Rehearsing for tour last week, I was really wishing dance could be learned by osmosis, you see the step and suddenly you know it–if only it were that easy! Dance is work. It requires conscientious repetition until the movements are embedded in muscle memory, and even then it takes a great deal of awareness and mind-body control.
Dancing in a company is possibly the hardest thing I have ever done. Flamenco is traditionally a solo art form, and being a soloist gives you the chance to be in control and to choose your movements and also improvise. In a company, you have to interpret the movements that are given to you by someone else. Often, the steps are just quickly marked through by the choreographer, often they feel awkward, and then you have to find a way to make them natural and organic in your own body without stepping outside the choreographer’s vision. Not easy.
And being the new kid isn’t easy either…it’s hard to be playing catch up and learning the pieces when everyone else already know them. It’s a lot of fun and a big learning curve, and feels like there’s never enough rehearsal time.
And then try doing that with a bata de cola and castanets….wepa!
We arrived in L.A. yesterday and rehearse in the theater today. I’ll be updating this blog as much as possible on tour, so keep checking back!
In the red bata de cola…my hips were so sore from it after spending a morning doing all of Yolanda Heredia’s bata exercises I could barely walk up a flight of stairs the next day…
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