With verve and vigor, Chinese fans get in step with flamenco

SHANGHAI - "In flamenco songs, there's a line that goes: 'I fell into a deep well without a rope', which is exactly how I feel now," says 42-year-old Tao Jiarong, a Shanghai-based white-collar worker who likes to indulge in the Spanish art of flamenco.

Dating back to 15th-century Spain, flamenco combines singing, dancing and guitar playing using varied rhythms and rich emotional expressions to create an art form that is quintessentially Spanish.

Flamenco is generally believed to be an artistic product of the Roma, the nomadic ethnic group also known as Gypsies, and their uprooted lives of grief, protest, hope and catharsis.