On this Throwback Thursday, I’d like to to take you back to my first solo, which was solea por bulerias. (I wrote about it here four years ago). When I performed it, I was about a year-and-a-half into my flamenco training. I cringe when I watch the following rehearsal video. I cringe when I watch any video of myself dancing, but the early clips are especially painful.
But they shouldn’t be. Because if you’re a dancer, you know a year or so of training isn’t much in flamenco years, and it takes much longer than that to feel comfortable in a palo (or your own skin, for that matter) to dance alone in front of an audience. Not to mention technique, which takes for-EVER to refine. Anyway, today I’ll take pride in my early achievement and share this video from 2010 with you.
Reminiscing is fun, but I have other motivations here. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be revisiting and re-working this piece. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now. The goal is to increase the difficulty a little, but more importantly, for me, to perform it with a greater level of confidence, technique and artistry. In other words, to perform it as a flamenca of nearly six years.
Here’s where I started. In a few months I hope to show you an updated version.
Married to the Dance 
I enjoyed watching you dance. I think you’re really good but i will be looking forward to the updated version to see what you’ve changed. bravo.
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You’re very kind — thank you! 🙂
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Hi Marissa, thank you for sharing your video. I thought you were great! It takes a lot of courage and strength to dance flamenco – Ole!
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Hi Renae,
Thanks for the nice comment and encouragement. While it’s a bit embarrassing to share my less-than-great flamenco moments, I’m happy to share them with other students to let them know that we all start out a little wobbly. It’s part of the journey, right? 🙂
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I think it looks and sounds really, really good. Especially considering you’ve only been dancing for 1.5 years at that point. Yikes!
Would really love to get to se an updated version thought. Especially since I’m just starting working on a Soleá por Bulerías myself right now. 🙂
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Thanks, Tina!! Yeah, I guess it wasn’t too bad for a newbie. I just met with my teacher yesterday to show her the new version I’m working on — I will post updated video soon, at least a piece of it 🙂
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Can’t wait to see some snippets of it! 🙂
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