I’ve been home from the Flamenco Tour to Jerez for over a month now, but I often find myself dreaming that I were still there. What do I miss the most? Our classes with Mercedes? The sun? Bulerías? The community? Hanging out with new friends? The shows? The relaxation? The walking around? I miss it all!

Here’s a review in photos of our second week. (You can see the Week One Review here.)

The Private Show

We were all on a flamenco high after our private show hosted by Mercedes where Vanessa Rodríguez and Aurora Caraballo (members of Compañia Mercedes Ruíz) danced their hearts out. Below you see Mercedes herself dancing por bulerías. ¡Olé!

The Hammam

After all of those hours in dance class a soak and massage from the Hammam Andalusi was well-deserved.

The Many Other Shows

There were so many good performances at the tabancos and peñas in town. You can see video of Rancapino Chico here, Tatiana Ruíz here, Coral, a firecracker student of Beatríz Morales here, Beatríz herself here, Zorri here, Marta de Troya here, Juan Peña here, and Juan Loreto here …

Enjoying our Neighborhood

Pictured are statues, monumentos, of Lola Flores, La Paquera, and La Chati. It’s impossible not to soak up all kinds of good flamenco energy living in the San Miguel neighborhood, also known as La Plazuela.

Enjoying the Sites

So many beautiful things to see as you walk around the town... Pictured are the Catedral, the Alameda Vieja, the Alcázar, and the Church of San Miguel.

More Classes with Mercedes Ruíz

So many subtleties to take in. Here you can see Mercedes breaking it down for us.

More Bulerías

Most days feel a bit like a fiesta in bulerías class, but our final day especially felt this way. Ani set things up “fiesta-style” meaning we all sat in chairs and did palmas while one by one people got up and danced. You can see video of Esther dancing here.

More Time on the Rooftop

Practicing bulerías on the rooftop under an amazing sunset (and a full rainbow) couldn’t get much better than this.

The Sherry Bodegas

We visited Bodegas Real Tesoro and Bodegas Urium, two very different experiences. At Bodegas Real Tesoro apart from learning about sherry and tasting it (of course) we also toured the bodega grounds, saw the horses and carriages, viewed the private art collection including original works by Picasso and Dalí. Bodegas Urium is a small family run boutique bodega where owner Alonso told us jokes, taught us a thing our two about sherry as we tasted many different varieties and sang sevillanas for us.

More Shopping

Because it seems flamenco dancers do not tire of shopping, and well, if you’re in Spain …

Unexpected & Special Events

Such as Chiqui de Jerez’s flashmob to celebrate women (See pre-flashmob bulerías and rumbas here) and a celebration of the Cristo de la Expiración returning home. Below you can see pictures of preparations for this (the ladies helping Maribel to decorate for this enormous procession when it came down our street) and the procession itself. This was a major event in the neighborhood that went on until 3:30am. (Stay tuned to the Facebook Page for video footage later on.)

Visiting the Centro Andaluz de Flamenco

We watched a movie on the history of flamenco and took at peek at the flamenco artwork and the library and picked up a few posters.

Doing Flamenco Anywhere & Everywhere

Practicing bulerías at the studio in our apartments, reviewing notes from their little books, trying moves out at Fátima’s, one of the ladies even took a guitar lesson!

Exploring the Sunday Flea Market

Tools, old time phones, brass charms, glass decanters and antique dolls, flowers, toys, old records… In the picture you see Debby playing dress up playing dress up (She got the sunglasses for 50 centimos, the earrings and the necklace for one euro each.)