Student spring concert is just few weeks away.
Flamenco
students are getting ready for the upcoming spring concert, set for
June 4. The show, now named Fronteras, will showcase dancers
and musicians who've spent months honing Spanish sounds and movements.
In preparation for the show, dance student Ruth Petit says, "It hit
me two weeks ago that I need to spend time practicing the routine along
with the footwork (not just the footwork!) or it will never click. So,
I'm taking notes & recording in class and practicing a couple of times
a week at the gym."
Show sponsor jaleolé.com is happy to announce that tickets are now
on sale for Fronteras. Details on tickets, plus a call for visual
arts entries and volunteers are as follow:
TICKETS
--Limited seating
--Cash only
--Prices:
>Reserved seating for first 4 rows only:
$20
>General admission seating: $15 adults
& $10 children
*Please, no saved seats among general
admission seating.
--Purchase tickets from:
>Your flamenco teacher
>At the door before the show, beginning
at 6:30 p.m. on June 4
VOLUNTEERS
jaleolé.com needs your help! Volunteers are needed for stage crew, ushers,
ticket collectors and food servers. Your role as volunteer will be crucial
for the success of the performance, and it will earn you free admission
to the show. Contact the jaleole.com staff at jaleole@jaleole.com by
May 20 to become part of the Fronteras production team.
VISUAL ARTS
Flamenco is a robust art form through which people interpret life. For
many, that interpretation takes place on a canvas, rather than guitar
strings or dancing shoes. jaleole.com wishes to include these artists
in Fronteras. Visual artists are invited to display their flamenco-related
work in the lobby of the International School, for viewing before the
show and during the reception following the show. Exhibit space is limited,
so please contact the jaleolé.com staff at jaleole@jaleole.com by May
20 if you wish to participate in the exhibition.
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An Interview with Martha SidAhmed, Part I of III
By Rebecca Money Johnson
This past weekend I had the good fortune to fulfill a long-desired
item on my "some-day-I'd-like-to-just" list, when I had the opportunity
to sit for a couple of hours and talk with Martha SidAhmed, my dance
teacher, about flamenco. There has been the occasional biographical
question flung at her on the way in and out of class, but very little
to fully form the dancer and teacher I have known for over four years.
So, in asking her about her most recent project with the Perla Flamenca
Dance Company, I began to understand some of her thoughts on the evolution
of the dance, and what inspired her to begin the worthwhile and abundant
journey we all know as flamenco.
This
May, Perla Flamenca Dance Company, under the direction of SidAhmed,
will stage a live performance as part of a Cinco de Mayo assembly for
Decatur elementary school students who are studying Spanish. It will
be the group's first fully live performance since Perla Flamenca was
founded in 2001.
Central to the performance is singing, which dancers will tackle along
with their body movements, to educate children about the history of
flamenco, the connection between the art and bullfighting, the feria,
the guitar, and much more. Guitarist Esteban Anastasio and percussionist
Jerry Fields will accompany the dancers/singers. Fields is set to get
the kids grooving in the show finale, a rumba.
The upbeat rhythm of the rumba is paradoxically coupled with lyrics
describing the green pallor of a dead gypsy girl.
Martha: I discovered that the song, says "Verde, te quiero verde,"
and it is based on Lorca's poem "Romance Sonambulo" which is so grim.
The girl's dead and that's why she's green, and its this happy little
rumba.
Rebecca: It's a rumba?
M: Yeah.
R: I was going to ask you, if it was a siguiriyas or something.
M: No, no, it's really odd that Manzanita picked this really grim
poem set to such a happy piece of music and I wondered if it was that
contrast that he was going for... kind of fun with pretty grim subject
matter.
R: Like a way of dealing with it (death)
M: Yeah.
R: Laughing maybe helps us deal with it.
M: Well if you can look at death as part of life.
R: So what made you decide to use the song ("Romance Sonambulo")
M: I heard it on a tape which is a compilation of songs based on Lorca's
poems and performed by various artists, and it's the very last song
in the movie Flamenco. And that's Manzanita singing it. He Just
died, at age 45, of a heart attack. Huge loss, he was such a creative
force, a wonderful guitarist, singer and creator. It was so sad. But
I just picked it because I thought it would be a fun piece to finish
it (the Perla performance)... When I later read what the song was about,
and mentioned it to the coordinator (from Decatur Schools), he just
said "we'll just tell them (the children) its about the color green!
'You like green?'"
Marta on Cante and the Dance
R: Well, on that note, I feel like it's a good time to talk about
the value of the cante and just how central the cante is and how flamenco
began with the cante. I actually think there are a lot of people who
don't even really know that. The progression from beginning with the
cante then adding the guitar, etc.
M: I don't know. Dance might have come earlier. I just think of that
lifestyle, that life of persecution that was the early, early development
of flamenco, and the thing you can carry everywhere with you is your
voice - and your body. You might not be able to afford a guitar or even
find one, but you've always got your voice, and you always have your
body. So I think, maybe, those were in place. Maybe not together, but
before guitar. And then, the guitar is a very portable instrument. And,
stringed instruments were very prominent in Middle Eastern music, still
are... So, it was very easy to carry around. Eeasier than a piano !
(she laughs)
So I think when you respond to something, your voice is the first
thing you use whether its in joy, laughing, or in crying or something.
So the song is a very natural thing to come first, I think in any expression.
And it keeps you company-you know in those days when they would think
of cantes for every different thing. If they were out working in the
fields, there was something they could sing there and they could sing
it to the rhythm of whatever was around-if it was a horse clip-clopping
around a grist mill, or something like that, or you're working in the
forge as a blacksmith, which is a very-and still is -a very gypsy trade
and craft-that you would use the sound of whatever accompanied you at
work to accompany your in your song.
That connection with sound and song that -- I don't know what that
is - but parts of our brain click in there. You don't have to think
(when you sing) - we'll often stop and think of just the right way to
phrase something or the right word to choose, but if you're singing,
you don't think, "Okay, what's the next note I go to?" Of course you
are singing something you've heard. And, the rhythm more than anything
(is key in flamenco). It is the natural force in anything in the universe.
I mean, rhythm pulls the tides in the ocean and sets the rising and
the setting of the sun. Rhythm is in everything. I think it's just all
around us and we may not be mentally aware of it, but we certainly react
to it.
Marta's Flamenco Beginnings
R: When did you start taking flamenco? I know you told me you were
13, and that it was a movie that it inspired you, and your first teacher
was a man, that's what I remember. Do you remember what the movie was?
M:
Oh, yes, it was Around the World in 80 Days I didn't remember
anything after they got to Spain! I was away at summer camp, and I just
couldn't wait to get home and find somebody who could show me, just
get me involved in that whole feeling. I've heard other people of my
age, my generation, that got their connection that way too (the movie),
but it was Jose Greco, who was a wonderful dancer at the time... You
know I just wonder if I hadn't seen that movie, what would have bought
me to this; because I feel sooner or later something would have, that
it was just waiting there and it was that hook or another hook that
would have pulled me in.
R: When you got back, did you find someone?
M: I told my Mom, and I got busy at school, but then as a surprise
for my birthday in January, my parents took me to see Jose Greco's company
in Boston and I was just beside myself. I was just totally beside myself.
And in the program, I remember there was an add for a local teacher
(There were only two), and so I started right away going to his classes.
He was an instructor in the ballet, and picked up Spanish dancing,
I think, as a lark. We always had a pianist to play for the class. It
would be what they called the Old School dances.
R: More like Spanish Folk dances?
M:
These very old dances, they were very good, really: Ole de la Curra,
El Vito, Panaderos. These were just some of the many Old School dances
taught in the academies to drill basic patterns of movement. Panaderos,
for example, is the more classical form of pasada found in sevillanas.
Ole de la Curra used a lot of "paso de vasco" (middle part of the second
sevillanas copla), and a step called "cachucha" (like the "rond de jambe"
in ballet). We also learned basic patterns for castanets which accompanied
all these dances.
Then we sort of had flamenco, but now looking back on it, it was really
funny, it really was. He taught me a Bulería, as a solo. I did it to
no music at all and it was just funny, but I thought it was real flamenco
at the time. So, I was with him for a couple of years, and then a friend
of mine said "you need to come over to the other side" which was (to
go to) Juanita Cansino, who came from and had married into the huge
Cansino family of Spanish dancers.
This is Part One in a series of three on the history and thoughts
of Martha SidAhmed -- a history which is yours, as well, if you have
had the privilege of being her student or working with her. Next month,
we will talk about Martha's beginning years in Boston and her richly
rewarding Summer in Spain with Don Pohren.
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Local dancer Karina Martinez speaks of the importance of hands and
arms in flamenco, and the strength that these delicate things bring
to the art.
Flamenco
is derived from a mixture of cultures and feelings. Flamenco letras
(verses) may be happy, sad, morbid and sometimes foolish. Through calo
(gypsy dialect), the gypsies either expressed or hidden messages. However,
the guitar always confessed the feeling of each palo. The dancer must
embrace that mystery called flamenco.
As I became more and more involved in flamenco, I heard comments from
people of different cultures talking about a single dancer or flamenco
moment on stage that made them cry.
There cannot be flamenco if there is no expression.
In classical ballet, I used to take "expression" classes. In these
classes, we had to use our bodies to express a range of emotions, from
a simple stone to a vivid moment of happiness by a human being.
This meant that we had to be able not to die on stage, but always
to be alive... even if we were imitating a simple stone.
If this was established for classical ballet, then why shouldn't it
be more important in an art that is drived from feelings?
For me, flamenco arrived in my life at a time when almost all of us
face contradictions - when I was a teenager. I still remember a weekend
when my family and I spent a day in the countryside. One night after
a tienta (bullfight of female bulls) my dearest uncle Pavon was playing
a soleá. My cousins and I were outside watching the bulls walk through
the hills. As I listened to that soleá, it seemed that the bulls were
walking in compas.
On my way back to the city, I cried. I thought about that soleá and
remembered seeing one of those bulls stop on the top of the hill. It
seemed as though he was trying to kiss the bright stars in the dark
sky, wishing not to be there, but certainly ready to fight and die.
Earlier this year, while visiting Mexico, I was able to make a trip
back to that past memory. Sixteen years ago I was knocking on that same
black door trying to see if flamenco would help me to find myself. In
a world of traditions and contradictions, my heart was full.
My first flamenco teacher, Olinka appeared in my life giving me the
elements and encouragement to explore my feelings trough flamenco. My
first lesson GARBO, which is attitude and grace. Then came BRACEO, which
is arm work. It was like magic! I couldn't believe that with those two
elements, I looked and felt so flamenca. There, I learned many other
flamenco skills and techniques.
Later, my dearest teacher, the late Roxanan Nadal, taught me something
very important. The daughter of Spanish immigrants, she taught me that
flamenco is the perfect medium to express happiness, sadness, anger
and even political views. I never knew that flamenco was so involved
in the reality of this world. Every class, we practiced upper body movements
and floreo (handwork) for at least 30 minutes. If we didn't make the
proper upper body movements and floreo, she prohibited us from dancing
sevillanas. She was definitely a perfectionist and a "flamenco shaper".
As a flamenco dancer, you must be able to express what the music's
letras are telling you; but more importantly, what you want to portray
to the audience with your dance.
The upper body movements includes torso, shoulders, head, arms, hands
and fingers. As with footwork, these movements are developed through
technique and should always be included in your practice.
If you only focus on fotwork, you are not yet dancing flamenco. Likewise,
you cannot practice only upper body. You will need footwork to distinguished
it from classical or modern ballet. It is the delicate balance of footwork
and upper body movements together that form the fundamentals of flamenco
dance.
In viewing flamenco performances, you can sense the importance of
attitude and upper body movements. It is the partner of footwork and
what establishes an immediate connection between the dancer and the
audience. I believe that is the way to carry the feeling and communicate
with them. It is the tool we have to make the audience happy, or to
make them cry.
I like to say that flamenco is like a human being, formed by mind
and spirit. The mind is represented by footwork, and should be clear
and precise like our ideas and reason. Spirit is represented by the
upper body, kind and strong.
In Spain, upper body movements are an ideal that is highly kept by
the Escuela Sevillana. Matilde Coral, one of the school's main defenders,
emphasizes expressing attitude with the upper body. She insists that
floreo should be done like the doves flight. This means to be soft,
light and graceful.
As we know, in flamenco there are different trends and opinions. You
may see some flamenco dancers that do not pay special attention to floreo.
However, when you see Maria Pages or Eva Yerbabuena dancing, the feeling
is quite different and profound. Eva is known as a teacher who asks
you to keep a continuous movement in your whole body from toes to fingers.
According to her, every muscle must keep the energy flow of the music
and feelings.
So, it is completely up to you. What do you want to express? How profound
are your feelings for flamenco? Are you daring enough to allow your
self to be well expressed in flamenco?
Karina Martinez is a member of Perla Flamenca Dance Company. She
will teach a cursillo on upper body and floreo technique in May. For
more information, visit jaleolé.com's events
page.
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May blossoms with flamenco dance classes.
Been waiting for some new flamenco classes to begin? The next four
weeks may be the answer to your needs. New courses on footwork, upper
body technique and sevillanas are set to begin in May. They bring one
new face to our local teaching circle and the return of an old favorite.
Don't miss your chance to join these spring classes that can get you
started dancing, polish your technique in time for the student spring
concert, or prepare you for this summer's classes with returning Seville-trained
dancer Barbara Breton.
MAY CLASSES
Flamenco
technique & sevillanas - John Jaramillo
Palos
Flamencos - Gloriela Rosas
Upper body and floreo cursillo (arms and hands) - Karina Martinez
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Local guitarist gives a guitar workshop.
The words "flamenco workshop" usually conjure up images of a dance
studio packed with sweaty women assembled to learn steps from a Spaniard
who has carved out time to spend in Atlanta.
Now here's a new mental picture for those words: Several men crammed
into a guitar studio, strumming and clapping to lessons taught by a
Polish man living in Atlanta.
That
was the scene at Dreamcatcher Guitars in April. Locally renowned flamenco
guitarist Witold Tulodziecki hosted a one-day flamenco guitar workshop
where students from as far away as Savannah picked up some new knowledge
about strumming Spanish style. Tulodziecki used his original instructional
booklet and CD to teach students about flamenco guitar technique, as
well as the importance of palmas and accenting the compas at just the
right moment. The one-day learning session brought some familiar faces,
as well as students who are brand new to flamenco.
Tulodziecki
says more workshops are likely in the future. "The seminar approach
works very well with the guitar students in group or in private sessions,"
he says. "The learning needs to be in process and repetitive," he adds.
A flamenco concert followed April's workshop, featuring Tulodziecki,
percussionist Jerry Fields and dancer Julie Baggenstoss. The sold out
show wasn't just for entertainment, according to Tulodziecki. "I arranged
the first half to be more traditional and second half to be more modern
to cover the wide spectrum of flamenco. As it was a part of the workshop,
I explained each (performance) piece in detail (during the show)."
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© jaleolé.com 2005
