So, I've been talking a lot about bulerías over the past several days.  I guess because there is a lot to say, and today shall be no different. For me, doing bulerías is kind of like taking a happy pill.  Simply put, it makes me feel good.  Even when I do it for just five seconds, a quick remate out of the blue, a moment of palmas, stuff like that.

Playfulness.  Perhaps this has something to do with my obsession.  Bulerías is about having a good time.  Who doesn't want this?  And let’s face it, it’s much more fun to watch someone dancing who is having a good time with it.  The energy is contagious, if we’re open to it.  I wonder, if we aren’t enjoying ourselves, are we even really doing bulerías?

I am not telling you to smile while you dance bulerías, not at all.  I am talking about being in your body and enjoying the doing of it.  You may smile, you may not.  You may one moment and not the next.  Every person is unique, and we express ourselves in our own ways.  We feel differently at different times for different reasons.  At times the cante is alegre, at times more subdued.  Various factors will affect our dancing on a moment to moment basis.  And enjoyment can wear many faces.  I get that.  I am just saying bulerías in a por fiesta setting has a strong element of fun attached to it.  Qué bueno!

So about the fun thing, we need not wait to enjoy ourselves until we’ve finished learning everything there is to know.  This would be TORTURE because we’ll never learn all there is to know.  - Although we can learn the most important and practical things, and we will beginning soon - But we don't have to wait to have fun until we’ve mastered the most important things either...

Why not let bulerías itself inform our approach to learning?

Let's have fun with the process.  Let's expect to mess up.  It is an important and necessary part of learning.  If we embody the bulerías spirit and enjoy this, the messing up, it can facilitate growth, partly because this, the approach, is a HUGE part of it.  Let us practice the idea of this style as we learn it.  Let this attitude of enjoyment transfer to our dancing now and later.

I can’t force you to enjoy the learning process, but I highly encourage it.  (After having wasted much of my time not enjoying and fretting in classes...  But poco a poco I am changing my approach.  More fun.  More conducive to learning.  And just better for me in all kinds of other ways that I won’t get into here.)

Of course, I understand, perhaps we can’t enjoy every moment of learning.  What I am referring to is a general attitude to try for.  If we come at it with a bit of playfulness, we already understand one of the most important aspects of bulerías.

Thoughts on the learning process?  Or just the learning bulerías process?  Leave a comment.