Chitayat pours his soul into flamenco guitar playing
Flamenco is not for the weak.
It was born of marginalized people struggling to maintain their identity and place amid an often tense cultural divergence in southern Spain. The multiethnic influences made it a musical blend expressing strength, perseverance and pure emotion.
Dori Chitayat embodies that mix of cultural influences. His presence with the Spanish guitar insinuates a controlled, underlying intensity that can only be flamenco.
He is the state's only flamenco guitarist and one of only about a dozen on the entire east coast.
"The spirit of it, a lot of the time is singing about the sorrow and the suffering. It can be a lot like the blues. It's about pain, hard work or the woman that got away," Chitayat said. "A lot of times you see me straining, my face is tense a lot, it's not loose. It's because I'm in that moment.
"You're trying to generate as much strength as you can. The idea is not that we want you to feel sorry for me. It's more about I conquered my pain, my fear and now I'm just communicating it."
Born in Greece, Chitayat was raised between Israel and Taiwan before moving to Los Angeles in 1991. He spent 20 years playing drums before returning to his childhood interest in the guitar. For the past eight years, he has devoted himself to mastering the art of flamenco guitar.
"It's the driving force of everything I do. Everything that I'm doing on a daily basis, it's only being done because I want to master this art form," he said.
"In order to master an art, you want to be in a relaxed state. So I go out at 5:30 or 6 every morning for exercise, surfing or walking the dog. I'm in day trading with the stock market during the day and that is a tool to be able to supplement my income to support this."
Chitayat spends at least four hours a day practicing his technique, learning about forms, studying master compositions and creating his own. When he can, he makes it eight hours.
"There's a mystical attraction to it. It's living. It's a burning thing you feel in your heart when you listen to it," he said. "I get goose bumps from listening to it and playing it. That specific feeling may not be more than five minutes in a four-hour session, but that five minutes drives everything else.
"And when I see other people get that 'ah-hah' moment, that's all it takes," he continued. "You're interjecting in between what they're doing and all of a sudden the room catches that moment. That's that magical moment that will do it for you. It's called 'duende' in Spain: that magic, mystical moment that pulls everyone together, creates a oneness in the music. Everyone is drawn into that spirit."
Chitayat regularly pulls listeners into his world 7:30-10:30 p.m. every Wednesday at Neil Jordan's in Mount Pleasant and at 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays at Atlanticville on Sullivan's Island through September.
