Crimson & Olive & Rose

Crimson is the traje de flamenca — the deep vivid crimson of the most traditional and most visually spectacular flamenco dress. The traje de flamenca (also: traje de gitana — 'gypsy dress' — in reference to the Gitano/Spanish Roma heritage of the flamenco tradition) is the most immediately recognizable theatrical costume in the Spanish tradition — a tight-fitting, multi-ruffled dress with a long train (cola) and wide, ruffled sleeves (mangas), made from fabric printed with the iconic lunares (Spanish: 'moles' — the circular polka-dot pattern that is the single most characteristic visual element of the flamenco dress). The deep vivid crimson of the most traditional traje de flamenca: the crimson ('rojo' or 'granate' — Spanish: garnet-red) flamenco dress is the single most celebrated and most immediately visually impactful of all the flamenco costume colors — the combination of the vivid crimson fabric, the white polka-dot lunares, the black trim, and the swirling motion of the dancer creates the most immediately recognizable visual in the entire Spanish performing arts vocabulary. The Feria de Abril (the April Fair of Seville — the most important festival in Andalusia, held annually in the week after Easter Sunday in the Feria district of Seville — the Real de la Feria): during the Feria de Abril, virtually all Sevillanas (the women of Seville and Andalusia) dress in their most elaborate traje de flamenca, making the Feria the most spectacular concentration of traditional costume in a single location in Spain — the characteristic sea of crimson, red, orange, and white polka-dot dresses is the most immediately celebrated visual of the Feria de Abril and one of the most celebrated annual visual events in the world. Olive is the cedro wood — the dark muted olive of the cedar (specifically: cedro — Cedrela odorata — Spanish cedar — also called cigar-box cedar, though it is not a true cedar but a member of the Meliaceae — mahogany — family, native to Mexico, Central America, and South America) used as the primary tonewood for the back and sides of the finest Spanish flamenco guitar. The Spanish flamenco guitar (guitarra flamenca — distinguished from the classical guitar by its lighter construction, cypress or sycamore back and sides, lower action, and the addition of a golpeador — a plastic or wooden tap-plate — immediately below the strings and above the soundhole, designed to absorb the rasgueo tapping and golpe percussion techniques of flamenco playing) uses the darkest and most resonant tonewoods for the back and sides — traditionally cypress (Cupressus sempervirens — the most characteristic Andalusian tree — dark muted olive-grey) for the most traditional flamenco guitars (blanco — 'white' — the lighter, brighter-sounding guitars), and increasingly Spanish cedar (Cedrela odorata — dark, muted, olive-to-warm-brown) for the negra — 'dark' or 'black' — type of flamenco guitar with deeper, more complex tonal characteristics. Rose is the dancer's rose — the vivid electric rose of the fresh red rose (Rosa × hybrida — the modern garden rose — from Rosa gallica, Rosa canina, Rosa damascena, and many other parent species, producing the most cultivated and most internationally celebrated flowering plant in the world) worn by the female flamenco dancer in her hair (typically tucked behind one ear — the right ear, traditionally — or in the decorative hair comb — peineta — that is the signature head ornament of the Andalusian woman in festival dress). The rose as a flamenco symbol: the rose (rosa — Spanish, from Latin: rosa) appears throughout the most celebrated flamenco poetry (copla — the verse of the cante flamenco) as the most powerful metaphor for love, passion, beauty, and loss — the vivid electric rose (approximately #FF007F — the most vivid and most immediately 'rose-red' of all the pink-to-red range, sitting exactly between pure red and pure magenta in the color wheel) is the most celebrated single natural flower color in the Mediterranean cultural tradition.