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!