Flamenco musings, revisions and histories

First blog - flamenco musings, revisions and histories

Flamenco dictates and drives whatever I do, whether I like it or not. I seek, dream about, work through and create flamenco. The striving never ends, though sometimes I wish it really would.

Holistically, I consider myself something of a revisionist - a modern dancer caught up in the aura and romance of flamenco. I originally changed course from modern to flamenco to continue dancing into old (or at least, older, age). In this course I did come to love flamenco.

But more than that, I love Spain - it's identity, food, culture, traveling to and from it. Being in Madrid first thing in the morning after that international flight and finding food at the Museo del Jamon in the Puerta del Sol - delicious beer (caña), chorizo and tortilla Español. That first, absolute must see look at the Plaza Mayor, and the visit to Maty's to buy flamenco shoes off the rack. The bumpy train ride (the cercancia) down to Granada through the mountains, and arriving in that rural/urban center. The casa museos in both Granada and in Fuente Vaqueros, where García Lorca lived and worked - now that's it - Lorca is the key to the love of the country. And Dali, Buñuel, the lot of them, all of the artists from the original Resi - the Residencia de Estudiantes on Pinar Street in Madrid.

Real drive and the love of flamenco is hard to come by if you are an artist of the style or wish to become one, because flamenco is so hard - my God it is hard to do this style - rhythm comes most easily at first, but not those hard beats. It's like learning Spanish - the 1st semester is fine, but not semesters 2-6! In flamenco, the use of the arms, hands and style are hard, though it does get more settled in. So I'm not talking about the romance of it at all, no, it's the nitty gritty that ends up consuming you. The perfection of one minute of it, then 10 minutes, and the a continuous 20 minutes of dance and music.

So when my students ask me "when do we get to perform?" I say I don't know yet, maybe next month, or maybe, not for 10 years. How much can you practice dance and attend class? How naturally talented are you rhythmically and musically? How much money do you have to invest in classes, attending shows, going to Spain every year to study and observe? Are you willing to learn Spanish? How patient are you? If you are or can become these, you are on the way to a lifelong pursuit that is beautiful, frightening, wonderful, challenging, exhausting, hateful, fun, invigorating, frustrating, and more.