Carmen Amaya had a brief but dazzling performing career. Born on a beach near Barcelona, she was pure gypsy, an aristocratic descendant of an ancient tribe from India. A true flamenco aficianado, Jean Cocteau knew her personally and in performance: "Carmen Amaya is hail on a windowpane, a swallow's cry, a black cigar smoked by a dreamer, thunderous applause; when she and her family sweep into town, they cause ugliness, torpor and gloom to evaporate just as a swarm of insects strips the trees of their leaves. The theatre has not experienced these rendez-vous of love since the Ballet Russes of Serge Diaghilev." Another contemporary writer claimed that "you have only to look at her, to see her appear, even before she traces the slightest movement, to experience like a flash the revelation of a frenetic Spain, the Spain of flamenco. Behind her silhouette, both very hard and very supple, straight and solid as a cypress, fluid as a flame, stands the ardent soul of a race of thoroughbreds."

Carmen Amaya 1948  Denise Bellon

At eight, Carmen was already the toast of Paris; at 19 she made a triumphant appearance in Buenos Aires. Conductor Arturo Toscanini was so impressed that he embraced her and cried, "Never have I seen such fire and rhythm in my life. "Rhythm, sensuality, drama were part of her arsenal of magic. Serious, sultry and unpredictable, she commanded instant attention. Alternately appearing in flamboyant gowns and her preferred tight matador pants, she exuded the pansexual, virtually demonic charisma of a rock star. Her lightning footwork, faster than the eye could comprehend, made audiences dizzy".

During 20 years of a dazzling career, Amaya earned a fortune but spent it, largely because the proliferating gypsy tribe that was her family--cousins and brothers--lived well at her expense. Generous and extravagant, she ran out of money and was obliged to keep dancing and traveling to pay the bills. On one trip she caught cold on a train, returned to Barcelona and died soon afterward of a pulmonary infection. She died at 48 on November 19, 1963, in a deserted house that sat on a cliff overlooking the sea, 80 kilometers from her native Barcelona, the city where a fountain now bears her name.

(Source: Mario Bois, translated from the French)

 "She was from the race of the rebels, of those people who stray from the beaten track and ordinary rules, who only show that there is suffering in their dancing, like there is suffering in existence, and a rage for living. It is a dance that is marked by fire, whose thirst could only be quenched through death". Patrick Bensard, director and founder of the Cinémathèque of Dance in the French Cinémathèque.