Art is a controlled cry

Something in seguiriya, which is the deep song of flamenco, doesn't support the contemporary Western idea of keeping emotions inside. it's probably the gipsy element. Something in seguiriya says: "Look, this is the shit of the world, this is the pain of human being, look in my eyes while I'm singing it" Maybe we will call it pathetic, but it tries to communicate with open eyes and body towards the audience. Its motion is TOWARDS (the other). When one looks carefully, or reads on the energy level, contemporary singing is often turned towards oneself. On the level of words, it might pretend to speak to the other, but on the level of communication, it stays closed within its own universe. It speaks to the other, but it doesn't extend its hand, it speaks to another man's loneliness, and it sings to preserve the loneliness. What Paquera de Jerez does in this song is an attempt of communication, a brave act of transgressing the loneliness we all feel today. To the modern man it seems kind of exaggerated, a bit too much, almost like he wants to say, why don't you keep your shit for yourself, or for your therapist?

However, if one looks deeper, her cry (el grito) is a structured and controlled cry. it's not the cry of a mentally disordered person who cannot actually control it. it's not the cry of a child who cannot stop it. it's not the cry of a person in therapy who is doing it for the purpose of becoming a healthier human being, but within the four walls of the therapy room. It's a structured cry of an artist who managed to dig deep into himself, his ancestors and his land's pain, suffering, sadness, love and STAND in this cursed territory, while the ground is shaking, the devils dancing, insufferable cries from hell resounding, but he STANDS in order to report to the others, to the audience, that it is possible to live with pain if communicated without aggression. as opposed to the person in therapy who manages to cross this land for her own personal benefit, for her own personal feedom, the artist wants to transmit this freedom to the other, share it with the other. She shares her power because the very possibility of existing in the emotion which tries to destroy you or tries to revert to the traumatic experience of tormented ego, this possibility of resisting the violence of the emotion while still looking at it, sets the other free (if the other wants freedom - but this is a question to be discussed in another text).