Thursday, August 25, 2022

Gender Fuck Thursday: Carmen Edition

Yes, apparently it is history week at Surrenders. So I had never heard of Carmen Amaya before a random tweet brought her and her amazing body of work to my attention. She was perhaps the world’s best flamenco dancer, male or female. Of Spanish Romani descent, she was known for wearing high-waisted pants to dance and her ferocious style of footwork. She first rose to fame in the late 1920s. And her body of work over the decades includes numerous appearances in films before her early death around age 50 in 1963 (her exact date of birth is disputed, so is her age at death – also, before you ask, everything I’ve found about her sexuality suggests she was straight, but I’m no historian so…). Still her style of dance and swagger alone makes her Gender Fuck Thursday Royalty. Now, I know all about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly. But after watching recordings of Carmen’s performances, truly everyone should know her name. This dance is from the 1944 musical “Follow the Boys” which also featured W.C. Fields, Orson Welles, The Andrew Sisters, Dinah Shore, Sophie Tucker and Marlene freaking Dietrich. Somehow, I’ve heard of all those stars. But Carmen? Yeah, not so much. Well, now we all know her name. And we’ll never forget it, or her furious feet.

ETA: Well, shit. YouTube is lighting fast at taking down even ancient copyrighted shit. But hate speech and misinformation. Ehhhh. Anyway, you can watch the dance on this Facebook link. Zuck apparently doesn’t care about copyright.

6 comments:

  1. Sorry Dorothy - cannot watch the video as it is blocked on copyright grounds . Jim - UK .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carmen San Diego8:41 AM

    VĂ­deo blocked by copyrights but I’ll look her up

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carmen San Diego8:42 AM

    But yeah, I wonder why we didn’t hear abou her… something to do with what Lupe tells Jess in ALOTO I bet

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's good to know NBC is ever vigilant against the threat of free advertising.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Day later - just watched the video - wow . Thank you Dorothy, Jim - UK .

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi, how cool to see Carmen Amaya in her stunning flamenco suit. In Spain it has not been forgotten, her dance and cultural heritage continue to inspire the new generations of flamenco dancers, if you want to know more about her there are several documentaries about her exciting life.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB8Rl0xWbCs&ab_channel=TerritorioFlamenko

    ReplyDelete