Yesterday I proudly wrote about my noticeable progress in the advanced class. Then today, what do I do? Go to class and trip over my feet. Of course.
I guess that’s what I get for blowing off chorale practice to take flamenco. But to be fair, I did have to make up for the dance class I’m going to miss Saturday when I’m in an eight-hour (yes, EIGHT) chorale rehearsal. Plus, I did need a bulerias refresher and I wanted to try farrucas (which is awesome!). Also, I was feeling a little fat-assy from all the donuts and greasy crap I ate last week, so getting in an extra session of dance seemed absolutely necessary to help de-puff my bod.
So yeah, I’m glad I went, but I did feel a little guilty knowing I should have been hanging with my fellow soprano songstresses and running through some Gershwin.
Anyways. Being back in the bulerias class felt good. I needed to be reminded that I still need to work on it and to not be so afraid of it. Well… it’s not that I’m afraid of it… it’s more like, I just need to be able to listen to the music, feel it, and just go with it. I think about it entirely too much and then I make myself screw up. And then I say, “Sh*t!”
The second hour was farrucas, which I’ve never done and never even heard. I LOVED it. So strong and powerful. I tried to keep up with the choreography they had been working for a few weeks and I think I did ok under the circumstances. But it’s a whole different way of dancing compared with the palos I’m used to. I enjoyed that challenge. This could end up being one of my favorites.
At the end of the class, teacher had Homegirl and me do the footwork from our solos and we both went kinda brain dead. We were like, “Wait …wha?? How do you do a build-up again?” Homegirl did much better than I did, though. I just couldn’t get it together at all. I could NOT connect my brain with my feet and I didn’t know why. Was I tired? Was I having trouble shifting from farruca to my solea por buleria? Did I exceed my brain capacity for the day? What the hell?! I was so disappointed in myself.
But as I’ve said before, little setbacks are good sometimes because they keep you from getting too confident; they kick you in the pants and make you work harder. This is was my take-away tonight.
Flamenco is hard, damn it. There’s so much to learn. So many rhythms, skills, styles, cues, etc. that one has to master. You learn something, do ok at it, move on to something else, do ok at that, then go back to the first thing you learned and realize you can’t do it anymore. It’s so frustrating. But I so love it.
Married to the Dance 