Apparently, I am some kind of shape shifter…I change clothes and people suddenly don’t recognize me. I change my hair—curly to straight-ish and pulled back—I’m a new person. Then add some make-up, or better yet, glasses, and forget it. Clark [...]
Technique and the Bata de Cola: My technique improved greatly this summer, much of that due to the great rehearsal directing by Stephanie Ramirez and the opportunity to perform the same pieces so many times and really get every movement [...]
Warming up before the show in the bata de cola. This summer, I've been dancing quite a bit in a bata de cola (dress with a train). It's probably one of the most technically demanding skills in flamenco and requires [...]
A well-worn pair of my flamenco shoes. Other than our bodies, the shoes we wear are our most important tool of the trade and a musical instrument. They are works of artisan handicraft on top of that. My very first [...]
Why is it that stereotypes sell? I'm writing specifically about flamenco, but my guess is this applies to many other genres and fields...Why are we so attracted to the superficial elements instead of digging deep to understand flamenco? The way [...]
This weekend I went to SIMOF ( Salon Internacional de Moda Flamenca). These aren't flamenco dresses that flamenco dancers wear, but rather the dresses that Sevillan women wear the week of the Spring Feria. At SIMOF, the designers showcase their [...]
