Can I just give everybody a very warm welcome to my flamenco blog. This is an area for information, discussion and debate with respect to the art of flamenco in all its forms.

I am a professional flamenco dancer currently resident in London UK, but would welcome views from all over the world on how flamenco is practiced and evolving in your own country.

Navigation should be fairly intuitive, and you can use the search or the tags in the sidebar. There are resources and downloads pages, which contain interesting (and hopefully useful) information for flamenco aficianados.

Whatever your level of experience or involvement, please enjoy your time here and feel free to share your experiences and views of this fascinating and passionate art form!

Sandra La Espuelita

Technorati Tags: flamenco, flamenco London, flamenco UK, flamenco dance, flamenco dancers, flamenco dancing

Over the past month or so there have suddenly been a large number of articles posted on the web which make a a variety of claims about a dancer called Betty Cid, and that appear to be using content taken directly from my own website.

I must stress that Betty Cid is NOT part of Flamenco Pasión or Sonido Flamenco, and has never been a member of any of my flamenco groups.

Interestingly, according to these various “articles” and “announcements”, Betty Cid has performed at the Commonwealth Institute, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and the Royal Festival Hall – the exact same venues detailed on my own biography page.

I cannot comment on all the other various claims made in these articles (and on her own websites), but I have been reliably informed (by one of her fellow students in fact)  that part of the video footage currently on her site is actually of a class run by La Escuela de Baile last year…where she was taking part as a student.  Betty Cid is certainly not a regular performer at the Phoenix Club as far as I am aware, and I am also having difficulty tracing the other groups and shows mentioned in her biography.

Sandra

Sandra La Espuelita

Technorati Tags: betty cid, flamenco, flamenco London, flamenco dance, flamenco dancers, flamenco dancing

I am going to excuse myself a bit of self-promotion here! Some of you may know that I do make traditional flamenco skirts in small quantities. These are of high quality, extremely durable, and aimed at the professional dancer and dedicated amateur, with a range of lightweight models which are ideal for practicing. There are both adults and children’s flamenco skirts available, in a good range of colours and styles.

Each skirt is hand-made to measure, and takes around a week to make. For anyone who may be interested, please visit my flamenco skirt shop for details on models and prices.

It made me remember what a minefield it can feel like when you first pluck up courage to take what you have been learning and try to fit in it with other dancers, guitarists and singers without descending into complete chaos. Unless you work together for a while and rehearse regularly to a very specific routine, you will always need to be able to ask the right questions and pick up the right signals (those of you who know me will know how much I hate over-rehearsed “formation flamenco” that follows the same path every time – but more of that on a separate post……)  and perhaps the following tips will help all you rookie guitarists:

•  DO NOT imagine that all dancers are god-like and know everything.  This is a myth that we like to encourage but which is generally untrue. There are some prima donnas around (and not only dancers – guitarist and singers too) but most flamenco performers worth their salt are there to encourage, support and help. We will not bite your head off!
• DO  have the courage to ask questions at the outset to understand the shape of the dance (number of letras, rough position of llamadas and so on. You have the right to have a general idea of what is going to happen in advance. The idea is for all participants to work together to create a flamenco performance – it is not a competition.
• DO NOT ask questions using technical words about key changes, finger positions, modes or other guitar-speak. Most dancers will not understand such stuff and may feel the need to hide their general ignorance under a mask of pretended superiority.
• DO bear with us if we try to explain what we mean in very non-technical terms. Few flamenco steps have names and so we have to rely on descriptive phrases such as “I’ll stick a call in after the diddly-diddly-dum step”.  A physical demonstration generally helps so just ask us to show you what we mean.
• DO listen and take note of the palmas marked by the dancer (and singer) at the beginning of a dance. This is, in part, there to help set the tempo that we want to follow and, contrary to popular opinion, not only to make sure the audience is looking at us.
• DO watch the dancer closely to pick up the signals that indicate a llamada or change to a different section. Hopefully these will not come just at the time you are picking out your new and most complicated falsetta – the one which requires your full and undivided attention. To begin with these signals may include waving one arm in the air; a general wind-milling movement with the skirt, a steely glare at the guitarist and/or a strangled shriek. Hopefully, as you get to know each other better, a rather more subtle approach can be adopted.  [One of the first guitarists I worked with once told me that he could tell when I was about to call a change just by watching my posterior. However, as I later discovered that his mind was definitely on things other than llamadas while eyeing my nether regions, may I recommend watching the dancer's feet as a safer bet...]
• DO watch and listen to the dancer to pick up on changes in tempo. These generally indicate speeding up to reach towards a crescendo, but can also include a desire to drop the speed slowly. However……,
• DO NOT take a slight increase in the tempo to indicate the beginning of a frenzied hurtle towards the finishing post. Dancers will often want to bring up the speed a little but then hold it at that point in order to fit in their favourite piece of complicated choreography before continuing the build up at a later stage. This is an important point -  all too often I have encountered guitarists who, given a whiff of freedom, allow the blood to rush to their heads and it’s “chocks away chaps, and the last one home is a sissy”.  We do not like this. We do not like it at all and may well become all god-like and bite off more than your head.
• DO feel free to make suggestions. If you have favourite falsettas you want to use, put them in. Contrary to what some people think, good dancers do also listen to the music and working with an inspirational guitarist is wonderful. What you play will encourage the dancer to use steps and shapes that compliment the music, and this is what real, living flamenco is all about. However, use this freedom to make suggestions with caution. Get to know your dancer extremely well before you even think of being less than ecstatic about costume choices. We need to know we look wonderful at all times.
• DO NOT expect the dance to be exactly the same every time. Apart from the times when you work with a group that uses very precise and exact choreography, things will change – there will not always be an identical number of compas between the end of the letra and the llamada for example. As I have said before, I feel strongly that real flamenco is a moving feast that grows and changes each time depending on performers and mood. It keeps you on your toes, but is all the better for that.
• DO be prepared to act as diplomat and elder statesman when there is also a singer involved. Now, they really ARE gods! Don’t ask me how you manage to balance your own needs with those of cante and baile – you guitarists are amazing when you get it right.
• DO enjoy yourself! The feeling that comes from having been part of the creation of a piece of living flamenco that was special to that moment simply cannot be beaten.

Sandra La Espuelita

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Let me know if you go to or have heard of a good Flamenco class near you – who the teacher is and what its like.

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For those of you using a flamenco fan as part of your dance choreography, heed the following (taken from a sheet of paper passed to me by a student – I do not know where it came from originally). I am not sure how you could be certain that the right person received your message – nor how many people I have mistakenly agreed to marry in the past:

Fans have been used to convey messages during times when the strict rules of behavious did not permit conversation to take place freely. The first organised fan language appeared in Spain, which consisted of 55 movements to correspond with certain meanings. This was later translated into English but reduced to 33 coded signs:

• Carrying in right hand in front of face – follow me

• Carrying in left hand in front of face – desirous of acquaintance

• Placing fan on left ear – I wish to be rid of you

• Drawing across forehead – you have changed

• Twirling in left hand – we are watched

• Carrying in right hand – you are too willing

• Drawing through the hand – I hate you

• Twirling in the right hand - I love another

• Drawing across the cheek – I love you

• Presented shut – do you love me?

• Drawing across the eyes – I am sorry

• Touching tip with finger – I wish to speak with you

• Letting fan rest on right cheek – yes

• Letting fan rest on left cheek – no

• Open and shut – you are cruel

• Dropping it – we will be friends

• Fanning slowly – I am married

• Fanning quickly – I am engaged

• With handle to lips – kiss me

• Open wide – wait for me

• Carrying fan in left hand open – come and talk to me

• Place behind head – don’t forget me

• With little finger extended – goodbye

• Shut fan held to heart – you have won my love

• Shut fan resting on right eye – when will I be allowed to see you?

• Presenting fan part open – at what hour?

• Touching unfolded fan in the act of waving – I long to be near you always

• Threaten with shut fan – do not be so unprudent

• Gazing pensively at shut fan – why do you misunderstand me?

• Pressing half opened fan to lips – you may kiss me

• Clasping your hands under open fan – please forgive me

• Cover left ear with open fan – do not betray our secret

• Shut fully opened fan very slowly – I promise to marry you

This uses Jeroen’s FLV Player to call the cine player, and only loads content when the user clicks the image. The video itself shows Sandra La Espuelita hosting a flamenco workshop and demonstration in 2007. The guitarist is Francisco Antonio.

Magnificent it was, but incomprehensible to anyone else!

I have a sheet of paper that has the scribbled mumblings of the first dance that I ever learned in Spain.  It was a wonderful caña, of which I remember almost nothing and which I would love to rediscover.  No chance with my notes – they clearly meant something at the time, but not now.

What do others do?  Perhaps I have been superceded with modern technology now, and you all just record onto your mobile phones?

Technorati Tags: flamenco, flamenco teaching, flamenco performing, flamenco dance, dance steps