so much and besides, it's Irish step dance, not tap dance, Afro-Peruvian zapateo, or flamenco taconeo.....  But if you´re interested, go to LINK.  And finally, what the hey, there´s some good Afro-Peruvian zapateo in our trailer (and our documentary) on our web site www.AZestforLifeDVD.com.

OUR NEXT POST will be about immigrants and refugees.