Flamenco Combat

Flamenco Combat
Andre Willers
28 March 2008

Flamenco Dancing as a Combat style .
Stochastic resonance of the rapid foot-taps , combined with the fingertip-pressure feedback of the castanets ensures a very good realization of the body image .

Note that the very rapid foot-taps are so quick that nervous impulses do not have time to travel up and down the spine . In other words , local rhythm nervous networks in the feet do all the work . Together with fingertip pressure (castanets) , this activates very old body-image networks . (As discussed before)

Evaluation of this is equally ancient . A flamenco dancer who is better than his opponent , does not have to fight . His opponent realizes immediately that he is outclassed . This is the perfect fighting style .

The style evolved in India , and was transmitted by the Gypsies . The Spanish took it up for the same reason the gypsies did : it is a method of settling disputes between insanely aggressive males without bloodshed . It became formalized , but a good flamenco dancer will still kick the bejasus out one not so good (or slice him to ribbons) . Note that fingertip knife-control is built into the dance .

A hominin who can outdance his opponent on a shaky bough obviates the costly alternative of actual combat . Hence the in-your-face aggression of flamenco dancing . It is dance of dominance and submission . And the dominance-submission is established very quickly , within the first 5 taps . The evaluation mechanisms are very old and sophisticated .

Note the dominance of movie tap-dancers like Fred Astaire until cutting-room techniques became good enough to edit out the dominance . But also why tap-dancing was (and is) still required for a stage career . The sense of the body-image on the stage is essential .

Karate , kung-fu and related methods have a watered down versions of stochastic resonance on the feet . But no correlation with hand movements .

It is ironic to note that a Flamenco Combat Dancer is the only hominin who could best a chimpanzee in unarmed combat .

Refer to my previous posts about finger- and toe tapping . Flamenco dancing does it all and should be recommended for all wanna-be combat artists , as well as old folk who do not want to fall over .

It is also ideal therapy for diabetics , especially those with peripheral neuropathic feet problems . The independent tapping of the feet would not only increase blood supply , but ladder local nerves to bypass long-nerve neuropathic damage .

The Ultimate Combat System .
A subject of long debate .
But suppose we find such a system . Like lethal diseases , it would soon evolve into milder forms , or it will die out . The devolution would be into mock-combat forms . Flamenco dancing would only be one of these subsets . And a requirement is that it must be able to beat a hominin (like a chimpanzee) .

Flamenco dancers danced with the bulls at Knossos .
Hence the tambourines . (See the frescoes)
Some remnants can still be seen in bullfights , where the toreador taps his foot .

But why women dancers ?
Male-male led to insane dominance fights . Male-female ameliorated the effect . (Ask any night-club bouncer) .

But a human male beating a hominin would be equivalent to a woman beating a man . Females kept the system alive . Note tambourines , which is a fingertapping system . Hence , in a male-female flamenco dance , the female is the dominant one , never mind what it looks like .

The Ultimate Combat System .

This can now be re-assembled , because of fire-arms . (The lethality is relatively less)
Combine flamenco dancing with kung-fu and aikido for an approximation of the original Indian system . An actual case where the ancients were really better !

Andre