How to dance flamenco, flamenco travel in Spain, flamenco dance students and their experiences, interviews with flamenco artists, translations of flamenco letras (songs) from Spanish to English
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Stories & Interviews
I want to tell you a good story about Ricardo, in honor of the fact that the schedule for the Immersion is up. Sí, it's up!
But I don't feel like writing any of them right now.
So, I'll just tell you some of the things I enjoy about him being here:
I have this thing in me that shows up a lot, Doubt, which I guess comes from Fear. It keeps me from doing all kinds of things, or has me do things kind-of-sort-of rather than completely. It bothers and annoys me, though I suppose it might have important things to tell me, perhaps it is there for a reason. I don’t usually know why or what it has to tell me, but I’d like to start paying more attention and perhaps find out.
Ok, so, I put this question up on the white board in the studio in mid-December... What can you do now that you couldn't do at the beginning of the year? [little or BIG]
And someone said this,
"I can't even remember the beginning of the year."
So I reworded the question:
"What can you do now that you were unable to a month ago, or a week ago, or a day ago, or even a minute ago!?"
What can you do now that you couldn't do before? [little or BIG]
Anyway, there it was on the easel with sticky notes...for people to respond...and some people actually did. Oleeeeee! So let's celebrate, the big and the small.
Here is what they said:
Ok, so I mentioned that I had another resolution, apart from the first one. This one is harder to put into words, so I'm allowing for it to be something other than a concise written statement. After all, soy artista, used to expressing myself in a variety of ways. This resolution has to do with my business, with respecting and honoring it. It has to do with allowing for it to evolve as it needs to evolve. It has to do with me providing the space and time to let this happen. It has to do with allowing myself to have doubts and fears but viewing those with curiosity rather than interpreting them as signals to give up.
¡Dejarlo todo, No!
You see, quite regularly, I think about quitting this all and just going back to working for someone else. It is confusing. And it kind of terrifies me. Maybe I am not supposed to say that here, but it is the truth, and I am saying it. It is not that I don't want to be here or that I don't love what I'm doing. Noooo, not at all. In fact, I have been doing some research and have discovered it is quite the opposite:
It's the experience I had always wanted to find in Spain, and it has greatly enhanced my understanding of flamenco ... I've been to a number of flamenco festivals and schools, but I've never had a flamenco experience like this." - Stefani Miller
Get the Day in the Life of a Flamenco Student in Spain series by clicking here.
Is this why I do it? You see, I’ve noticed that flamenco is always telling me things, important things that go waaaaaaay beyond the art form. Sometimes I am able to hear, sometimes I am not. So it tells me things again and again, just in case I need reminders... which I usually do. Estoy muy agradecida, and I’m working on becoming a better listener.
Maybe you’re wondering just what kinds of things it tells me. Here are some of the important ones…
Below Diana Welch, Oregon photographer, writer, videographer and flamenca shares one of her experiences with bulerías last Spring during her time in Jerez. Reading her story brought back memories of practicing with her in the living room, kitchen, wherever we could make it work. I also remember that she took a bus for about an hour to get to class, dedicada. Enjoy… Here in her blog, Laura has been discussing her learning process with respect to bulerías. While Laura and I are in different stages on the bulerias learning continuum, I experienced a sliver of light at the end of the tunnel in my own beginning class in Jerez last April.
So Toshi keeps asking me to do these shows with him. I am considering myself to be very lucky. And I am considering the rehearsals to be like free concerts, free concerts for meeee! Then today during our rehearsal for Sunday's show at Tupai, I realized the musicians were sending me messages. Many many messages. Although I know they weren't meaning to send me messages nor were they aware that they were doing so. Pero los músicos me mandaban mensajes, hoy en el ensayo, muchos mensajes sin saberlo.
So my biggest issue with bulerías when I got to Jerez was the transitions. Well, ok, that’s not really true, my biggest issue after fear. But about the transitions, it was like all of a sudden I couldn’t see them. And I didn’t know what to do.
It was my first time in Ana María López’s class after dancing by myself in front of EVERYONE, which is what you have to do EVERY day there and actually NUMEROUS times every day.
And you can’t hide.
You can’t escape by leaving the room because someone calls you, even if you’re outside practicing or just trying to escape all of the smoke. - Yes, smoking. Lots of smoking goes on in class, from start to finish - And if you try to pretend you didn’t hear that you were called and still don’t come in, someone comes to get you.
Ok, so getting back to bulerías... I already told you about how I happened to get hooked on bulerías. And there are many stories to go along with that. Both Happy Tales (like seeing El Torta perform in Jerez last April...in a place I wasn't supposed to be, but where I went anyway) and Horror Stories (ok, perhaps not horror stories - all of the Halloweenness appears to be affecting my language - we'll call them Crying in Bulerías Class Stories.) But those can wait for later.
Right now let's just focus on some important things to know about Bulerías de Jerez, some of the cositas I referred to the other day...
My main obstacle to bulerías has always been fear, not trusting my instincts. It's no different from my main obstacle in life. It is what makes me so indecisive. No wonder bulerías has always been so hard for me...I don't trust. Wah! This realization was profound. In a moment I'll share with you some things I've come to know about bulerías…things that have made it easier, less scary to dance. (There is also a Workshop coming up where we'll cover this in-depth...) The truth is, now I kind of can't get enough of bulerías. It is not that the fear has been eradicated completely, but the excitement and fun usually push it off to the side now. Gracias excitement and fun.
So, I used to haaaaate bulerías (while secretly loving it.)
I guess you could say I was kind of consumed with fear during my time in Jerez. I did things anyway, but I also didn't do things. Below is an excerpt (with some side notes) written during my first week alone there. For those who are new to this blog, I had been in Jerez a couple of weeks before for the Festival. After a brief trip to Portugal, I headed back. I arrived on Friday the 25th and began my search for classes.
Prior to leaving for Spain I knew who I wanted to take from and had names of studios and phone numbers; I even had an idea of when some of the classes were offered. Sí! I had done my research, I promise, as best as I could from Portland, Oregon...I had to for the RACC grant. And during the festival I got an idea of where the studios were located. But I had yet to figure out the class times. Could I have done more to determine this earlier in the month? Perhaps. But figuring out where and when things happen in that town is not as easy as one might think…
I so enjoyed this interview with Antonio and learning about his life as a dancer and his philosophy about flamenco, but before we get to that, read what the Diario de Sevilla had to say about him, “Antonio Arrebola…one of the great promises of this art. A captivating, incredible style, withextraordinary technique and daring that leaves the audience amazed. Arrebola has physical presence on the stage. He grows, he is a giant. Because he is everything on the stage. With his securities and his insecurities. With his truth. With his linkage to the earth combined with his sense of humor. In him, forcefulness makes sense. As ferocity, fight. As sublime energy. An impressive figure that has the same content of his emotions.”
I was a junior in college. I was studying Spanish. Class was a struggle for me to say the least. The professor spoke only in Spanish, and I usually felt like a Charlie Brown adult was mwoah mwoah mwoahing at me all of the time. I can't even remember her name, the teacher's. I just remember she was eccentric, as they say, and that we went to her house once and she made us all mole. She was not Mexican but totally and completely obsessed. The mole was good enough. Anyway every day we would watch this "educational" novela and then answer questions about and "discuss" it. I rarely knew what was going on in class or with Raquel and El Padre Hidalgo on the TV set. Just one word sticks out in my mind, excavación. The whole novela had to do with some big excavation. So, why am I telling you all of this? Because a really good thing happened on account of that class with Señora Something-or-Other...
I became interested in flamenco.
Summer (and it's still summer) has been fun and funny in Sevillanas class, and I mean funny in a good way.
Funny laughing a lot while dancing with partners...
And trying to remember what step to do when while looking directly at someone as opposed to looking at yourself in the mirror
Or doing the coplas out of order and forgetting which one we were on
Or the music feeling crazy-fast and us feeling like we were running a marathon just to stay in compás all the while trying to remember the pasos
Or nearly bumping into our partners several thousand times (or perhaps actually bumping into them)
Today, I explain sevillanas...
"I want to be in class with Mercedes ALL of the time." That is what I wrote in my journal on April 13. But let's go back in time.
I came back to Jerez on Friday, March 25 and began investigating classes to take.
But I secretly didn't want to go to any.
A week in Jerez by myself. Poor planning by Laura. When will I learn that it simply is not fun for me to do these things alone? A week spent looking for studios, making calls, trying to understand when and where the different classes took place, feeling relief as I kept arriving at the wrong times and missing them. There is a semi-funny reason for this, but you'll have to wait to hear about it in a future post...I would like to say that this was on account of Spanish unpredictability, but it wasn't.
This is a tale of how certain events lead to subsequent events allowing for a vision in spite of skepticism and self-doubt. Basically, Portland Flamenco Events began without a whole lot of planning. It was one small idea for one small event that turned into a whole flamenco business! Ok, so allow me to begin this story with Ricardo López, for this guy is a big part of the reason I am pursuing this work right now. I met him in 2006 when he was in Portland touring as a soloist with the Nuevo Ballet Español as a part of the White Bird Dance Series. He inspired me from the moment I met him and saw him perform.
He did this smokin' bulerías surrounded by a group of dancers doing palmas and jaleos.
It reminded me of why I loved flamenco
And made me want to do flamenco
And be around flamenco
I have been performing for as long as I can remember - perhaps some of you have as well. It began at a very early age - with highly entertaining shows usually created and performed with my sister for my family. My poor family. As a little girl it progressed to producing plays with the neighborhood kids.
And in elementary school, PRESENTATIONS! Ah, the presentation; it quickly became one of my most favorite things.
Then came middle and high school and drama. Plays and musicals and more plays and musicals.How dedicated was I you wonder? Well, for those of you who know me, I actually CHOSE to get up very early to rehearse before school... I am not a morning person.
GUEST POST: Below is an article written earlier this year by Diana Bright, flamenco cantaora (and singer of many genres) and long-time member of the Portland arts community:
Find out what Marco Flores had to say in March during the 2011 Festival de Jerez about his life as a flamenco dancer. (I have a lot to thank this guy for - Aside from being a wonderfully inspiring teacher, Marco helped make it possible for me to travel to Spain this year. - ¡Muchos besos para Marco! - Were it not for his letter of recommendation, I'm not sure I would have received the RACC grant to study in Jerez. Gracias Marco por eso, por tu arte, por las buenas clases y por ser una gran inspiración y persona.
