I performed some flamenco at a Christmas Party last week (December 2007) held at  MAR I TERRA , a small but perfectly formed restaurant just behind Regent Street in London’s Soho district. I get to dance at a good few Spanish Restaurants in and around the UK, and have to say that this one had the best tapas I have tasted this side of Seville. Each dish was cooked to order on the premises and was fresh and tasty – the tortilla and gambas (prawns) were particularly good, and even my husband (an inveterate vegetable-phobe) loved the espinacas (spinach).

The restaurant is small and on ground level, although the servicios were down a steep flight of stairs. The Valencian manager and other people working there were great – fun and friendly and keen to get us to taste new dishes when we showed an interest in what they were preparing. The wine (a temparanillo) was excellent too.

If you get a chance, you must give this one a try. The food, ambience and company is 100 x better than some of the chains of "Spanish" restaurants that have sprung up over the past few years – Mar I Terra deserves to be packed out every night!

The original Mar I Terra is in Blackfriars. I have not tried this one yet, but intend to do so very soon and would imagine the quality would be just as good.

Enjoy!!

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: more…