I am greeted by Birgit, an affable German woman but a citizen of the Raval and the world. The first thing I feel when I enter the great hall is an unstoppable urge to make a demi plié and a pirouette, but luckily for my decency and for some of the surrounding furniture, the impulse remains contained. Before I make a joke about it, Birgit goes ahead of me to tell me that this same room, a hundred years ago, was a dance school that produced illustrious personalities such as Margarita Xirgú, Lorca's favourite actress; or Anita Delgado, who in the Café de Levante (between clapping and alegrías) told Valle-Inclán how she conquered an Indian maharajah and ended up becoming Princess of Kapurthala; or Pepita, Birgit's 90-year-old neighbour, a living testimony of that time. I don't know if any past time was better, but this one, at least, looks very good.
