PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 2009

OCTOBER 2009 articles | Social | Environmental | Sevilla Memories |

Flamenco social co-chair explains the friendly wave in Atlanta's flamenco scene. By Andrea Herskowitz

Above, scenes from previous flamenco socials, held monthly at different locations around Atlanta. Get details on the November flamenco social, set for November 7 at Vino Libro, in the jaleole.com calendar of events >>

The Atlanta flamenco scene is brimming with spice, bubbling and growing in its diverse flavors throughout the whole city. Wherever you are in the Atlanta area, there is bound to be a social near you. These "flamenco socials" happen every month, and are open to any Atlantans who simply want to get their flamenco groove on. They're fun, colorful, sometimes educational, sometimes loud, and never the same. So far, we've had socials ranging from a flamenco clothing swap-turned ebullient party, to a delicious tapas restaurant quickly transformed into a musical fiesta, to a communal spaghetti dinner welcoming flamenco guests to our city and homes. Atlanta is a big metropolis spread about with diverse culture, and what better way to bring it all together than the all-encompassing art of flamenco? Beats me.

In Andalucía, southern Spain, the spirit of flamenco grew into a contemporary art form from what was originally a gypsy, social. These socials were and are at the heart of what we know as "flamenco" today. Friends and family would get together and animate love stories and tragic tales with song and dance. With no formality or structure involved, the magical air of friends, family, and a common reveling in music cemented those precious memories into a legacy of art. While we honor the performance aspects of flamenco, it's always nice to connect with the roots and enjoy the informal nature of song and dance.

The beautiful thing about these socials is that there isn't a wrong way to participate in them. Some people show up with no previous flamenco experience or knowledge at all. They just want to see what the hype is about, and you can't blame them. It's not everywhere in America where you can find a group of people playing gypsy ballads and improvising a dance in flip-flops. Even though the socials are open-ended in the realm of events, music will almost always accompany them. Musicians will get their fix playing in a non-performance setting, letting the creative waves flow while enjoying the art of cooperative music making. And of course, everyone lending "palmas" or clapping hands to the music is always a must with any social. It's a perfect way to get involved without too much commitment.

So, how did these festivities begin? Only a few years ago, as the burgeoning flamenco community grew, people held monthly sevillanas and other flamenco parties. Flamenco folks would hang out in the host's house, dancing and reveling in the fiesta-ness of flamenco, practicing pasos of the dance, and well, the rest is history. Nowadays, we're thinking of all kinds of ways to ignite the flamenco socials. In the upcoming months, there's some good stuff cookin'. The November social will warm up the cool autumn weather in East Atlanta's Vino Libro with wine, jaleos (cheers), tapas dishes, and a small intimate space for flamenco dancers and musicians to perform. In the following months, the agenda opens up to a wide variety of activities. We are expanding the horizons in the world of socials, bringing flamenco into all sorts of arenas.

With all this being said, reader, the platform is wide open for ideas from anybody who wants to get in on the action. We encourage involvement from everyone, regardless of your experience or knowledge. What makes the flamenco socials so much fun is the diversity of participants. Come to our next social and see for yourself-the smiles, the new connections, watching a young boy stir up jaleos from the crowd. It's too fun to miss.

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DIY project yields environmentally friendly flamenco flowers. By Julie Baggenstoss

Carolina Blatt-Gross dons a hand-made flower worthy of a green award during a summer performance. See directions on how to make your own flower at www.marthastewart.com.

Coffee filter flowers put flamencos in the green movement that has the country recycling, re-using and looking for things biodegradable. During a summer performance, Carolina Blatt-Gross donned a striking flower that brought attention to our ability to act environmentally responsibly, while putting creativity to another use in the land of flamenco.

Carolina's pink and white creation is hand-made from a material - coffee filters - that will sink easily back into the earth when no longer needed.

"There were two factors behind my decision to make flowers rather than buy them. The first was definitely ecological. I try to avoid mass-produced products whenever possible, because they usually put more waste into the environment than hand-made ones," she said.

Carolina added, "Secondly, as an arts educator, I spend most of my professional time teaching people how important the arts are to our lives. Yet, because I am also a doctoral student I spend nearly all of my personal time reading and writing. As a result, I will leap at any chance to craft something with my hands, especially when I can transform simple materials into something beautiful."

Carolina may be a pro when it comes to arts, but she still found this flower project challenging. "Wrapping the tape around the petals was the most challenging part. For one flower, I tried painting the petals before assembling the flower because I thought it would be easier, which it was, but it made construction much more difficult.

Much like the dance she performed this summer, Carolina's special accessory took time, dedication and a little extra effort to pass a hurdle. In the end, her passion for arts and the environment proved strong enough to drive her to her goal.

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Atlanta flamenca shares her travel memoir of Sevilla, España By Erica Poole

This is the second of a series of reports on Erica Poole's recent trip to Spain. Read her previous report in the jaleole.com archive.

Chapter 4: Sevillanas en el Salón

On my first evening of this two-week trip, Kirsten and I briefly sat in Mamá Reyes' living room when suddenly a group on television began to sing sevillanas. Mamá Reyes pulled back the table, and she and I began to dance them in her living room while Coco, the talking parrot, gave jaleos and clicked palmas with his beak! Very quickly she exclaimed, "Despacito!" I've witnessed that when Sevillanos dance their sevillanas, they leave a lot of "breathing room" in between pasadas, no matter the copla. Many take their pasos slowly and easily, as she was insisting that I do. Hmm, do you wonder if I got to dance sevillanas again…maybe this time more slowly? Read on!

Chapter 5: A Lo Divino

After my first day of class on Monday morning, Kirsten and I latched onto our classmate, Troy. It was his first visit to Sevilla as well, but he had an uncanny ability to navigate himself around town easily. He was more than happy to help us find our way back home, but he needed to make a stop into an Internet café called "Internetia" on Calle Menendez y Pelayo. That was more than fine with us, as we appreciated his help. We walked in and who called my name? One of my flamenco teachers, Rina Menosky! Although I knew that Rina was already in Sevilla, I had not had an opportunity to contact her yet, tell her where I was, nor fill her in on my concrete schedule so that we could plan a time to meet. Divinely, she was already in the same place at the same time, and thanks to Troy, we found each other at the very beginning of my trip (when I would have needed to see her the most).

Later that evening, Rina filled me in on all the local flamenco happenings by providing me advice in addition to the free brochures, Flama and El Giraldillo. These are two must have monthly publications, found in most bars, that will help anyone venture into flamenco territory!

Chapter 6: ¿Te quiero un huevo?

As Kirsten and I went souvenir shopping, we encountered lots of t-shirts with the phrase "Te quiero un huevo," which literally equates to, "I love you as much as an egg." I could have extended that phrase to read, "I love you as much as a potato, bread, and pork," because the Spanish diet thrives on these staples! I had a hard time adjusting to the starchiness of these foods on a daily basis, but I found solace in some dishes, such as spinach croquettes, mushroom and Mediterranean vegetable quiches, and grilled chicken breast sprinkled with raisins and pine nuts in a sweet wine sauce.

After morning classes, held from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Centro Mundo Lengua had many afternoon and evening activities planned for us, which included going out for tapas. On some occasions, we had pre-arranged for a bar to close to the public just to accommodate feeding us traditional foods such as salty green olives, manchego cheese with jamón serrano drizzled in olive oil, tortilla española, salmorejo, and seafood and chicken paellas. We exploried historical landmarks where our admission fees were paid, such as El Real Alcázar, Hospital de la Caridad, La Plaza de Toros, Museo de Bellas Artes, Museo del Baile Flamenco, la Catedral y Giralda just to name a few.

In one such excursion, "tapeamos" in a restaurant called Taberna de los Coloniales, we had the nicest waitress I had experienced in Sevilla (remember that tipping is not expected, as it is built into the price of the meal). A fellow teacher in our group, a cubana named Ibis, loved to elicit songs out of anyone that wished to join her, including our waitress at the Taberna. After about 6 of their duets of famous Latin songs, Rosana (another teacher, but an española) began to sing the first verse of "Sevillanas Para Conquistar", which starts "Mírala cara a cara que es la primera"…the one sevillana that I know in its entirety! Why did Rosana choose to sing that one and not "Sevillana Del Adiós" instead? Divine, I tell you!

So Rosana started me off, and the waitress and I sang the entire first copla while our tour guide Antonio played palmas for us! What I initially learned to sing for Rina Menosky for performances at Cuerno Restaurant in Atlanta, helped me months down the road at an unlikely juncture. Truly unforgettable!

Visit jaleole.com again and see the next chapter of Erica's memoir: "Tablao."

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