For a 3 day weekend I visited Madrid which is the capital of Spain. First we visited El Prado art museum. During the first hour we were there I would walk and stand by each individual painting for a few minutes, read the blurb about each one and try to come up with an opinion about each painting. Once my eyes started glazing over, I realized there were 2 floors of paintings and sculptures to see and I had only covered 5 of the bajillion galleries of art. I told myself “forget it, I’ve got to see all of it”. I proceeded to see the rest of the museum walking at a brisk pace turning my head to the side to see the paintings. If I liked one I’d stop.
One of the days Natalie, Michael and I toured Burnabaum stadium where the Real Madrid soccer team plays. I’m not so into soccer but I figured it’s something the majority of my friends would appreciate hearing about back home. Although the stadium was empty, except for small groups of tourists, you could still feel the energy of the stadium and imagine what it’s like having hundreds of thousands of people filling the stands clapping and cheering for their favorite players. Natalie and I practically met Christiano Rodolfo. I mean we got to take a picture (of a picture) of him and saw his cleats on display. We had fun imagining what we would say to the talented and super guapo Christiano Rodolfo if we knew him. “Oh hey Christiano. You want to take me on a date tonight? Gosh, sorry I already have plans but maybe next week when I’m not so busy.” Or “sorry I didn’t text you back sooner, David Beckham called me and we talked for like an hour.” I think if we actually did meet him our minds would go blank and we would start drooling.
The highlight of the trip to Madrid for me was seeing a “corrida de torros” or bull fight. I went into the experience unsure of how I would feel about watching men torture and kill a bull. It would never fly in the US. I decided to look at it from an artistic and cultural standpoint and absolutely loved it. One thing I found interesting is that bulls are actually color blind. So the the movement of the red cape is what makes the bull charge, not the color red itself. The cape is traditionally red to camouflage the blood stains as the bull passes under the cape.
Through my ballroom dance training I’ve learned how to do paso doble. Paso Doble is a style of dance that imitates bullfighting where the lead is the matador and the follow can represent the cape, matadors shadow, or the bull. I prefer trying to imitate the first two; in fact I don’t know many girls who want to be referred to as a bull. While watching the bull fight I really enjoyed looking for the similarities and where the dance stems from. Watching the bull fight made me want to dance and channel the same energy present in the plaza de torros. In watching the matadors I noticed that the footwork, posture, shaping, intensity, and passion are the same. I watched the bull and was not reminded of a female dancer, unless girls weigh 1,000 pounds, have sharp horns on their head, and run towards men with swords and daggers.
On our last day in Madrid we visited a modern art museum called Reina Sophia. Inside are works from famous Spanish artists including Picasso and Salvador Dali. My favorite painting was Guernica by Picasso. Although I really like modern art, I was extremely exhausted from staying out late the night before and I could hardly keep my eyes open. We were there for about an hour and a half so in 30 minutes I made sure to see the most famous paintings in the 4 story museum. I used the other hour to sit on the concrete floor outside one of the galleries to sleep while my friends continued looking around. Yes, I literally fell asleep in an art museum.
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