and at Tablao, in particular. She sheds some light on the history and importance of the unique experience that tablaos provide. “The tablao is a performance venue model that emerged in Spain in the early twentieth century as a platform to develop and cultivate the essence of flamenco. The built-in intimacy between performers and artists has seen the emergence of master artists throughout generations. While accentuating flamenco’s innate vibrancy and energetic downpour, the venue contributes to the cultural heritage that abounds in our state, enriching flamenco experiences for both locals and visitors year-round. Patrons and students benefit from exposure to culturally and artistically rich performances and embodied histories,” she says. The rousing entertainment that unfolds each night at Tablao during the annual festival, and each weekend during the rest of the year, is a result of decades of skirts swishing floors and heeled boots syncopating a beat to electrified crowds throughout New Mexico. The Spanish have been in the territory that is now New Mexico since Francisco Vasquez de Coronado led his expedition in 1540, but flamenco took a longer time to flourish in the state’s culture. Vicente Romero, Santa Fe native and world-renowned flamenco dancer, was a prominent figure in the state’s early flamenco scene of the 1960s. After returning to New Mexico from Spain in 1963, where he toured with the celebrated Ballet Español de Pilar López, Romero staged shows throughout the state, often to half-full auditoriums. The audience soon grew, however, when Romero took his art to Tesuque’s beloved restaurant, El Nido. There, he staged the intimate late-night tablao performances so common in Spain.
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One New Mexican who witnessed Romero’s electric dancing in Tesuque was John Sedlar, who remembers the nights as glittering with an indescribable energy. “I used to be a busboy at El Nido, and later, my friends and I would go to Tesuque to watch María Benítez and Vicente Romero dance, these iconoclast dancers, in a very small, very intimate setting,” Sedlar recalls. Even before he was witness to some of the world’s most dynamic performers in his home state, Sedlar experienced flamenco in its birthplace of Sevilla, Spain. His father brought the family to Sevilla when he was stationed there with the army. “It was this tremendous introduction. We lived off base and all spoke Spanish and went to the feria to see the small booths of flamenco dancers, horses, guitarists,” Sedlar recalls. He also remembers the clout of smells and flavors. “The food there is violent—someone would cook and the smell of olive oil, garlic, anchovies, the super strong flavors of peppers and saffron, and the dance flamenco are all very violent. You wonder why these bodies of these young dancers don’t disintegrate,” Sedlar says. After years of working in the food business, influenced by his experiences with Spanish culture and cuisine as well as his family’s own storied history with food (his great-aunt was Georgia O’Keeffe’s personal chef in Abiquiu), Sedlar opened his restaurant, Eloisa, in Santa Fe. Here, Sedlar developed a flamenco-inspired menu. To simply describe it as a meal, however, does little to paint the whole picture of the sensory experience of the dinners that emerged. Designed by Sedlar and Nicolasa Chávez, the author of WWW.EDIBLENM.COM
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