Confessions of a Zoom Beginner

Think back to your very first dance class, in which you were probably a hopeful ballerina wearing your very first pair of pale pink slippers. Remember the tall, awkward girl who was always half a beat behind the rest of the class and who was always placed at the back and a little out of sight for performances? That was me.

Flash forward 50 years: the gangly child is now a robust Señora, the dance is flamenco and the class takes place over zoom. I wasn’t planning to take another dance class in this lifetime, but when my friend Cynthia mentioned that her flamenco classes were moving online because of the pandemic, something clicked inside me and I signed up without a second thought.

I joined Kasandra’s Thursday Technique 1 Class a few lessons late. We started the class twisting our torsos and then moved on to reviewing the graceful flamenco hand movements. Since I’m already a few weeks behind, it takes a long time (confession 1: a full four weeks) to figure out which direction is in (dentro) and which is out (afuera). It takes me even longer to learn how to do the floreos when both of my arms are moving in space and not held rigidly in front of me.

Luckily for me, this class focuses on the torso. The torso is flamenco’s energy centre and it needs to be strong, holding the head up and the arms away from the body. Our arm and hand movements are meant to fill the three-dimensional space around our bodies which is counter intuitive for someone who has always tried to take up less space by folding into myself and slouching. Kasandra advises us to stand up from our computers and to spend five minutes of every working hour twisting our torsos (confession 2: not doing that yet – sorry Kasandra!).

During the zoom class, I follow along as Kasandra breaks down the buleria sequences for us and we learn how to move our torsos, shoulders and hips. A zoom class is very freeing for a new beginner: it allows me to just have fun and dance without all the usual dance class worries about being out of step, holding others back, or accidentally injuring classmates with a badly aimed kick or flailing arm (ballet class flashback!). When things get too complex or too fast, I just follow Kasandra’s arm and torso movements (confession 3: my huge feet, which are out of zoom camera range usually do their own thing). The only time I get completely stuck is when Kasandra stops dancing and checks her screen to see how we are doing; without the visual cues that other classmates would provide, I lose the compas and stop. I may still be tall, awkward and half a beat behind everyone else, but with Zoom that doesn’t matter.

Unlike YouTube classes, where it’s just me and a pre-recorded video, Zoom offers the benefits of a live teacher and classmates. I admire their fluid arm movements and coordinated floreos on the tiny images and wonder if we would all be meeting for a glass of wine after class if things were different. I look forward to eventually learning palmas, being able to recognize where the 12/12 bulerias beat actually starts, and eventually even attending a class in person and meeting everyone.

Join us FREE Wednesday 12-1pm first class to curious first-timers!