VIDA PERAL, DANCER/TEACHER/CHOREOGRAPHER

4 photos byRemco van Blokland - Vida in Bata de cola, The Rose, Tiny Dots, and Arms in deep shadow

Vida. The very first workshop I took with Vida was in Chicago, and she was teaching a Tangos. I was slightly beyond a beginner level but hardly at an intermediate level, and the class was perfect. Of course, Vida’s husband, Jacco Muller, was accompanying the class, but I had no idea at that time what a special treat that was. (See my blog post on Jacco!)

There was this one arm movement that she taught in the choreography, an outward slicing movement about chest-high, and she described it as “like you’re slicing someone’s head off!” Wow! My now-ex-husband and I were going through some very rough patches, and I was liking this imagery! It was the first time that I connected dancing flamenco with my personal life. And I have never lost that connection, thanks to Vida.

What else can I say about the woman who has had the most influence on me as a dancer, who helped rebuild me physically after a serious back injury, and who showed me how beautiful it is to be a strong, powerful woman at a time when I was fumbling through my own divorce?

Vida first learned Sevillanas in Chicago in 1976, and she hasn’t stopped dancing full time since. She’s done it all: company dancer, principal dancer, soloist, and guest artist in companies ranging from the Paco Romero Dance Company in Barcelona to the Jose Greco Dance Company in New York, and in choreographies by none other than Jose Granero in Palma de Mallorca.  She is a globe-trotting teacher and choreographer for solos, partners, and groups using manton, fan, bata de cola, cape, hat, baston, castanets… she even sews costumes for herself and her students in Amsterdam! Stylistically, she is strong, forceful yet controlled, and with a perfection of technique that fully manifests a goal that she once set for me: “Your technique should be so perfect that a photographer could capture you at any instant and you would never look awkward or ‘in between’ movements.” To this day, that is what I still strive for.

 

 

Vida has created performances and choreographies for everything from a rumbas-style pop song of a local artist at a concert for more than 10,000 fans to “La Vida Breve” with a full symphony orchestra to theater productions. And many, many of her choreographies owe their inspiration to musical arrangements by Jacco. For Vida’s full biography, check out her website: www.vidaperal.com

Vida has this gorgeous back and these exquisite arms that she herself describes as using like “the wings of a bird of prey.” They’re breathtaking. Well, towards the end of my year in Amsterdam, I was in a private class with Vida working on her siguiriya, the first one I had ever had, and a truly poignant piece. Then smack in the middle of our hour together, she asked me to run the choreography again, but “this time don’t dance like me.” When I picked my chin up off the studio floor and started breathing again, I thought to myself, But isn’t that why I’ve been here for a whole year? But in the next instant I realized what she was saying, what she was doing: she was letting me go, entrusting me with all of the technique she had taught me. In fact, she was pushing me off the edge of the cliff, knowing that I had grown a set of wings of my own that were strong enough to carry me – as me.

When I returned to Chicago, I had to perform a classical solo for the company I was still a member of, Teresa y Los Preferidos. It was the same solo I had performed a few years earlier, Ciro’s “Intermedio” from Enrique Granados’ “Goyescas.” At the company’s first rehearsal after my return from Amsterdam, Teresa, the director, had me run the number, and one of the men in the company, Miguel Salinas, said to me afterwards, “It shows that you spent the year with Vida. But you know what? Where it really shows is in your face.”

And that’s what it is, to dance like Vida.

 

Again, please visit her website www.vidaperal.com where her Amsterdam class schedule, student performance, and contact info are posted.

Vida will be in the States in June, July, and August – grab her while you can!   

Coco's Chronicles -- Bulerias por fiesta Week 2

OK, legs not rubbery yesterday and didn’t feel like a complete loser by the end of class. Still far, far from where I want to be, but… progress!

The first hour of this week’s hyper-intense bulerias por fiesta class went really well; I felt strong, and I retained all of the choreography as Roberto built it up (well, except for one combination, but at least I had it in my head, it was just my body that wasn’t cooperating). This particular bulerias is a beauty, and Roberto is such a beautiful dancer to watch. As an aside, as classical as his training is, he can really get down and be so deliciously Jerezano-earthy. Delightful.

But, dang, then that last half hour hit, and things started getting tricky in my head again. A couple of combinations were so close in their essence but different enough in their details that I kept getting them confused. So I always ended up going in the wrong direction. But at least I didn’t have the inner feeling of having an entire choreography unravel on me like last week. No, it was more of a feeling of just needing an extra 20 minutes to work the individual combinations and then piece the entire thing back together. I really felt that if this were a 2-hour class instead of a 1 1/2-hour class, I could have nailed this one to the wall.

But, alas, our time with Roberto on these Saturday afternoons is limited. So, how shall I approach next week’s 1 ½-hour session? First, I want everyone to know that Roberto did read my post from last week and sent me the loveliest, most encouraging private message you could imagine, and for that I am so deeply grateful. He is such a generous teacher. But next, I really am looking at this internal process of how choreography is laid quickly into the brain.

For me, to use a computer analogy, I feel like my hard drive has to be defragmented.  I've already upgraded my firmware by studying with a new teacher, and it would be great if I could install some extra memory to help with speed, but I think some reorganizing of the memories that I already have is what will free up some space and help my brain to not slow down during that last half hour.

Part of reworking those old memories is actually working on the new material at home – especially now that I have it on my camera, thanks to Roberto’s suggestion. Practice brings back those patterns of movement that are so particular to flamenco, and I definitely can feel physically which ones have come back and which ones have not – yet. So it’s all good work, and I’m glad to have the work to do.

I’m hoping that by retraining, I can create the space to focus on the tricky details that make Roberto’s choreographies so interesting and unique and challenging – and fun. And I have to admit, that’s something that I genuinely had yesterday – fun.

JACCO MULLER, GUITARIST AND COMPOSER

Photo by Titus Brein

Jacco Muller is a soft-spoken and thoughtful man with a twinkle in his eyes and an easy smile. He is also a musical tour de force.

I had known Jacco from a distance for a year or 2 through dance workshops before we ever became friends. He is the kind of guitarist who is so very easy to dance with that you don’t fully realize how good you had it until he’s not in the studio anymore.

Ten years ago I spent a school year in Amsterdam rebuilding myself after a serious back injury with Jacco’s wife, Vida Peral (a whole separate post on Vida in the future). And if you take class with Vida, you have the privilege and joy of being accompanied by Jacco.

Jacco and I have shared many after-class beers in Amsterdam and many after-show sherries in Jerez, and I know when he lives part of every year in Chicago where he is also a resident, he loves these certain burritos in Lincoln Park that are “as big as your head.” We have road-tripped to Brugges, Belgium, and hung out at the plaza in Santa Fe, NM. Through it all, his lilting baritone is full of quirky yet spot-on observations and the genuine warmth of friendship.

Jacco is such an understated person that it was only little by little that I learned of his tremendous talent for composing. Flamenco guitar is the instrument he plays professionally, and certainly composing traditional flamenco music is mandatory for establishing one’s own sound and style. But he has also created a more classical CD entitled “Silueta,” featuring flamenco guitar accompanied by exquisite violin and cello (my personal favorite) which led to composing for chamber music ensemble and symphony orchestra (my husband’s favorites) and the double cd “Orchestral Music of Jacco Muller.”

Jacco’s musical talents and interests continue to both broaden and deepen with his most recent project, a collaboration with oud player, Victor Ghannam, that gives us the Middle Eastern and flamenco world music CD, “Vientos del Desierto.”

  

And then Jacco steps into a dance class with his Western boots and turquoise rings, and you just faint with how sublime his guitar playing is.

Overall this is music that transcends each of the forms involved, that floats above it all, that becomes an entity unto itself. As someone who has studied and worked in the film industry myself, I want to specifically give a heads up to the filmmakers out there who are reading this: this is music that lends itself very well to film scoring. Jacco’s website includes not only audio clips that you can listen to while browsing, but also information on composition rental and commissions. Hmmm, I wish I were making a film right now… http://www.jaccomuller.com/html/compositions.html

At some point during that year in Amsterdam, Jacco gave me a copy of one of his first CDs, “Laberinto.” I later asked him to sign it and gave it as a gift to my mother, an aficionada herself who was a big fan of Jacco’s. It remained one of her treasured items to the end of her life 4 years ago.

Again, please explore Jacco’s rich website: http://jaccomuller.com/

AND Jacco will also be performing at the 3rd Dutch Flamenco Biennial, January 21 – 30, 2011: www.flamencobiennale2011.nl

For the Dutch Flamenco Biennial website to open in English: http://www.flamencobiennale2011.nl/p/88.html

 

A VER

Coco's Chronicles: The Story of a Comeback

Remembering Jose Granero at the Flamenco Festival de Jerez

Vida Peral, Dancer/Teacher/Choreographer

Ciro, The Great Maestro, Part 1

 

!Y!

Carlo Basile y Las Guitarras de Espana

Tamara Carson, Ole Music and Dance of Spain, and the flamenco community of Kansas City

 

LLAMADA

Calling out to all flamencos to write your own post for this page! It can be a one-time article or a regular contribution on any flamenco topic that you are passionate about. Just post a comment or send me a message on facebook letting me know that you'd like to write, and I'll let you know what to do from there. This isn't a paid gig, but it is... a juerga.

ON LEARNING CHOREOGRAPHY, PART 1

OK, so during Roberto Amaral’s first intermediate/advanced level Bulerias por fiesta class of the year, only my right leg felt like a rubberband, which is an improvement over both legs. The current struggle is not so much physical, but mental.

I used to be able to learn choreography pretty quickly. At least I thought I did. It’s been over 5 years since I’ve had to learn someone else’s choreography, and that was an Alegrias and a Guajira by Antonio Vargas over the course of 5 days. A little rough, but only because I was very drowsy from being in my first trimester (no one knew, not even Antonio, and I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want him to treat me any differently from usual). I certainly was able to learn everything quickly enough to feel almost performance ready on the Guajira by the end of the week.

The thing is, I had always felt like I had this process for laying down choreography inside my head, a way of instantly organizing sequences so that they were easy to “pull up” as we would run through them. After yesterday, I’m not sure if the gears in my head are just rusty or if I need to rethink my process – does my hardware need cleaning or does my software need an upgrade?

Granted, I’ve never had to learn an entire Bulerias at tempo in an hour-and-a-half -- that’s the first thing to just get used to. And this was not your standard llamada with some cute marking and then some fun footwork thrown in. No. This was every single step, arm, and head movement, from salida through coletilla, and it was all about contra-or-not and weight shifting-or-not.

For me the individual sequences were quite reasonable to grasp -- not easy, but certainly very reasonable at this skill level. And for the first hour of class, I felt fine, like I was putting it all together in my usual way and handling the run throughs comfortably. But then I hit a wall. Suddenly, the choreography fell apart for me at a very specific point about halfway through, and I just couldn’t keep the individual sequences in the right order anymore. Roberto even took a moment out to specifically clarify that combination for me; he could see clearly where my struggle was, and I truly appreciate his effort to get through to me. But a day later, I’m still not quite sure what happened inside my head and why I couldn't pull it all back together by the end of class.

The one consolation moment occurred as I was changing my shoes after class when the guitarist, on his way out, stopped and said to me, “You have really nice arms, whoever you are.” Wow, I was so grateful for the compliment (and I give all the credit for nice arms to Ciro, and I will post an entire article on Ciro and arms in the future for sure). But as I write this, I’m also thinking, wait, that’s probably the one thing I wasn’t thinking about. At any rate, thank you, Tony, the guitarist (I will find out his last name for you all next week).

So… if anyone out there has any words of wisdom/anecdotes/observations/commiserating-type comments, please, please feel free to post them below. I will be chronicling my progress in this class each weekend – wish me luck.

 

A VER

Jacco Muller and the Dutch Flamenco Biennial

BACK TO MY FUTURE

Almost 4 ½ years after performing my last theatre shows with a nursing infant backstage, my maternity leave from flamenco is officially over.

To close 2010, I took a class with the fabulous Roberto Amaral in Van Nuys, CA, and despite my rubberband thighs and rusty castanet fingers, it was thrilling to be drilled and challenged and encouraged in a studio again.

First -- Roberto is a dancer's dancer, perfect in every detail, with flawless feet, captivating body angles, and stunningly crisp castanet playing. I think I stopped breathing at one moment listening to him demonstrate a castanet pattern por siguiriya.

He is a gracious man as well. When I thanked him for an evening of wonderful classes and told him how long it had been since I had danced full time, his answer, without missing a beat, was, “And it’s like you never left!” My honest protest was that what he just saw from me was “yucky,” but he insisted with a dramatic flourish that within a few weeks I would be “all over this studio.” Gracious.

What I realized during my 2 ½ hours with Roberto was that I wouldn’t be able to make this comeback by myself. Of course I will be drilling my own feet and running combinations over and over at home. But 4 ½ years, 2 babies and 20 pounds are a lot to come back from.

Roberto and I talked a lot about my first flamenco inspiration, our mutual dear friend, Manolo Rivera, who lives in NYC. In fact, the whole evening brought me back to the very beginnings of my flamenco studies, to the reasons why I started taking 2 classes a week instead of just one, then 3 classes instead of just 2. As I begin again, I am reminded that  there is heartbreaking beauty in body shapes that are raw and honest and antigua. There is profound contraction and expansion and expression in the spaces between beats. The contratiempo that appears to be the simplest combination is the most deceptively difficult to nail. There is a sexual energy that ignores preferences. There is comfort when dancing through the deepest physical and emotional pain.

For me personally, my time with Roberto and with flamenco at this strange new level will be very much an exploration of my altered self. I had felt that I was perhaps peaking at the time when I took maternity leave from full time performing around the Southwest and Midwest and teaching at the University of New Mexico – Taos. My obstetrician had said that I was as fit as an Olympic athlete, and I performed 5 weeks before giving birth and taught my intermediate/advanced class the night I delivered my son. But where am I now, physically (out of shape), mentally (not used to learning combinations quickly), and emotionally (lots of inner turmoil on the eve of turning 46)?

At the very least, I am here, a recent transplant to LA, with no flamenco community to relate to. Yet. Roberto’s students were so warm and welcoming, a reflection on him and their affection and respect for him. I thank them with all my heart.   

There is also the larger community, this vast collection of singers, musicians, dancers, and aficionados. We all know what it feels like to be grabbed by the thing that is flamenco, to be shaken and stirred by it and then poured into some glass, only to be swallowed by the next level of flamenco experience.

It is this community that I would like to gather together here, juerga style, with everyone contributing their own bit of buleria por fiesta. I will be doing some writing, but mostly I will be showcasing other flamenco artists from all over the world and connecting all of us who aspire to the one thing that binds all flamencos together, no matter where we are in our development -- beginning, peak, comeback, or end. And that is duende.

More on duende in future posts, but for now check out the Calendar, hunt for something in the Marketplace, and chime in with your own comments!

For more info on the Roberto Amaral Dance Studio in Van Nuys, CA, find him on Facebook under Roberto Amaral. On his page you will find links to his all-new 2011 Showcase choreography classes, as well as his non-showcase classes, and his contact info. If you are in Los Angeles and want to learn beautiful technique and choreography with killer contratiempo sprinkled throughout, under the guidance of a very discerning and distinguished maestro, please call him directly and soon! I’ll see you in class…

 

A VER (Who and what’s up for next week’s post):

Jacco Muller, guitarist and composer in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and The Dutch Flamenco Biennal (coming up January 21 - 30, 2011)

 

!Y! (Upcoming posts)

Vida Peral, dancer/choreographer

Ciro, el maestro de los maestros

Jose Granero, memories of a legend

 

LLAMADA

I am calling for guest writers to write a featured post (or posts) on any flamenco topic you are passionate about. I would like to post guest material at least once a month – you may write one time or you may submit regularly. Posts should be between 400 – 1000 words and sent to me as a message on Facebook for now (find Coco Cabrel, and include a note letting me know that you're sending a juergablog post.) Please include a brief, one paragraph bio, or include your backstory in the body of your post. Also, everyone wants to see a spectacular photo of you. Links to appropriate websites are also welcome. This is not a paid gig, however; it is… a juerga!

MARKETPLACE

SIMONE BONDE, PHOTOGRAPHER

Simone and I did a photo shoot together several years ago when I lived in Milwaukee (how I miss Kopp’s frozen custard, especially their Valentine’s Day flavor, Chocolate Cherry Chunk, http://www.kopps.com/ and Stone Creek coffee, especially their Cream City Ice drink  http://www.stonecreekcoffee.com/). We had met through a mutual friend and somehow came up with this idea of taking photos of me on a horse. Well, it became so much more than that.

We arranged to spend an entire day at Bel Terra Baroque Equestrian Estate where aficionada Cynthia Vasques was raising some of the finest Andalusian horses on this side of the globe http://www.belterrabaroque.com/index.html. I wore my ultra-glamorous bata de cola which was custom made at Maty’s in Madrid http://www.maty.es/, and we shot all over the property -- inside and outside of the house designed by Cynthia herself, in the arena, and on Cynthia’s prized stallion, Cotillon, perhaps the most magnificent horse I have ever had the honor of riding. Bareback. With the heavy cola of my dress hanging down. I can still feel every muscle in the stallion’s back working to keep me up there. What a horse.

Everything was completely impromptu, and here is a gallery of photos from the shoot. Simone is absolutely amazing behind the lens, as can be seen from her results. And she is so utterly lovely to spend the day with.

Please check out Simone's 2 websites and enter into an incredible visual world.  First,  http://www.simonebonde.com/ Dancers in particular will appreciate her Renoir-like series on the Salt Creek Ballet’s "Nutcracker" performance. The final photo in that series in particular captures how each one of us has felt at one point in the dressing room -- that utter despair of some internal choreography glitch while surrounded by glittering costumes that await their bodies.

Simone's 2nd website actually highlights her skills as not only a photographer but also as a doula! How I wish we lived in the same city when I had my kids! http://mamatoto.me/ I'm all choked up  looking through this website.

If you need a photographer anywhere in the Midwest, she’s the one. If you can fly her out to your locale anywhere else, she’s still the one. And if you're lucky enough to be expecting, give her a call!

And… Bel Terra Baroque Equestrian Estate is for sale – spread the word!

Abrazos, Coco

Hello flamencos of the world!

And I do mean "world," because flamenco thrives everywhere, as we step into a new year  under the cover of a new moon. Amidst the current political and economic turmoil, flamenco dance and music continue to inspire and soothe, as they did from their underground beginnings.

Welcome to the place that will showcase everyone and everything flamenco -- from dancers, musicians, and aficionados, to shoes, shows, and classes.

!Ole! Coco (Corinne) Cabrel