Pedagogical principles in Flamenco en Red training

Antonio Nadal Masegosa

Universidad de Málaga

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2788-0058

antonionm@uma.es

ABSTRACT

Flamenco, as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is part of the training offer of some Spanish universities and, within the didactic evaluation of that instruction this research is framed, which analyzes, in an educational way, the necessary processes to obtain the certification, and with it, the pass, of a course called Flamenco en Red, taught at the University of Cádiz, Spanish State, which exceeds the dozen editions. Through qualitative methodology, a large number of data is obtained, through the study of different online materials on the subject studied, whose examination yields broad results that are provided in order to provide, in a pedagogical way, the evaluative content.

Keywords: Education, distance education, educational evaluation, cultural research, flamenco, educational theory, intangible cultural heritage.

Principios pedagógicos en la formación de Flamenco en Red

RESUMEN

El flamenco, como Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (UNESCO), forma parte de la oferta formativa de algunas universidades españolas y, dentro de la evaluación didáctica de dicha instrucción se enmarca la presente investigación, la cual analiza, de forma educativa, los procesos necesarios para obtener la certificación, y con ello, la superación, de un curso denominado Flamenco en Red, impartido desde la Universidad de Cádiz, Estado español, el cual supera la docena de ediciones. A través de la metodología cualitativa se obtienen un gran número de datos, a través del estudio de distintos materiales online sobre la temática estudiada, cuyo examen arroja unos resultados amplios que se aportan con el objeto de aportar, de modo pedagógico, los contenidos evaluativos.

Palabras clave: Educación, educación a distancia, evaluación de la educación, investigación cultural, flamenco, teoría de la educación, patrimonio cultural inmaterial.

Princípios pedagógicos no treinamento de Flamenco en Red

RESUMO

O Flamenco, como Património Cultural Imaterial da Humanidade da Organização das Nações Unidas para a Educação, a Ciência e a Cultura (UNESCO), faz parte da oferta formativa de algumas universidades espanholas e, no âmbito da avaliação didática da referida instrução enquadra-se esta investigação, que analisa, em de forma educativa, os processos necessários para obter a certificação, e com ela, o aperfeiçoamento, de um curso denominado Flamenco en Red, ministrado pela Universidade de Cádiz, Estado espanhol, que ultrapassa a dezena de edições. Através da metodologia qualitativa obtém-se um grande número de dados, através do estudo de diversos materiais online sobre o tema estudado, cujo exame produz resultados amplos que são fornecidos com o objetivo de fornecer, de forma pedagógica, os conteúdos avaliativos.

Palavras-chave: Educação, educação a distância, avaliação educacional, pesquisa cultural, flamenco, teoria educacional, patrimônio cultural imaterial.

The origin of this research is, to say the least, curious, and has to do with the activism of complaint against institutional violence (Ahmed, 2022), relative to the options for success in the face of the arbitrariness that benefits certain candidates to become a teacher in public universities in Spain, which probably fail to comply with various regulations, such as Law (Ley) 40/2015, of October 1, on the Legal Regime of the Public Sector.

On the one hand, as its own website literally indicates, the UNESCO Thesaurus (2024) is a controlled and structured list of terms for the thematic analysis and search of documents and publications in the fields of education, culture, natural sciences, social and human sciences, communication and information: continually expanded and updated, its multidisciplinary terminology reflects the evolution of UNESCO's programs and activities. In this list, Flamenco is only included within the generic concept of Germanic languages.

On the other hand, to be a teacher at the University of Malaga (2024), there are self-proclaimed factors of relevance, where the CV of professional candidates is subjected to a filter determined by the arbitrariness of the departments that manage the areas of knowledge. In the case at hand, the Department of Theory and History of Education, of the aforementioned institution, established that, in addition to the merits related to the words that give the title to its name, the most relevant training would be that related to pedagogy, social education and teaching of primary and early childhood education.

With all of the above, we go back to a specific call to be a teacher, which was numbered as 125PSI19, in which one of its candidates presented up to 27 merits directly related to flamenco and its dance. Although this last question was not even close to what could be assessed as relevance 0.5, that is, merits related to psychopedagogy, or didactics and school organization, all the merits counted were scored with the maximum, greatly benefiting the candidate, and harming all aspiring teachers in Theory and History of Education. Given this circumstance, it was decided to start training in flamenco, given that it seemed essential for the position to which one aspired. However, in the case of the writer, he would never be valued as much as the former candidate.

Flamenco en Red is a training course that in 2022 reached its thirteenth edition, becoming a project funded by the Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities of the Junta de Andalucía, Spain, coordinated by the Extension Service University of the Vice-Rector's Office for Culture of the University of Cadiz, within the Andalusian Culture Network program.

The instruction given by Flamenco en Red took place from the University of Cadiz to the world, since anyone could enroll for free, being only necessary an internet connection to follow the training content. In addition, those students whose university considered it appropriate and adhered to the positive evaluation of the training and the educational program itself, could validate the course hours, based on specific local university regulations. Once the course was successfully completed, the Vice-Rector of Culture of the University of Cádiz issued the corresponding certificates of participation.

In the field of Spanish universities, Flamenco en Red was consolidated, also enjoying internationalization through the adhesion of universities from other countries, such as 21 universities in the Post-Soviet Space or the Jean Moulin University in Lyon (France). The Flamenco en Red training program, so far, has been presented at the Cervantes Institute in Dublin (Ireland), Lisbon (Portugal), Manchester-Leeds (United Kingdom), Utrecht (Holland), Hamburg (Germany), New York (United States) and Chicago (United States), and at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago (United States). As content partners, the training proposal included the Spanish universities of Granada, Extremadura, Huelva, Jaen, Almeria, Alicante, the International University of Andalusia and the European University of Madrid, together with, obviously, the previously mentioned University of Cadiz.

Regarding the university training relevance of the subject in general, the Master in Flamenco at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya received official recognition from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports of Spain through the Order ECD / 688/2016, of April 22, approving the study plan for the Master's degree in Artistic Education for Advanced Studies in Flamenco at the Center for Higher Music Education "Escuela Superior de Musica de Cataluña" in Barcelona. After this regulation, the Resolution of August 29, 2018, of the General Secretariat of Universities, which publishes the Agreement of the Council of Ministers of August 3, 2018, which establishes the official nature of certain Master's degrees and their registration in the Registry of Universities, Centers and Degrees, of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain, recognized with the code 4316735 the University Master's Degree in Research and Analysis of Flamenco (joint University Master of the University of Cadiz, University of Granada, University of Huelva and Pablo de Olavide University, Seville).

To all of the above, we can add the existence of the Spanish Flamencology Chairs at the University of Malaga, the University of Cordoba, the University of Seville, or the San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia, and the existence of the Degree in Flamenco, thanks to the collaboration between the private Loyola University and the Cristina Heeren Foundation of Flamenco Art, and taught in the first of them, specifically at the Sevillian headquarters of its Faculty of Social, Legal and Educational Sciences.

Taking into account, therefore, the increasing relevance of flamenco in universities, as well as its internationalization, being aware that it is part of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of the United Nations Educational Organization, Science and Culture (UNESCO 2010), the specific objective of this research focuses on the didactic evaluation of the requirements demanded by the memory-summary required to obtain the certification of overcoming the XII Edition of Flamenco en Red, a package of online access training resources whose duration accredited by the relevant university institution is a total of 60 hours, which could be acquired, upon registration, from March 8 to June 18, 2021.

A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE META-ASSESSMENT OF THE TRAINING OF FLAMENCO

The qualitative research paradigm implies going far beyond information that provides quantitative data obtained from complex statistical analyzes, coming from results achieved through questionnaires: our approach is oriented towards the development of an in-depth understanding of the scenarios or people who are studied (Taylor and Bogdan 2009), researching the main characters of the facts that are assessed by us, constituting the aforementioned scenario in the primary source of the investigation, which is evaluated in a didactic way in the first person, not through secondary sources.

Obtaining qualitative data must follow specific criteria: we are talking about systematization. The ordering that is involved is carried out according to certain categories that may be emergent or pre-established by the researcher; The data collected in a practice, without a research criterion, does not aim to achieve knowledge about an object or a matter, forming a large and disordered mass of information. The systematization can be carried out from any design or qualitative methodological proposal. The process developed is not a simple approach to a reality, but its recovery from the record of practice: through systematization, the theory-practice reality takes place, in the sense of reflecting by doing and doing by reflecting (Osses et al. 2006:120). In this sense, it was not considered a better way to carry out a truly didactic assessment than the researcher's own immersion in the course to be investigated, checking, and achieving, in order to transmit what is the true didactics that the course requirements implied, through his own elaboration as a student.

Understanding that an online course was being addressed, the methodology consistently used would be virtual ethnography, which, based on the traditions of ethnographic study, takes into account how people experience events, and avoid making a priori assumptions; ethnographic presence is therefore an important part of the epistemological apparatus of ethnography, but it takes a variable form in online ethnographies. In contemporary times, with ubiquitous digital technologies, which provide a multitude of more or less ephemeral modes of communication, it is not so easy for those who reserach to determine where the environment could be or what counts as first-hand observation (Hine 2017), and this present research design would have a solution to such dilemmas, through direct enrollment, and the unequivocal use of primary sources.

Assessment, therefore, is a systematic expression, in which we consider that all evaluative actions are designed, planned, must follow a gradual logic, in content and in levels of generality, and have an educational purpose (Gil and Morales 2018). That is why this evaluative action shows, and teaches, in a didactic way, what were the necessary requirements for passing the Flamenco en Red university course, in its XII Edition.

The systematization of the research was given by the primary source, through the requirements of the course to obtain the diploma of itself, constituting the five contents requested in categories of analysis. The first of them would be the summary of some of the events (communication events, discussions or presentations) included in the International Congress called “Enrique Morente. Memory and Heterodoxy in Flamenco”, held in December 2020, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the death of the Granada singer, which was organized by the Department of Music History and Sciences, in collaboration with the Flamenco Studies group of La Madraza, in the Center for Contemporary Culture of the University of Granada.

The summary of one of the four conferences included in the II Edition of the Aula de Flamenco, organized in Spain by the Badajoz Provincial Council, through its Culture and Sports Area, and the University of Extremadura, that took place between October and December 2020, would be the second category of analysis.

The third category would have more optionality, asking for a summary of different materials, one of which was monographic videos on the geography of flamenco, prepared by Faustino Núñez, Master´s Degree in Musicology from the University of Vienna, and lecturer of the Aula de Flamencología at the University of Cadiz and Master's Degree at the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña. These videos, in turn, were divided into five locations, with their corresponding titles: Geography of flamenco in Cadiz, Jerez and Los Puertos, Geography of flamenco in Seville, Geography of flamenco in Malaga, Granada and Cordoba, Geography of flamenco in Jaen, Almeria, Murcia and Huelva, and Geography of flamenco from other flamenco territories (Badajoz, Cuban flamenco guajiras, Cuban guaracha rumbitas, Mexican peteneras, Argentine milongas, American tango, etc.). The second option within this third category would again be to make a summary, in this case of one of the three videos that made up the flamenco styles, from A to Z, again by Faustino Núñez, and David Pino, director of the Flamencology Chair at the University of Córdoba, graduated in Teaching, graduated in Higher Studies in Music and Master´s Degree in Research and Analysis of Flamenco from the University of Cordoba, having taught at the universities of Cordoba, Cadiz, Madrid, Malaga and the International University of Andalusia. The last option within this category would be the preparation of a summary of the conference entitled The subversive doll: gender representation in flamenco, by Belén Maya, flamenco dancer and international choreographer, whose talk had its origin in a chapter of the book Flamenco: Conflicting Histories of the Dance (Hayes 2009).

The penultimate category of analysis had, as the first option, the summary of one of the eight videos under the title Flamenco singing classes, by Ana Fargas, who is a singer and actress from the Higher School of Dramatic Art of the University of Malaga, and Paco Javier Jimeno, guitarist and First International Prize for Flamenco Guitar in Nimes (France), among other awards. The analysis options within this category are: La Caña, Tangos, Alegrias from Cadiz, Tarantos, Jabera, Rumba, Bambera, Granaina and media Granaina. Second option within this category would be the preparation of a summary of six videos on the theme: Theory of Flamenco Dance, research and reflection on dance. This block of contents contains an update on the history and review of the writings, paintings and newspaper articles in relation to flamenco dance and Spanish dance, a theoretical approach to a possible aesthetic construction of the same, by Gabriel Vaudagna Arango, Master´s Degree in Flamenco from the University of Granada.

As a last requirement, also established as the last category of analysis, a personal assessment of the course contents was required, and all this categorized-systematized analysis content developed in this methodological heading, and its next practical development in the results, discussion and conclusions, would constitute the entirety of this article, which would be sent in its entirety to the University Extension Service of the Vice-Rector's Office for Culture of the University of Cádiz, for its knowledge and assessment, in order to pass the course.

With these categories of analysis, what we really carry out is a meta assessment, that is, an assessment of what is required to pass the course in which the researcher enrolled, learning not only that, but to a great extent the contents of the course.

AN ASSESSMENT WITH HIGH STANDARDS: LOTS TO LEARN ABOUT FLAMENCO

In the analysis of qualitative data results, writing is more than that: writing about the data and even rewriting it are essential aspects of the analysis itself, it is both a way of keeping track and a creative process in which we develop ideas about the project and the research that we wish to develop and complete (Gibbs 2018). The categorization and systematization carried out in the present case achieves the possible reproduction of the entire investigation, and its complete verification.

The no more and no less than 49 lessons included in the training of the XII Edition of Flamenco en Red, as we saw, were grouped into four fundamental categories, since the fifth of them would simply be a general assessment requirement. From the International Congress called Enrique Morente. Memory and Heterodoxy in Flamenco, the first category of analysis, we find fifteen lessons, -through videos on YouTube under the category of hidden (so will all the lessons, for which it is indicated now, so as not to make a repetitive text)- which are described below. The first video, called the inauguration, lasts more than one hour and 17 minutes, and includes Gemma Pérez Zalduondo, University Lecturer and Director of the Department of History and Music Sciences of the University of Granada; the First Vice-President of the Granada Provincial Council and Deputy for Culture, Fátima Gómez; Víctor Jesús Medina Flórez, Vice-rector of University Extension and Lecturer of the Department of Painting, of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Granada; the Provincial Delegate of Culture and Historical Heritage of the Junta de Andalucía in Granada, Antonio Granados, graduated in Law from the University of Granada and Master´s Degree in Legal Advice for Companies; Miguel Ángel Berlanga Fernández, Lecturer of Ethnomusicology, Flamenco and Mediterranean Music at the University of Granada; Pedro Ordóñez Eslava, Lecturer in the Department of Music History and Sciences and Director of the Music Area of the Vice-Rector's Office for University Extension and Heritage of the University of Granada; Jorge Fernández Bustos, Granada librarian and writer for more than two decades. The video ends with a flamenco musical performance by guitarist David Carmona and the voice of Kiki Carmona.

The second lesson, called Communication Table 1, was moderated by Elsa Calero Carramolino, Lecturer at the Department of History and Music Sciences at the University of Granada, with the following lectures: “Intertextuality at ease: from poem to copla in Enrique Morente”, by Jimena Larroque; “After...: genealogy and memory in Enrique Morente's cante”, by Carlos van Tongeren; “7,000 chickens or a song: the theater of Jesús Campos with Enrique Morente”, by Pedro Ordóñez Eslava; and "If my voice died on the ground. Poetry of exile in the cantes de Morente”, by Iván López Cabello and María Fátima Rodiguez. The third lesson, Communications Table 2, would be moderated by Álvaro Flores Coleto, Lecturer at the Department of Music History and Sciences, and would feature: “The influence of Enrique Morente's work on the musical production of Raúl Refree and urban popular music of the XXI century: the cases of Silvia Pérez Cruz and Rosalía”, by Ricardo de la Paz Ruiz; “Tribute to Enrique Morente. An approach from Eva Yerbabuena's dance”, by Sheila del Barrio; and “Morente, the renewal of flamenco and the magazine Triunfo”, by Javier González.

Communications table 3 would be the fourth lesson, moderated by Ana María Díaz Olaya, Director of the Department of Flamencology at the University of Malaga, which would have the following contributions: “Enrique Morente and Painting: an interdisciplinary approach to his performances on the islands”, by Francisco Bethancourt; “El Barbero de Picasso, from Murillo to Morente: Choreographic Project between Spain, Kenya and Bulgaria”, by Alvaro Murillo and Juan Luis León Llamas; and “Enrique Morente and the accompanying guitar”, by David Monge and Norberto Torres. The fifth lesson would be Communication Table 4, moderated by the already named Gemma Pérez, with: “Morente in love: didactic-creative proposal of two tangos by Enrique Morente”, by Alba Correa; “Transcription and literary-musical analysis of the “Nanas de la onion”, by Guillermo Salinas; “Enrique Morente on the fiftieth anniversary of the 1922 Granada cante jondo contest”, by Antonio Jiménez; and “The barbero and the abstract soleá by Picasso”, by Julián Pérez.

Lecture Joshua Brown 5 would be the name of the sixth lesson, where this Professor of Ethnomusicology at the Chapman University of California, United States, would speak for more than an hour and 26 minutes on the communities of feeling: memory, intimacy and sound presence in flamenco. The seventh lesson would be called Round Table 6, consisting of a round table with the name: “The meeting of Enrique Morente and Max Roach”, with Luis Cabrera, David Leiva and, in the last minutes, the already named Pedro Ordoñez Eslava.

Communications table 7 would be the name of the eighth lesson, with the moderation of Diego García Peinazo, Lecturer in the Department of History and Music Sciences of the University of Granada, with: “The Moreno Galván brothers: letters of political commitment and aesthetic in flamenco”, by Regina Pérez; "For those who still live Omega: relationships, parallels and reformulations between Exquirla and the collaboration of Enrique Morente and Lagartija Nick", by Ugo Fellone; “Fluxus, conceptual art and dada: the performance of Morente and Sonic Youth as a paradigm of postmodernity”, by María José Jiménez; and “In the wake of Enrique Morente: analysis of the“ Morente ”influence on Rosalía's first álbum “Los Ángeles”, by Daniel Gómez.

Lecture Faustino Núñez 8 was the name of the ninth lesson of the course, and in it, in a video of over an hour and ten minutes, Faustino Núñez, Lecturer at the Flamencology Classroom at the University of Cádiz, would intervene, presented by David Pino, Director of the Flamencology Chair at the University of Córdoba, in an activity in collaboration with the Peña Flamenca La Platería and the Flamencology Chair at the aforementioned University of Cordoba. Communications table 9 would be the tenth lesson, moderated by Mariola Lupiáñez, from the Group of Flamenco Studies at the University of Granada, with: “The binomial Enrique Morente and the pianist and composer Antonio Robledo”, by Isora Castilla; “Flamenco as a subversive art: Enrique Morente's political commitment”, by Ana Ruiz; “El Dolor sung by Morente”, by Juan Romero Cotelo; and "Look me in the eye: a prelude to the Morentian revolution", by Pilar Serrano.

Communications table 10 was the eleventh lesson, and with the moderation of Juan Carlos Galiano, Lecturer in the Department of History and Music Sciences of the University of Granada, it would have: “Melodic intertextuality in Morente's work”, by Juan Carlos Perez; “Composition in flamenco through the figure of Enrique Morente”, by Jose Antonio Rico; "The culture of flamenco in the Granada of the fifties through the experience of Alan Lomax", by Ascension Mazuela; and “Flying from mouth to mouth. The popular lyric in Enrique Morente's verses”, by Antonio Plaza. The twelfth lesson was called Communications Table 11, and in it, moderated by Francisco Perujo, Lecturer at the University of Cadiz and General Coordinator of the Interuniversity Master's Degree in Research and Analysis of Flamenco, it was possible to see: “The Morente universe in Jesus Arias ”, by Irene Chicharro; "Federico and Enrique. Morente and García Lorca: ‘Bells for the poet’… and for the singer”, by Marco Antonio de la Ossa; and the guest speech: “Enrique en directo”, by Paco Espínola.

The third-to-last lesson of this first category would be the so-called Round Table 12, Los Tientos, in which Antonio Collados Seidel, Director of the Visual Arts Area of La Madraza, of the Center for Contemporary Culture of the University of Granada, and the former quoted Pedro Ordóñez Eslava, who would also be present in the penultimate lesson, called Clausura, which would also have Mariola Lupiáñez Castillo, belonging to the Group of Flamenco Studies of La Madraza of the Center for Contemporary Culture of the University of Granada, and with the professor from the Department of History and Music Sciences of the University of Granada Diego García Peinazo. The last lesson would be a concert of more than 28 minutes by the previously mentioned Kiki Morente and David Carmona.

LEARNING ABOUT INCLUSIVE FLAMENCO, IMPACT OF FLAMENCO ABROAD, FLAMENCO AND MASS MEDIA, BAILAORAS...

The second category of analysis, as well as assessment criterion, would be the request for a summary of one of the four conferences of the aforementioned II Edition of the Aula de Flamenco of the Badajoz Provincial Council and the University of Extremadura. The first of them, “Inclusive Flamenco” by the dancer and choreographer José Galán, was over an hour and 42 minutes long, and in it he commented on how far flamenco can go, including people with disabilities, being two-way both flamenco and disability, having feedback one with the other. Paternalistic approaches are avoided, considering inclusion as an added value, not as a handicap, and including the performance of the speaker himself, as well as the speaker's dancers and students: Lola García Vaquero, totally blind, and Pepa Pulidoro, with visual impairment and advanced age, including Macarena Vílchez, a sign language interpreter, on the stage.

“Impact of flamenco abroad”, by the German Kurt Grötsch, director of the Cristina Hoyos Museum of Flamenco Dance, in Seville, Spain, would be the second conference in the second category of analysis, and lasted more than one hour and 19 minutes. Introduced by a flamenco performance that included guitar, singing and dancing (a Cuban guajira, specifically), it was about the internationalization of flamenco, tours ... For the speaker, flamenco is part of the Spain brand, as well as an art, worlwide, and it expands not only through the aforementioned tours, but also through festivals, or reverse trade missions. The offer of flamenco experiences for a foreign public in Spain would also be addressed, as well as a critical point about the collapse of the flamenco sector and his personal consideration of an institutional betrayal by public administrations.

"Flamenco and the media", given by journalists Laura Zahínos and María Isabel Rodríguez Palop, and lasting more than one hour and 18 minutes, would be the third conference in this category, including Miriam Cantero, singing, and Rodrigo Fernández, on guitar. María Isabel Rodríguez Palop is responsible for palopflamenco.com, and author of Flamenco para Dummies (2020), where she addresses the history, stages and possible origins of flamenco, teaches how to differentiate the types of flamenco songs, or palos, and discovers who to her judgment are the greats of singing, claping and dancing. Laura Zahinos, since 2008, has presented and directed the Canal Extremadura Radio program “Entre palos y quejíos”, obviously focused on flamenco. In their talk, the speakers would differentiate between journalists, critics, and experts in flamencology, also defining flamenco and mass media. The journalist, they affirmed, cannot be a simple path to take, recognizing the difficulty of transmitting technical issues to the general and mass public, for which the didactic possibilities of the cited book were emphasized (Palop 2020).

"Bailaoras" of the communication technique and researcher Ángeles Cruzado, accompanied by the performance, dancing, by Rosa Belmonte, singing, by José Gómez "Fefo", clapping, by Aroa Bravo and Sara Ortega, and playing the guitar, by José Ángel Castilla, would be the last intervention to be analyzed in this category, included in a video of more than one hour and fifty minutes long. Since the end of the 18th century, traits of a primitive flamenco can be seen in Andalusian dances, highly appreciated by foreign travelers, English, French, German... who went, for example, to Seville and Andalusia, generally. Gypsy dancers made their way, like some internationally renowned dancers already in the 19th century, such as Petra Cámara, Manuela Perea, Josefa Vargas, Pepita de Oliva… even imitators of foreign dancers emerged. It is important to know, already in the 20th century, the existence of famous dancers such as Juana "la Macarrona", Encarnación Hurtado "la Malagueñita", Antonia Galindo "Dora la Gitana", Luz de Garay "the Star of Andalusia", Rafaela Valverde Díaz “La Tanguera”, Amalia Molina Pérez, Monk Pastora Rojas “Pastora Imperio”, Antonia Mercé Luque “Argentina”, Encarnación López Júlvez “la Argentinita”, Pilar López Júlvez or Carmen Amaya.

GEOGRAPHY OF FLAMENCO, STYLES (PALOS), GENDER AND FLAMENCO, AND EVEN MORE

The third category required a summary of different options, one of which, the first, was the choice of one of the monographic videos on the geography of flamenco for the completion of the aformentioned summary. The first of these optiones, almost forty minutes long, was about the flamenco of Cadiz, Jerez and Los Puertos, considering flamenco as an artistic representation of traditional music and as a musical genre originating in Andalusia, which can be known by analyzing the origin of its main styles, as well as the birthplace and upbringing of its creators and performers. Flamenco is the work of individuals and artists, those people who knew how to distill the best of the tradition, to reinterpret it in an artistic key, and finally create the flamenco genre. The geography of flamenco goes beyond the origin of its authors, without the need for the Andalusian land to have been stepped on to make the art. Antonio Chacón, Jerez-born cantaor, Enrique Ortega, Teodoro Casalla and Francisco Lema “Fosforito”, cantaores from Cádiz, or the jondo composer from Cádiz Enrique “el Mellizo”, are some of the examples mentioned in this first video, as well as fundamental historical facts, such as the Great Raid of 1749, the act of ethnic cleansing against the gypsy people carried out in Spain. International artists cannot be omitted, such as “Capullo de Jerez”, Lola Flores and José Mercé (also from Jerez), Camarón de la Isla (from San Fernando, Cadiz), Manolo Sanlucar (guitarist from Sanlucar de Barrameda, Cadiz), or the international guitar virtuoso from Algeciras, Paco de Lucía.

Forty minutes long, the second video deals with flamenco in Seville, mentioning singers such as Manuel Vega García "el Carbonerillo", great promoter of fandango, Manuel Ortega Juárez "Manolo Caracol", interpreter of malagueñas, fandangos, martinetes and zambras, the "Pelao": the brothers Juan "el Pelao" and José, the Caganchos -by their surname-, Antonio and their son Manuel, Pepe "el de la Matrona", "el Mochuelo", Manuel Centeno, Pastora Pavón Cruz "la Niña de los Peines ”, Manuel Vallejo, Pepe Pinto and a long etcetera. The video about flamenco in Malaga, Granada and Córdoba is almost 46 minutes long, and includes Cristóbal Palmero from Malaga, “el Tobalo de Ronda” -one of the first flamencos in history-, Juan Breva, “el Canario ” y "la Trini” or "Niño de Velez"; the Sacromonte caves in Granada and their flamenco tradition, and from this city, Antonio Torcuato Martín “el Cujón”, Frasquito Yerbabuena or Africa Vázquez “la Peceña”; and from Córdoba and its flamenco tradition, mention is made of one of the most renowned flamenco dancers, Mario Maya, or the singers Niño del Museo, Niño de Cabra, Juanito Maravillas, Antonio Ranchal, Fosforito ... It is almost forty minutes long another video, about flamenco in Jaén, Almería, Huelva and Murcia, where they talk about the tarantas of Jaén, the singer from Andújar José Illanda (Escribano 2002), the cantaor from Huelma (Jaén) Rafael Romero "el Gallina", the illustrious Juanito Valderrama (from Torredelcampo, Jaén), the singer Gabriel Moreno and the cantaora Carmen Linares (from Linares, Jaén), Custodia Cortés Romero, a dancer known artistically as La Venus de Bronce (from La Carolina, Jaén), Pedro “el Morato”, from Vera (Almería), the international guitarist from Almería "Tomatito", the Carthaginian cantaor and father of a great saga of flamenco artists Antonio Piñana, the Cartagena cantaora Concha Peñaranda, the Murcian cantaor Nene de las Balsas, or the singers from Huelva El Cojo de Huelva, Niño León, Pepe Rebollo, Antonio Rengel, Paco Isidro and Paco Toronjo, for example.

The last video, fifth in total, of the first option of the third category of analysis, is entitled Other flamenco territories, and in almost forty minutes it talks about Extremadura, Madrid, Barcelona, Galicia, Asturias, Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, the dancer Antonio Gades (from Elda, Alicante), Las Grecas (born in Valladolid and Madrid), or the Madrilenians Manzanita, Los Chichos, Los Chunguitos, Bordón 4, and Los Chorbos, being some of them really popular in Spain, not only for flamenco fans, musicologists or ethnomusicologists, but also for the non-specialized population, since rumba is a popularly known style, or palo.

A summary of any of the three sessions on flamenco palos would be the second option in the third category, such sessions referring to three videos of more than four hours in total, with contents concerning the tonás, the seguiriya, the soleá, tangos, fandangos, traditional music, songs that became cantes, the serrana, the liviana, the caña, the rondeña, the polo, the tientos, the farruca, the Mexican petenera, or the cante jondo, adding interspersed explanations with practical songs accompanied by guitar.

The last option, within this category, would be to summarize the conference "The subversive doll: gender representation in flamenco", where Belén Maya talks about the concept that she considers to have invented, called antibeauty, telling herself that we have to resign to beauty, which sums up her rebellion and fatigue within her position as a female dancer, or bailaora, within the flamenco market as a product without soul. In almost an hour and a half, she condenses what at first was unconscious resistance to a system that first wanted her beautiful, equal to desirable, equal to complacent, equal to salable, then a good dancer, and then a person, and perhaps, in last place, a thinking person. The legitimizing entities within flamenco, those that have a powerful capital, standardize, normalize and naturalize what they value ... what they consider natural becomes the correct thing, and this affects the bodies of the female dancers, these being their only resource and main instrument of production. These are legitimized based on the degree of compliance with the characteristics imposed by the legitimizing entities. There are good women and less good women. The main conclusion and proposal of this conference is that female dancers and male dancers should exercise agency, which means deciding, making decisions that act and transform, and for this there are different tools, tools of power: technique, inhabiting the body and getting out of binarity. Technique is synonymous with coldness and opposed to inspiration, or duende, associated with the masculine ... technique for a female dancer can be an act of rebellion against the system. To inhabit the body is to travel to distant, changing, contradictory identities ... the body is, and is there, inhabits ... you have to allow the body to disguise itself, to transform itself, or to change. The binary character of flamenco is one of its great paradoxes, one of its great contradictions, because apparently, flamenco divides into two opposing and different groups, in constant struggle, many of its characteristics, its performers, its genres ... it divides the ethnic groups (payo-gypsy), if you normally choose guitar you are a man, although if you are a bailaor or bailaora you can be a man or a woman. Such defined binarism is a compartmentalizing structure. The experience as a miscegenation of flamenco art can end these limits, all of this, according to Belén Maya.

Fourteen videos made up the penultimate category of analysis, and a summary of some of them would have to be made as an assessment criterion, with which it was possible to opt for the analytical review of one of the eight videos on various flamenco palos, or to summarize one of the last six videos, about romanticism, bolero and flamenco; academies, jaleo dances and singing café; from the Russian ballets to the Granada contest (between the cuplé and the avant-gardes); Civil War, exile and Women's Section, or francoist Seccion Femenina (the normalization of bodies and dance books); flamenco: masculine and gypsy (Vicente Escudero, Antonio Ruiz, Antonio Gades and Mario Maya); or from hybrid bodies to the dance market (new flamenco, performance and purity), that is, about five hours and 25 minutes with the contributions of the previously mentioned Gabriel Vaudagna Arango.

The personal assessment of the course content, the last category of analysis, as well as a criterion to pass the course, would imply an analysis of a material that, in the opinion of the one who now writes, could be part of the content of a university master's degree, since the volume of compressed content is of considerable breadth, and perhaps of vast complexity for those who are not familiar with the matter. In a training that should probably consist of more recognized hours, and be valid and useful as merits of various university degrees related to social sciences, education, and heritage, both for students and teachers, more critical information could be added about the social history of flamenco (Grimaldos 2010), the political gaze of flamenco (Ruiz 2019), and all those flamenco personalities who were truly rebellious, from El Cabrero to Manuel Gerena (Lobatón 2018). Another great contribution of the course is the option to read a book about flamenco as a portrait of a time, specifically about the state of the art of flamenco in Jerez around 1980 (Lobatón 2021), which precisely confirms the need for a greater temporal and general assessment of a course of imposing magnitude.

Considering in depth the relationship between flamenco and some other issues, such as history, Andalusian regionalism from an ethnographic perspective (Machin-Autenrieth 2020), politics, sociology and even ideology, would create an even greater training than this course, because, as far as I am concerned, music and flamenco is more than singers, dancers, clapping hands and performances: it is intangible cultural heritage ... but part of a context, surrounded by many indicators.

CONCLUSION

Flamenco en Red became an excellent opportunity to get closer to that cultural and artistic part of humanity that, even today, is unknown even by the people of the places of origin of flamenco itself, compared to other genres imposed from abroad (Illescas 2019), which never had anything to do with local values in any way, but with others that not only do not improve society, but also promote sexism and alienation (Nadal and Fernández, 2020). The results of this research reflect that the assessment criteria of the course require attention to a selection of a variety of topics and analysis, which provide insights that should probably be considered more highly than those of a recognized eighty-hour course, since the volume of information and the category of people involved is of a considerable level. The didactics of flamenco, through the viewing of talks, through videos, which in some cases included performances, has been assessed through all these projections, which, through systematization and categories, showed the contents that the course wanted to teach.

There is probably no better way to assess a training course taught online thanks to a university than to take it, and find out first-hand what the assessment criteria are, what content is taught and what must be done, ultimately, to pass it. It is very interesting that there is no single teaching dynamic, but there are even really critical voices that make those who receive the training think critically, such as the talk given by Belen Maya.

There is flamenco related to the current regime, flamenco that only talks about love, or irrelevant themes, flamenco whose songs and expressions are a cry for the achievement of freedom and the protest against injustices (Gerena, 1974), traditional gypsy idiosyncrasy in flamenco singing (García, 2023), guitars, dances, palms ... that transmit all kinds of sensations. Music has an indisputable didactic component if it is used correctly, and assessment is another tool for knowledge and analysis. Approving and assessing Flamenco en Red has been an effort, without a doubt, incomparable with the effort of those in charge of the course to fit a large volume of content into 49 sessions. If twelve editions of this training have been carried out, as has happened, it will probably be many more courses, within a training that still has much more content to offer.

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