A dancer of lineage who danced with the entire city as backdrop.

The photograph has something no tablao image can have — the Royal Palace of Madrid in the background, out of focus but unmistakable, like a set that nobody designed but that fits perfectly. El Güito dances in the Sabatini Gardens on an August night in 2004, with his black shirt open and arms in movement, and behind him the whole of Madrid seems to have come out to watch him.

José Faíco Velázquez, “El Güito”, was in 2004 one of the most respected figures of male flamenco dance in Spain. A dancer of Gypsy lineage, he had developed his own style that drew from the Jerez school and the great masters of the twentieth century — Antonio, Mario Maya, Farruco — without imitating any of them. His dance had a physical forcefulness and musicality that distinguished him on any stage.

The Noches Flamencas en Sabatini were one of the most popular summer cycles in Madrid — open-air flamenco, with the Royal Palace as backdrop and a heterogeneous audience mixing tourists, aficionados and Madrileños out for a stroll. Paco Manzano shot in that context and captured something that goes beyond spectacle: a man who dances as if the city were his.

This photograph hangs today on the walls of Cardamomo. If you are here it is because you saw it in the room. Now you know what happened that night.