For the speaking being who returns to “the same place” but fails to find satisfaction that the non-speaking being would find, the relation of the objet petit a to the Big Other, A, creates a torus — a dynamic relation to two voids. In Flamenco, we have an ethnological repository that speaks of this return and dissatisfaction in equally elaborate terms, and perhaps even goes beyond Lacan in the argument that, for what is to be felt in the register of emotions must be precisely countable and counted. This, for Flamenco, is the compás, the 12-beat measure into which triplets and doublets are arranged, uniformly accented, and varied in a myriad traditional ways, coordinating the singers, instrumentalists, and dancers in performances of exquisite exactitude.
The Spanish film-maker Carlos Saura produced a number of documentaries on Flamenco, culminating in his dance version of the Bizet opera, Carmen. Watch this clip, the habañero sequence to understand the critical relations connecting desire, demand, and timing.
Thanks to the Casa Flamenca in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for introducing me to this promising new connection to Lacan’s connection of counting and emotions. Casa Flamenca’s Summer Series of live tablao-style flamenco continues was held in August, at Casa Flamenca’s beautiful outdoor performance space. Known for the artistic quality and authenticity of their flamenco productions, these concerts featured special guest artists-in-residence from Spain – internationally acclaimed flamenco guitarist Juani de La Isla, flamenco singer Miguel Rosendo and flamenco dancer Helmo Cortes. These artists have all performed internationally in flamenco festivals and touring productions with some of Spain’s finest flamenco artists. Also performing will be Casa Flamenca’s Artistic Director and dancer Carmen Montes.
For instructional videos on how to count the compás, visit this page. For the related musical form, décimas, visit this page on counting and breathing. For a moment of relaxation, listen to Juani de la Isla’s ensemble.
the compás and the décima
There is an interesting (Lacanian) connection between the compás of Flamenco and the poetic form of décima. To speculate with me on this, visit this page. If both Flamenco’s compás and the décima‘s 10-line palindrome are about the CUT, then we are in business! Lacan’s slide-rule analogy has a future once we connect it to the ethnological treasures of poetry!
Latcho Drom (Bonne Route)
What is the story of these counting protocols? Watch this provocative documentary film by Tony Gatlif, the Algiers-born French director of Roma descent, Latcho Drom (1993). The film proposes that the Roma people and their compelling dance rhythms came out of Northern India, spread throughout western Asia and Eastern Europe, then into North Africa, France, and Spain. Each new location gave its own clarity and precision to the standard forms.
Wikipedia: The film contains very little dialogue and captions; only what is required to grasp the essential meaning of a song or conversation is translated. The film begins in the Thar Desert in Northern India and ends in Spain, passing through Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and France. All of the Romani portrayed are actual members of the Romani community.
- India—Kalbelia people gathering in celebration.
- Egypt—Ghawazi people sing and dance while children observe and begin to learn the artistic traditions.
- Turkey—Turkish Roma in Istanbul sell flowers and play their music in cafes while their children observe and learn.
- Romania—A young boy listens to Roma musicians sing about the horrors of Nicolae Ceausescu and his reign before returning to his village, where the musicians from earlier begin a semi-spontaneous and joyous music session.
- Hungary—A Roma family on the train sing of their rejection by non-Romani people. The scene cuts to the train station ahead, where the waiting family set up a fire as they wait across the tracks from the train station while a Hungarian woman and her young son wait on a bench. The boy, seeing that his mother is sad and cold, ventures over to the Roma, who strike up the music and cheer the woman up before their family on the train arrive and they walk away singing.
- Slovakia—The train screeches along a barbed wire fence as an old woman sings a song about Auschwitz and the camera pans down to reveal her imprisonment tattoo from her time in the concentration camp. A series of shots show a winter camp before the occupants return to the road.
- France—French Romani set up camp with their metal vardos in a summer field and briefly go about their business, making baskets and other crafts before being driven off by landlords. They leave behind clues that a fellow Romani musician Tchavolo Schmitt uses to find them. They all meet up for the celebration in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer and celebrate the festival of Saint Sarah, patron saint of the Romani.
- Spain—Latcho Drom closes in Spain, showing flamenco puro performed by local “Gitanos”. The famous “gitana” singer La Caita sings mournfully of the centuries of persecution, repeatedly imploring “Why does your mouth spit on me?” as her query echoes out over the town.
Unfortunately the YouTube film contains commercial breaks.