Okay, if I have to see yet another vaguely Romani inspired character clad in Halloween-store bellydancing attire I'm gonna flip off and start biting people. I could get into why that's a bad choice, and how what people call bellydancing today isn't even accurate for most Romani populations, but instead I'm gonna handle this in another way. So, if you wanna do a dance-themed Romani character and wanna avoid orientalist bullshit...
Let's talk about 💃 Flamenco 💃
I think most people are overall acquittanced with the idea that Flamenco is a typical Spanish dance. And it is! However, much of it's conception and popularization are specifically tied to Romani populations in Southern Spain (gitanos or calés). It was there that, as a result of cultural exchange (between Romani traditional dances, the moriscos that still lived in AndalucÃa after the end of Al-Andalus, and the local regional dances), flamenco was born.
It was around the beginning of the 19th century that it came in full swing, however, as a sort of contra-position of French culture entering Spain as a result of the napoleonic wars. In an attempt to have a sort of completely differentiated national culture, it was Andalusian costumbrismo that triumphed. And AndalucÃa, being one of the major hotspots for Romani populations, had a lot of influence coming from calés. There's a whole more history involved, but those are the basic points of how it came to be.
And flamenco has remained a staple of Spanish and Romani culture, with many of the more well known dancers (bailaoras) being Roma themselves (in order below, photos of Lola Flores, Belén Maya, MarÃa del Monte and a statue of La Paquera de Jerez). This has remained a point of pride for Spanish Roma populations, which (despite all the oppression and cultural assimilation) have managed to permeate an aspect of Spanish culture. And one that has extended far beyond Spain, too.
And that's one of the key parts: Flamenco is not a closed practice (unlike a good few other Romani traditions), so it's a great starting point for someone who wants to make a Romani character without stepping on anyone's toes. Most other Roma folk I've known have always been happy to see people taking interest in it. I remember hearing (as a child) that Flamenco was actually quite popular in Japan! Which was pretty impressive, considering the massive cultural gap between Japan and Spain. I've seen Japanese tourists come to Spain for the explicit purpose of watching Flamenco quite often, and there's a good few schools in there that practice it.
So, what are some of the key points?
There's quite a lot to Flamenco that would make this post just extremely long, but if you have an interest of having a bailaora OC, one of the central points are probably the dresses. I've always been annoyed at people falling into orientalist tropes when depicting Romani dancers, when there's far more culturally appropiate sources to look- And very gorgeous ones, at that.
There are many types of Flamenca dresses, but most of them tend to have a tight dress that ends in a skirt full of frills, and it's complemented by a mantilla (an ornate shawl), which is used as part of the dance. Traditionally, bailaoras will arrange their hair in buns, sometimes with hair ornaments in the form of flowers. The more well known flamenco dresses come in red with black dots, but there are many other styles beyond the dots in question, so there's a lot to experiment with!
The male counterpart (bailaor) is probably not as flashy, and it's based on traditional Andalusian wear. The most typical version of it features high pants, a short jacket (that can be ornate) and a red sash. Although there have been some more modern takes where men have embraced longer coats to mimic the flow of the women's dresses, or have straight out opted for dresses themselves. While not traditional, I'm all in for breaking gender norms, so I can't help but share this video below for it.
Typical instruments
The main instrument of Flamenco is possibly the Spanish guitar. It's a bit different to a regular guitar and is typically played while sitting, with the mast in a nearly horizontal position. This (and singing, done by cantaores) are the two main sounds of flamenco. I could probably get in specifics but you can probably just go listen to how it sounds anywhere. Go check it up! However, there's a few more instruments to mention:
The Cajón (box) is an Afro-Peruvian instrument in origin, that (over time) arrived to Europe and became one of the main staples of Flamenco. One of the wonders of cajones is that you can improvise them with pretty much anything. One of my cousins had found a crate that had a decent enough sonority, and used it for practice at home.
Other key parts of Flamenco are castanets (first image above), these sort of clam-shaped instrument. It fits comfortably into a hand and it's used for percussion. And I swear, these things just spawn in Andalusian homes. I had one at home no one knew where did it come from. My grandma's home just passively produced them. They're small, easy to carry and cheap. And in flamenco, the zapateado (kinda like claqué) is also yet another key part. Bailaoras will often dance while using strongly-heeled shoes to make noise over wooden floorboards, making the stepping into part of the rhythm. Clapping is also one of the crucial of flamenco. If you can clap, you've got another of the key components in!
There's of course more instruments involved. You can include tambourines in, but it's probably not the most typical choice (and at times, it feels like people relate all Romani people to tambourines solely because of Esmeralda, which... Eh. I can't say I've seen many tambourine playing characters that don't feel like "Esmeralda but I changed the skirt color". Do your research!)
Folk nature
And this is one of the major parts of Flamenco, to me: The folk nature of it! Most of the instruments involved for Flamenco are fairly easy to acquire or improved with whatever is at home. Growing up, it was fairly typical for my mother's side family to engage in improvised Flamenco dances during xmas' meet-ups, using whatever was at hand to do the percussion and having the kids dance as needed, signing together. If you're making a bard-like character for a TTRPG, it's pretty easy to incorporate most of the essentials of flamenco in a single character, which can be quite fun.
Conclusion
With all that said, I hope this post was informative and that it may be of help for people seeking to make a more culturally-appropriate Romani character. Of course, do your research (and thankfully, there's endless information about Flamenco out there due to it's popularity). Most of this information is fairly specific to calés in Spain, of course: If you are representing Romani characters from other countries or groups, you will need to search specific information for them, as the cultures are extremely varied and have very different traditional dances. Anyhow, if you've made it to the bottom of the post, thank you for your patience!
