The place: Royal park, Madrid, Time: A cool evening in late October 2015.

During our recent family vacation at Madrid, Spain we spent an evening at the Royal Park at the end of a busy walking tour of the city. The weather was just perfect hovering around 15⁰ Celcius with a nip in the air. The park was almost ready to wear her autumn colours! Being a later part of a week day, the usual tourist buses had come and gone leaving the sprawling park just for the locals and the late visitors like us.

As we moved forward we saw the usual street performers here too like elsewhere in popular touristy cities, displaying whatever skills they were good at, to entertain and … to earn their daily bread; a magician, a guitarist, a craftsman, a soprano and a flamenco dancer.

We stopped by for a couple of minutes at each of them watching their performances, when we heard the foot-tapping and palm-clapping sounds of the Flamenco dancer. What we thought could be one of the usual street performances, turned out to be a lively, entertaining display of flamenco skill that one wouldn’t have expected from a street performer.

A full fifteen minutes of highly energetic dance with her twinkle toes tapping the footboard in nimble yet graceful movements with her hands clapping at right times in tune with the music (by a guitarist by her side). The agility and grace of her movements – the lean legs displaying the footwork of a virtuoso while the slender arms swaying in the air in rhythm- were adorable. The expressions on her face were lightening; from casting a fiery stare to a romantic look, from assertive to vivacious – all in seconds!

I went on a clicking spree and tried to capture those moments as much as possible.

I am sure she must have been dancing for a good part of the day but I couldn’t see any signs of weariness either in her movements or in her countenance.

I am not a Flamenco expert or a critic but in my humble opinion, she deserved to be at a good theatre dancing to the well heeled; probably the lady luck has not (yet) smiled at her.

We really enjoyed a fabulous Flamenco performance in an autumn setting! We happily gave her a few Euros when we left. The evening was well worth it!