Having been to Barcelona twice previously, I have never had the chance to watch a Flamenco Dance. Finally, on my third trip there, we manage to snag seats to a Flamenco Show!
Several years back, heading to a Flamenco show is a dodgy and sometimes risky thing-to-do. Street touters would often tout tickets for the best shows and we've heard and read stories of tourists getting scammed by these shows. In order not to have such encounters, I kept putting off watching a Flamenco Dance even though it has been labelled as a Masterpiece of Intangible Heritage by UNESCO and is considered one of the most iconic expressions of Spanish culture; just like how coffee culture is in Vienna, Austria.
Since this is my third trip back in Barcelona, I thought why not and tried to google and find tickets to a legitimate Flamenco Show! I managed to find Palacio del Flamenco, which is a popular music venue and the largest flamenco venue in Barcelona. Since it is located in Eixample, just a few streets away from our hotel, we decided to go for it!
Thanks to Klook, we managed to secure seats for the show before we left Singapore to Barcelona! We got our tickets on Klook, selecting the option that comes with a drink. You can also purchase tickets with dinner (Paella, Spanish Tapas, Vegetarian). What's great about Palacio del Flamenco is that they have shows every single day, at 6.30pm, 8.30pm, and at 10.30pm. If you opt for dinner, remember that it starts 30 minutes before the show begins!
Each ticket also grants you a free 30-minute flamenco dancing class before the actual show and it was quite fun to try out the moves. Thankfully this was a larger venue so having more people actually trying out makes you less embarrassed to follow along!
The flamenco dancer who was showing the moves was really friendly and really tried to "hype" up the atmosphere, getting us ready for the actual show.
After the class, we were ushered into the main hall. As we had to visit the loo before heading in, we got a table at the side instead of being right in the middle (which was fine as we still managed to get a good view of the dancers since the stage was elevated). We did, however, noticed that those who got tickets with dinner get better seats closer to the stage. So if you want to kill two-birds-with-one-stone by having both dinner and watching the flamenco dance at the same time, consider getting the tickets with dinner. Just bear in mind that you'll have to lower your expectations of the food as there's bound to be better tapas and paella outside of the theatre.
Once you've taken your seats, the staff would quickly bring in glasses of sangria. You could choose the non-alcoholic options such as soft drinks but we thought having alcoholic drinks were more worthwhile. Sip on the sangria and the flamenco show would start in no time. Very quickly, they dimmed the lights in the hall and started the show!
The musicians and singers were really good. They sang their hearts out and the lively and upbeat music made you want to tap your feet or clap your hands along! However, we do think that the speakers were turned on a little too loud, especially since we were sitting right next to it!
There were quite a number of flamenco dancers and we thought that the main female dancer was really good. They changed costumes quite a number of times throughout the entire hour-long show.
The best portion of the show was towards the end... When we thought that it was about to end, a male flamenco dancer came onto the stage. He had the best tap dance ever!
You know how true tap dancers never ever move their upper bodies? This male flamenco dancer was just like that! His moves were sleek and the way he did his hair... we joked that it was as though the dancing legend, Michael Jackson came back to life!
In no time, the clapping and dancing ended and we were really wanted to see more of that last male dancer's moves... But oh well, now we can finally say that we have seen a Flamenco Show in Spain!
Here's a glimpse of the show but really, you'll have to experience it on your own!
Looking for a Flamenco Show when holidaying in Barcelona? Check out Palacio del Flamenco and get your tickets on Klook.com!
Palacio del Flamenco
Carrer de Balmes, 139, 08008 Barcelona, Spain
Nearest subway: Take subway L5 to Diagonal and walk for 3 minutes
Disclaimer: We received credits from Klook which we used to offset the cost of the Flamenco Show and paid the remainder on our own, but as always, all opinions are our own.
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