“Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?”- Freddie requests that the rogue clown (famed for being beat by Punch and Judy) perform this flamenco dance.
Nuevo ballet espanol- a company of 11 dancers perform the full works at the Peacock theatre in Holborn. An hour and a half of ferocious twirling, stamping, swooping and elaborate hand gestures sufficiently charges the atmosphere. The woman wear some fab dresses. The men are best when they get their castanets out. The two male solo dancers wreck good performances with over indulgent bows and smug grins when they finish- tad arrogant me thinks.
Flamenco has its origins in Southern Spain and has North African influences. One possibility for the origin of the word is fellahmengu, Hispano-Arabic meaning ‘expelled peasant’. Not quite sure what this means but sounds appropriately black sheep ish.
Whilst on words -Magazine comes from the Arabic word makhzan which means treasure. It has since morphed through the French magasin for shop, the Italian magazzino for store to the English, originally referring to a storehouse for gunpowder. In relation to publications it was first used in “The Gentleman’s magazine” in 1731 which was suppsed to be “a storehouse or magazine into which were to be garnered all the treasures of wit, humour and intelligence that could be gleaned from the ephemeral press”. A storehouse of treasures is, of course, what The Black Sheep will be.
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