Les Deux Papillons

When I lived in France, I became very close to a girl who had Spanish in her blood. We lived on the same floor of the Pavillon Italien at the Village Olympique (the dormitories that were built in 1968 for the winter Olympics in Grenoble, France). My friend, Frederique Garcia-Mesny, and I used to go out dancing together. We often went to Scotch-Club (14 kilometers outside of Grenoble with 3 pistes de dance, a swimming pool,squash courts). The drink of choice (we all got two free drink "bons" with our entry fee) was Malibu Rum and Coke.

But what we came to do there was dance! The club opened at 11PM and did not close until 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. So my friend Freddy and I would dance and as she danced she told me a story, with her hands, of two butterflies. These butterflies, created by rolling her wrists, would flutter up and down, intertwine, dart back and forth, fight with each other and make love.

I see now that these butterflies represent "floreo" ,the art of the hands in flamenco. I see now, my first introduction to the art of flamenco...on a dance floor in France 25 years ago! Thank you Freddy. Je t'aime tojours!

Check out my friend's site: http://fgarciamesny.free.fr/

Ole! Namaste!

Flamenco Hands: Floreo

While teaching yesterday, I came to realize that the hands move with the natural timing of breath. By this I mean that you breath in, when your inhale is complete, there is a natural moment before you being your exhale. As in reverse, when you exhale, there is a natural moment at the end of the exhale before you begin you next inhale. I see this in relation to the timing of the hands as accents in flamenco dancing.

The motion of the hand is palm, fingers, wrist, palm, fingers: The palm pulls toward the wrist, then the fingers curl towards the wrist, then the wrist curls, then the palm beings to open and the fingers follow. The accent moment is the first "in" motion and then the hands begins its curl in timing with the music until the next accent. The hand needs to fully extend before it beings its journey back, therefore having a natural moment at the end of the full curl before it beings its next curl.

An adage I like to use is "You have to come all the way in before you can go out and you have to go all the way out before you come in" Meaning you have to fully go out before you can actually go in or it is never really in or out (in tap dance I say "You have to get off it to get on it and you have to get on it to get off it...meaning you can't really get on if you were never off and visa versa)