jairo jumps

A cancelled meeting in Oxford gave me the opportunity to visit Chelmsford for some flamenco. I got lost on the way (an all-too-regular occurrence) and nearly didn’t get in (I had been communicating with the organiser via facebook and she hadn’t had the time to check her messages on the day) but nonetheless had a great time.

All too often performances outside of London (and I assume outside the UK’s other major cities) aren’t of the same standard as those within. While not Sadler’s Wells, this was a happy exception and well worth the hassle it took to get there. The music was great and Jairo Barrull‘s stage presence and interpretation kept the audience spellbound. His fast-footed zapateado floats to stage right were particularly well received, and while I felt that he could have played fewer games with his jacket others in the audience saw those same moves as rakish and humorous. From this you can see he played to an audience he knew well.

It was my intention to take slightly softer images of this performance, employing blur to indicate speed but my lens wasn’t up to it. I’ve chosen this photo partly because Barrull is mid-jump (a developing blog theme) and because even here you can see that he’s dancing with his face.