Ángel Álvarez: El baile flamenco (Flamenco dance)
Printed by Alianza editorial. 1999

There are few texts about flamenco dance, and the books that have been published so far on the subject concentrate on the biography of artists or on some of the dancing techniques. "El baile flamenco", written by Angel Alvarez Caballero, fills in the vacant spot that had been present in flamenco bibliography.

El Café del Burrero

This book covers the entire flamenco dance history in its 410 pages, starting out with the origin of this dance and up to the beginning of the 1990s.

It surveys the history in chronological order, including the most primitive flamenco dances, the cafés cantantes (singing cafes), the Zambras of Granada, the theaters and the festivals. The bibliography consulted by the author is immense, and he includes several citations from different historical authors, and also texts taken from all of the Spanish press of this century, as well as numerous anecdotes from the interviews conducted by the author himself, all of which make of this book an easily read and interesting one. The text doesn't dwell over theoretical aspects and tries to illustrate the history of this art form by relating the day to day as experienced by the artists and the aficionados (fans) and professional critics. We find opposing views on different matters several times throughout the book, and the majority of the controversies and the stylistic criticisms are presented by the protagonists themselves.

Farruco

Special attention, in the form of small biographies, is given to thegreat names of flamenco dance, La Macarrona, Antonio el de Bilbao, Vicente Escudero, Pilar López, Carmen Amaya, Antonio Gades, Mario Maya and so many others who, even though they are not well known to the public, were considered great masters by the artists of the following generations.

"El baile Flamenco" is a work that serves as a reference guide for all of those who are in some way interested in this type of music; we can get to know that it was in fact not Carmen Amaya, but La Cuenca, a bailaora from the 19th century, who was the first woman to come up on stage dressed up like a man, and who was also a guitar player and the first to introduce the zapateado in the Soleares.

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