My niece is participating in the challenge with me. In part.

She loves flamenco and started taking regular classes this spring after taking a class with Ricardo in Santa Barbara.

“Do you want to do some of Mercedes’s exercises with me?” I asked her on Christmas Day.

She did.

She knew what to expect as she had sat through her class in Jerez a coupe of times. (My nieces spent some time with me and the group in Spain last spring, and Margot happily, patiently, and voluntarily sat through hours of class with Mercedes.)

“Are we going to do the one with the hands?” she asked me as she stretched her arms out imitating the exercise, this exercise.

“Yes!” I told her surprised that she remembered it.

She was talking about the one exercise that I definitely plan to do every day of the challenge...

Part One

So that evening Margot and I did a couple of upper body exercises and a hip exercise just before bedtime.

We did them in the dining room while the rest of the family was busy doing other things.

We stood facing one another, acting as each other’s mirror.

As we did them I said certain things that Mercedes would have been saying had we actually been in class with her, I had forgotten to put up the sticky reminders.

After a short bit it seemed like time to stop.

“She does it for a lot longer in class, huh?” Margot said.

“Yeah, she does,” I smiled and laughed.

“We can do some new ones tomorrow. Does that sound good?” I asked her.

Margot was fine with that.

We then moved into the kitchen where Margot told me about her ballet class. Ada, my youngest niece, came in. “Can you two do a performance before you leave Auntie, and I will be the announcer?”

Margot and I happily agreed to do a show. I told Ada she could dance with us, but she wanted only to be the announcer.

I'll let you know what happens with the performance.

Part two of the challenge

After everyone had gone to bed I watched a video of one of the choreographies we learned on the FlamencoTour last fall with Mercedes. I watched it a couple of times and started doing the dance in my head, but I kept losing it and falling asleep, so I decided to call it a night and pick it up again the next day.

And that is how day one went.

While I do not plan to give you a full summary of each day of the challenge, I will check in with you daily and por lo menos offer some ideas and suggestions.

By the way, I got a text from Mercedes this morning. She was just checking in for the holidays. I told her what Margot and I had been up to. She loved it! I'm sure she would be happy to know that you have been at it as well...

And how about you?

What have you done for the challenge so far? How can I be of help? Let me know in the comments below.