Ballet Dancers Get Their Krump On: Teaching flamenco in a youth summer dance program!

I love summers! They offer me the opportunity to go into suburban dance schools and ply my flamenco dance trade. Most of these students are being introduced to flamenco for the very first time and have spent anywhere from 3-5-10 years studying ballet. There in lies the challenge. Do I just come in and teach them a piece of choreography, which I know they can memorize, but will have no flamenco integrity, or do I lay it all down on the line and teach them: the flamenco body, braceo (the arms), floreo (the hands), tacaneo (the feet), rhythm (compás), the heart (duende)....well of course that is the path I choose and so begins a new summer delving into concept of teaching the soul of flamenco in about 6 hours to kids ages 8-18!

Just coming hot off teaching gigs at Southshore Ballet Theatre directed by Mathavan McKeon in Hanover, MA, and Sereda DanceWorks directed by Carol Schneider-Sereda in Natick, MA, I started my 9th summer at Northeast School of Ballet directed by Denise Cecere (formerly directed by her mother Sandra McNaught) in Melrose, MA. This summer we are housed on the beautiful memorial Hall in Melrose center and I have a gorgeous, vaulted ceiling room full of light and great student energy!

I feel the progression of myself as a teacher. Every time I approach a teaching job, I feel the tweeking and refining of myself as a teacher. I am so proud to be able to reach so many youth (my dear friend Pam Raff imbued in me the use of the word "youth" rather than children or kids when speaking about working with the young and it has stuck with me 20 years later). 20 years of teaching youth and every day I feel like it is a new beginning. It makes me feel young and creative and flexible. I love it!

I am starting each class with the students lying on the floor, just feeling their breath. One hand on the chest, one hand on the belly. I talk about chest breathing and then gently guide them into focusing their breath into their bellies, calming them, opening the up to their intelligence and energizing them. I then lead them through a simple circular breathing exercise where I have them imagine their inhale entering through the sole of their left foot, up the left side of the body, to the left side of the head and then on the exhale, down the right side of the head, the right side of the body and out the sole of the right foot. The I lead the the opposite way starting with the right foot, back and forth  a few time and end coming out the left sole. Curling up on their right sides for a moment, allowing freedom of breath in the right nostril (The left nostril connects to right side of the brain, which induces relaxation while the right nostril is connected to the left side of the brain; the more energizing side),  I have them sit up for a right brain/left brain game called The Nose Knows (slap legs two times, clap two times, grab nose with right hand reach across with left and hold right ear; slap legs two times, clap two times, grab the nose with the left hand and reach across with the right hold the left ear. Repeat trying to get faster and faster-a great brain balancing game). At the end of the game I explain about the two sides of the brain, how the left side is the mathematical, analytical side and the right side is rhythmic and creative and how as a dancer, one needs a balance of the two to learn choreography, learn technique and also understand the depth of the movement within the rhythmic landscape.

The advanced class is learning Bulerías and the intermediate class is learning Garrotín. I am looking forward to next week!

¡Olé!

What do I know from Bulerias...I mean it! Oy vey! What do I know!

Let me kvetch! The ominous Bulerías has been on my mind lately. Why is it such an illusive dance for me? I get the rhythm, I get it...but damn there is something so stifling about letting myself let go and just dancing. I feel stiff and awkward and so not "me"...but I love the lime light...the center of the circle...the attention of the moment. So I will journey into myself and find my Bulería-self!

My journey begins...

Bulerías is a flamenco style which stems from the soleá family. It shares the same rhythmical structure, the difference being, in general terms, a more up-tempo performance. The bulería has many variations in terms of both melody and meter and is normally accompanied by hand claps (palmas) on the off beats and a turn by the dancer (bailaor). Jerez de la Frontera is the true home of the bulería. As for the dance, the bulería has made the break away from private family gatherings to make a name for itself on the stage - as a coda to the soleá, as a climatic closing number, or frequently as an encore. This is a palo where the whole company joins in, gathering round to form a 'corrillo' as they egg on not only the bailaores, but also the tentative footwork (or tomfoolery) of the musicians.

The compás pattern is: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
For the palmas, you can follow the above pattern, but the music dictates the rhythm you should be clapping, so you need to listen tot he music and decide if it is 12's, 6's or 3's...
So, for palmas:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 
1(+) 2 3 4 (+) 5 6 7 (+) 8 9 10 (+) 11 12 
1(+) 2 (+) 3 (+) 4 (+) 5 (+) 6 7 (+) 8 (+) 9 (+) 10 (+) 11 (+) 12

A very good site, with an explanation of the nuances of the palmas for this palo is compas-flamenco/palos.

When dancing Bulería in fiesta form (this is also referred to as Bulerías de Jerez) everyone only offers up a "Patada de Bulería"-a morsel-and this is the "magic structure":

Entrada (can sit and clap until you decide to dance; can mark time with just instruments playing; can mark time with singer. If you mark time while it is just instrumental, you will need to do a desplante to mark the end of your dance)
Letra (Mark time during letra; Llamada at end of singing; can dance now and do as many desplantes that you want, but once you end your desplante on 10, you have indicated that you are done dancing. If you do not go to the corenrner another letra will be sung)
Desplante (final call, bring yourself to corner to note that you are ready for the colatilla)
Salida (exiting marking and desplantes and final ending on 7 8 9 10)

Burlar: to deceive (but with a fun flair)

To dance Bulerias is to let it all hang out and to really get into the groove of flamenco. It is so guttural, like rap music...so heavy with a bass beat that it sends you into a flurry of movement and expression and feeling. You take the middle of the circle and you lay out what you got. The head spins, the 360's, the calls and rhythm. They walk hand in hand.

Teaching a Bulerias lesson today had me thinking about all that I know about Bulerias as a dance, a rhythm, a feeling.

We can break the rhythm down into 4 Palmas rhythms (and a million can be made form these basics):
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

What I realized is that a great analogy for the sound that your hands should make when clapping would be likening the two hands to be like a drum and a drum stick. The drum hand has to have a certain cupped shape (think of the skin stretched across a drum and make your hand be a good strong drum skin. Not rigid not loose. You need to work at it to find your sweet spots.to make sure that the drum stick hand makes the best sound when it strikes. I thoroughly believe that the sound that is needed for flamenco is not a sound that ends when the two hands meet, but instead is made when the two hands separate, giving more resonance to the clap and then you can play with the spaces between the claps. The quieter tones cause the hands to be closer together, causing the bellows created between the hands to have a a short puff of air, but for the stronger accents, the hands separate farther and when coming together more air is pressed between the hands causing a hiccup in time and a clap with more accent is then created. This hiccup I liken to the motor of a Harley Davidson which has a patent for the sound it makes. In a Harley's engine, the two cylinders sit at a 45 degree angle with a single pin crankshaft and that gives you the "put" "put" "pause" sound like "potato" "potato" (or "patata" "patata" in Spanish)**


**For those of you who really want to understand this, I have a fully description of the Harley engine below.



**"The classic Harley-Davidson engines are two-cylinder, V-twin engines with the pistons mounted in a 45° "V". The crankshaft has a single pin, and both pistons are connected to this pin through their connecting rods.^[6] The design causes the cylinders to fire at uneven intervals. This is an engineering trade off to create a large, high-torque engine in a small space. This design choice is entirely vestigial from an engineering standpoint, but has been sustained because of the strong connection between the distinctive sound and the Harley-Davidson brand. This design, which is covered under several United States patents, gives the Harley-Davidson V-twin its unique choppy "potato-potato" sound. To simplify the engine and reduce costs, the V-twin ignition was designed to operate with a single set of points and no distributor. This is known as a dual fire ignition system, causing both spark plugs to fire regardless of which cylinder was on its compression stroke, with the other spark plug firing on its cylinder's exhaust stroke, effectively "wasting a spark". The exhaust note is basically a throaty growling sound with some popping. The 45° design of the engine thus creates a plug firing sequencing as such: The first cylinder fires, the second (rear) cylinder fires 315° later, then there is a 405° gap until the first cylinder fires again, giving the engine its unique sound.^[75]