This weekend I found an excellent bar that offers live entertainment. It’s called Radio City and I am kicking myself because I never discovered it sooner. My month in Valencia is just about up; so my first visit to Radio city will also be my last.
Strangely enough, I only found out about Radio City because I told a friend how much I’d enjoyed the live Flamenco show at Cafe del Deunde a week ago. She told me that there were other options in Valencia. Radio City was one of them and when I checked the internet I discovered Tuesday night is Flamenco night. By then I will be in Seville, so I’ll miss it. However, I found out there was a live belly dancing show scheduled for Sunday night. The only belly dancing I’d ever seen was in films so I was kind of interested in catching the show. I became even more keen when I researched the girl who was topping the bill. Her name is Sara Guirado and she’s been featured on Spanish TV a few times and even runs her own dance school.
I had a little difficulty in finding Radio City, then someone told me it is not far from the Central Market. I know where that is, so after that it was smooth sailing. There was an entry fee, but it was only €3 and a fee drink (half pint) was included; so that’s pretty damn good and Radio City is a “proper” bar. Many bars I’ve visited in Valencia have more of a cafe-like feel, with plenty of tables and chairs. Radio City is more akin to an English bar and, with all the hand-painted pictures on the ceiling, I’d class it as being more like a theme pub.
The show was scheduled to start at 7pm. I arrived 10 minutes early. Only one bar was accessible, but there were two big red curtains drawn across the entrance to a second area and plenty of people were pulling at the curtains to sneak a peak behind them, so every time someone pulled at a curtain I could see girls in dancing costumes. Yep! Not a girl, but girls! Sara Guirado was not there alone. She had brought some of her students with her, and although the entire show only lasted an hour, when the curtains were finally thrown back and everyone was allowed to enter the back room there were so many acts it was hard to believe they had all been crammed into such a short space of time.
Sara Guirado came out to start the show, but only danced once and it was quite amusing when she stopped in the middle of her routine to reprimand the guy in the DJ box for playing the music too loud (if I understood correctly). After that her 12 friends came on stage to show what they could do with their bellies, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs. It was very good and I’d like to say that I captured it all on video, but I didn’t. I only filmed Sara Guirado. It’s hard to hold a camera steady, watch the screen, and still enjoy the show. I didn’t want to watch everting via an LCD display so I didn’t even try. But if you want to see a Spanish blond belly dancing, the video below should meet your requirements.
– – – – –
– – –
– – –
– – – – –