By Kasandra “La China”
July 7, 2005
Bulerias and the art of Flamenco is a life long journey, not an end result. I feel that living in a Western culture, there is a sense in people that they should be able to do things, learn things, have things instantly, overnight, immediately. The thing is, anything worth knowing requires study, discipline, passion and perseverance. I mean, how long does it take to get a bachelor’s degree or a PHD? Well, a bachelor’s takes 4 years and a PHD takes between 8 and 12 years of full time study. So if you put that into perspective, how long do you think it takes to learn Bulerias if you’re only doing it once a week? Hmmm…
There are a lot of kinds of Bulerias. Bulerias at the end of major 12 compas solos, like Solea, Solea por Bulerias, Bambera, Alegria, Cantinas, etc. All these dances get built up to a point where the tempo increases to a bulerias finale. Then there’s B ulerias Palo Seco, when all the music turns off and you get this cool soniquete with the palmas, cajon and footwork. Groovy Baby! Then there’s the party dance — Bulerias Por Fiesta also known as Bulerias de Jerez. This is what we are studying in Bulerias Masterclasses at Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy.
I love teaching Bulerias Por Fiesta because it’s like teaching a philosophy, a structure, a template, a mindset and a way to think about Bulerias and Flamenco in general. It’s a teeny dance that analyses all big palo dances. It’s concise, it’s finite and manageable. It’s great!
My students, however, go through this major emotional rollercoaster in the initial 6 months and it’s bloody battle. You won’t believe it. Even though I TELL them that it takes, for instance, 6 months to learn some basic choreography, 12 months to really understand the structure, get into it and mix it up, and probably 18 months when one has enough material and has it to the point where you can respond to the cante/guitar on the fly. And THEN doing it with some coraje or expression takes years after that. And THEN to do without any choreography at all and being in the moment…Heck, at that point, we can call ourselves Juana Amaya and make a movie.
Anyhoo, despite my reassurances I get sobbing phone calls, depressed emails and assaulted before and after class by upset students who wail and cry, “Why can’t I do this? I’m never going to get it. What’s wrong with me? Do I have a problem? I feel really stupid. I can’t believe you put me in the circle. I lost my focus. I wanted to tell you to back off. Is there something wrong with me?”
Master Jedi La China calmly replies, “NO, there is nothing wrong with you, youngling. You are simply not a Jedi yet. You are just a Padawan Learner and you must go through each step in series in order to achieve mastery over The Bulerias. If you have time, discipline, honor and respect the Bulerias, you will become a Buli Jedi some day. Until then, I can only tell you, Be Patient, Be Calm, Use the Force, one day it will come.”
No, seriously…that’s what I want to say but I never get to say it just like that.
I kind of equate learning Flamenco to Bushido, the Way of the Samurai Warrior. I wish other people would see Flamenco that way. Flamenco is not for the weak, the impatient, the reckless. In order to learn it, there has to be passion yet focus, strength yet discipline, ego yet patience. Once we learn some basic techniques and framework for understanding Flamenco, then we can do the Antonio Canales freaky-spaz. But for now, we need to take things in stride, learn the structure, learn some choreography…systematically. It’s best to keep with the KISS principle — Keep It Simple Stupid. Once we know what we are doing, we can inject fury and fire later.
So I’ll be doing a series of these Blog pep talks. I hope you’ll read it because I spent a bunch of $ on this software to be able to write these regularly. FYI: I’m a Sagittarius so I just tell it like it is. AND BULI IS LIKE THAT. If you get impatient with yourself, give yourself a wack in the head. What makes you think you should be able to do it right away?! Life’s long. What’s a few months or years in the grand scheme?
If you stick with the Bulerias Por Fiesta structure from Jerez, your buli will probably work out. Deviate from the structure and DOom!
WRITE DOWN THIS MAGIC FORMULA: Structura de Bulerias de Jerez
ENTRADA
LETRA
DESPLANTE
SALIDA
That’s it. It’s 1:58am.
Good night, Kasandra La China aka Flamenco Momma.
Thank you, it was perfectly what I needed to hear, and applies not to bulerias only but to flamenco as a whole. Ole!