Farewell Summer 2007

Recap & Pictures of Intensive 5 Day Workshops

By Kasandra “La China”
September 1, 2007

September is upon us.  The long days of summer are gone.  As we prepare to go back to work and school, let’s take a moment to reflect upon our Flamenco Summer of 2007!

Thanks to all those who signed up for our Summer 2007 Workshop Series at Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy!  We had fun, got sore feet and now we’ve got the moves!

2007 Beginner Footwork Bootcamp Rocked!

Our first week of courses was a roaring success with crash courses in Sevillanas, Alegrias and Footwork Bootcamps with Oscar Nieto and Kasandra La China!  For five days, our students became sponges and absorbed flamenco technique, choreography and arte.  They endured brain overload and aching feet…but they sure learned a lot!  I always say taking a workshop is   much like speed reading.  Workshops provide an overview but the depth comes later with repetition and study.

Having taught summer workshops for many years, I always find teaching Beginner Footwork Bootcamp, in particular, rewarding.  It is refreshing to teach body coordination and mechanics to such eager beavers who have caught the flamenco bug.  For students, the initial challenge is to coordinate their feet first, then increase speed and then layer body parts in later.  There is such an amazing learning curve that happens over a five day period.

Footwork Bootcamp Farruca – What can be accomplished in 5 days!

On August 14th, twenty students lined up in front of our Studio B mirror to learn some footwork basics Monday through Friday for 90 minutes a day. Most students had completed at least one or two terms of our Introduction course, but there were some newbies that got a Shock with capital S, yet they persevered and were determined to try, take notes and sort it all out later!  Congratulations to Freshwomen Yuen Yuen and Belinda for hanging in there the entire week!

Congratulations to Yuen Yuen and Belinda:  Initiation by Fire!
Left to Right:  Yuen Yuen, La China & Belinda

Our Advanced Alegrias class rocked with choreography inspired by Rafael Campallo, hot young flamenco star from Seville whom I’ve had the pleasure of studying with this summer.  Students learned an Entrada, 2 Letras, Cierre and two Escobillas.  While this is a tad short of a complete choreography, it is customary when studying flamenco, for students to “cut and paste” various sections of choreography from various artists to create a solo of 8 to 12 minutes long.  Once a student has studied for three to five years, he/she has plenty of knowledge and can combine pieces to create a whole choreography.  This is the Flamenco Way.

“Alegrias Bailaoras meet Musicos de Vancouver
Left to Right:  Pirouz, Julie, Cyrena, Juan, Kasandra, Peter, Heather & Andrea

The Alegrias class was graced with the presence of our Vancouver musicians — Pirouz Ebadypour of Flamenco.ca, Peter Mole who plays guitar at the Kino Café, and Juan de Marias, guitarist who recorded the CD, Mimbre.  The musicians accompanied the class on the last day during the week but on the final day, it was musical chairs as Pirouz, who normally sings, played guitar and Juan, who normally plays guitar, sang.  How cool that our flamenco community is multitalented!  At the end of the night Juan commented, “Gee, I’ve never just sung with accompaniment.  It is weird being accompanied by other guitarists, I normally play for myself.”  Haha!  Glad you learned something new, Juan!

To finish off Week 1, we went to the Latin Quarter on Commercial Drive for a late supper at around 10pm.  Yes, we really did the Spanish Thing…ate till midnight and downed pitchers of sangria.

Hungry Flamencas wait for Tapas n Vino Tinto at the Latin Quarter on The Drive
Left to Right:  Oksana, Jennifer, Julie & Cyrena

My good friend and cantaora, Stephanie Pedraza, fresh off the plane from Columbia and recovering from dengue fever (yes, she did get dengue…), taught three days of Cante Workshop during Week 2.  Many folks are now very interested in the Cante, judging from the attendance of our recent workshops!  We learned Alegrias cante including Entrada, Letra, Coletilla and Bulerias de Cadiz.  That kept us hmming happy, sunny melodies for two days.  Alegrias means happiness!

Cante Class with Stephanie and Gerardo Alcala
Left to Right:  Farnaz, Somebody’s Child?, Lisa, Veronica, Carol, Tradene, Nancy, Pat,
Stephanie, Meg, Tahirih, Holly, Xulia, Cyrena, Gary, Oksana & La China

In my Spanish travels, I have only lived in Madrid, Jerez de la Frontera and Seville to study flamenco.  During these intense studies, I eventually crack from flamenco overload and have to get away, so I make short trips out of town.  Last year I spent some time in Cadiz, which is only about a 45 min train ride from Jerez.  If you are from Andalucia, this is pronounced “Cah-ee”.  Nobody says Cadeez.  If you do, you’re a foreigner.  Anyway, it is one of my favourite cities in Andalucia.  Cadiz is a port city in the south of Spain, well known for its beaches, blue water and whitewashed buildings.  Learning to sing Alegrias, I truly realize why it originates from Cadiz!  It is bright, blue, gorgeous with white beaches and sunshine, and people are happy!  Most Alegria letras refer to the Bahia (bay) de Cadiz or make some reference to the sea.

Being new at studying cante myself, I always find singing on the off beats and doing palmas like patting your head and rubbing your stomach.  It has been a long time since dance has really challenged me in that manner because I do things rather automatically and ambidextrously by now.  HOWEVER, singing and handclapping… wow, that’s really hard, but I am very determined to be able to do that eventually.

Finally, Bata de Cola was a fine introduction for newcomers to the art form and a refresher for our regulars.  Congratulations to Shirley, Lisa and Elvira for completing the course with your bata intact.  FYI:  It is customary for someone in the class to trip, fall, face plant, rip a ruffle, step on a ruffle, get tangled up in it, rip a seam or all the above.  This class went by relatively unscathed.  Good job!  For the girls crying over some dust on their new batas, your first Bata de Cola is a glorified dry mop!  It’s ok, just shake it out.   The Batas learned the Matilde Coral curriculum of a dozen marcaje (marking steps) to Seguiriya.  I always try to keep to Escuela Matilde Coral’s curriculum to impart technical skills to my students.  These exercises include basic bata skills:  same leg lifts same side cola, opposite leg lifts opposite cola, media vueltas and continuous vueltas.  Truly, the list of techniques is finite.  What is difficult is the estilo (style) and execution of the choreography with arte.

Thanks again for a GREAT summer and see you in September for a new Fall Flamenco Term!  Hope this inspires you to keep coming back for more!

Hasta luego,

Kasandra La China