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Bulerías Made Simple [The Structure of a Bulerías Dance & How It Relates to the Cante]

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Bulerías Made Simple [The Structure of a Bulerías Dance & How It Relates to the Cante]

Bulerías is arguably one of the hardest flamenco forms to dance due to it's improvisational nature, complex rhythm, and nuanced cante. But dancing bulerías is less mysterious than you may think. Once you understand the components of the dance and how they relate to the music (the singing and the compás) you'll be well on your way to obtaining bulerías freedom.

Below l explain the basic bulerías por fiesta structure and how it relates to the cante. After that you'll find a video of Pastora Galván along with an analysis describing where she dances each component of the structure. Finally I give you an activity to help you internalize the information.

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One Way to Train Your Ear So That You Dance Well With the Cante | The Weekly Letra

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One Way to Train Your Ear So That You Dance Well With the Cante | The Weekly Letra

Today you'll find two videos of the same letra, one version as tangos, the other as bulerías... 

Dancing flamenco is never just about the dancing. It is a conversation between the dancer and the musicians. As dancers we need to hear where the changes and resolutions are in the music (especially the cante) so that we can respond with our dancing. Below find an activity that you can do from home to train your ear to dance with the cante.

And speaking of cante, we worked with the following letra during the Flamenco Retreat at the Oregon Coast last weekend. (See some pictures below). We looked at where the cante resolved then put in remates with palmas and later baile to reflect that. Watch María Toledo sing it por tangos and Marina García sing it por bulerías below:

Tangos (& Bulerías)
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No me pegues bocaítos
Que tú me haces cardenales
Cuando yo voy a mi casa
A mí me los nota mi madre

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How To Learn From A Mistake

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How To Learn From A Mistake

Mistakes are an inevitable part of learning and provide us with opportunities to grow. An absence of mistakes means we are not trying. However, repeating the same mistake means we are choosing not to improve.

Today we’ll look at how to learn from a mistake.

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Fifty Life Lessons from Flamenco

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Fifty Life Lessons from Flamenco

During last weekend's Flamenco Retreat at the Oregon Coast (which I'm still on a high from by the way and which you can see pictures of below) we all agreed that flamenco teaches us about life and about ourselves

So, today I share with you fifty life lessons I've gleaned from flamenco.

Fifty Lessons:

(This list is full of links in case you'd like to dive deeper into some of the lessons.)

  1. Listen to your intuition, and trust your instincts.
  2. Express your true feelings
  3. Be present.
  4. Stand beautifully in your power.
  5. Prepare. (Really prepare.)
  6. Take risks.
  7. Focus.
  8. Act with intention.
  9. The answers are in the mirror, so look.
  10. Show up.

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How I Messed Up Dancing Bulerías, What I Learned & How it Can Help You | The Weekly Letra

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How I Messed Up Dancing Bulerías, What I Learned & How it Can Help You | The Weekly Letra

I want to share a story with you about how I messed up dancing bulerías last weekend, how it left me feeling not so happy about my dancing, eight important lessons about flamenco (and life) I learned in the process, and how those lessons served me when I applied them to a sticky situation in my life.

So last weekend I took a workshop with Alfonso Cid. He shared bunches of bulerías letras with us (you'll find one below) and gave a very informative introduction to flamenco, with a focus on cante. He had us all singing and doing palmas and even got some of us up dancing.

Toward the end of the workshop someone asked Alfonso to address how to dance bulerías por fiesta, how to dance to the cante. (As you know, this is one of my favorite things.)

Yay! (and Olé).

Some people got up to dance, mess up or not mess up, and learn along the way. 

I was one of those people.

And here is what I learned:

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Where to Study Flamenco Dance Online

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Where to Study Flamenco Dance Online

Online flamenco learning opportunities seem to be popping up all over the place. 

I find this very exciting. 

As you know, there are all kinds of flamenco instructional articles around here, but I'm talking about online video teaching.

While I do not believe one can learn flamenco dance only by online studies from home (flamenco is after all a communal art form), these resources can be wonderful for:

  • Supplemental instruction
  • An introduction to flamenco
  • Practicing from home
  • Deepening one's understanding of particular aspects of flamenco
  • Those who have difficulty making it to physical classes (many of the students who join me for workshops and trips come from what they often call, flamenco deserts, and online sources can be especially great in these instances.)
  • Encouragement & inspiration

Here are a couple of my favorites . . .

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One Thing We Need to Understand About Letras | The Weekly Letra

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One Thing We Need to Understand About Letras | The Weekly Letra

Today I'm going to talk about how the same letra can (and definitely will be) interpreted in different ways by different singers. I'll also talk about why, as dancers, we need to pay attention to this. And finally, I'll share a tangos letra with you. (Oh, and at the end of the post I give you an activity to do from the comfort of your own home.)

How the same letra can vary

Depending upon who is singing, how they like to sing a given letra, and even how they are feeling at a given moment, one letra can be interpreted in many different ways.

Let's look at some examples:

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Day 1: Become a Better Dancer From Home With the Dancing With David Mini-Challenge

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Day 1: Become a Better Dancer From Home With the Dancing With David Mini-Challenge

It's time to begin the Dancing With David Even Though We're Not With David Mini-Challenge, yahoo! Read on to discover today's strategy for improving your dancing from home . . .

Now I know you may not want to, but please, look in the mirror.

Por favor.

This is essential.

Especially when you're at home with no teacher there to correct you, other than the David (for the purposes of this mini-challenge) inside your head.

You must look in the mirror

Allow the mirror to become your imaginary teacher, and listen to his corrections.

Once you’re finished reading this, I want you to get up, go the the closest mirror, do a move, and notice,

How do you look?

If something doesn’t look right, consider your basic technique,

How are you holding your elbows?

Do you need to move your arms farther away from your body, or closer perhaps?

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3 Essential Elements for Learning to Dance Por Fiesta

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3 Essential Elements for Learning to Dance Por Fiesta

This week I learned about daylilies. And as it turns out the process I went through in learning about this flower led me to a mini-formula that is perfect for learning to dance por fiesta palos like bulerías. (I'll share that with you in a moment.)

But first, my lesson on daylilies

On Monday morning Stefani and I were on a walk when we happened upon bunches and bunches of bright golden daylilies. I’ve been noticing them everywhere this summer, including in my garden. I did not know what these flowers were called, and I’d never bothered to find out. I didn’t even bother to notice that their petals and shape look very much like ‘regular’ lilies. I guess because their colors, golden, yellow, red, orange, peach . . . are so distinct.

“I have those flowers in my garden,” I said to Stefani, “I cut some and put them in a vase, and the next day they were dead.”

“Well yeah, those are daylilies,” she responded. “They only live for a day.”

And this is how I came to learn why the ones in my vase at home had lasted, well, one day.

She proceeded to tell me more about the flower, information I won’t bother sharing with you because learning about flowers is not the point of this story.

(I’m getting to the point.)

Before I became aware of their name and the whole one day of life thing, I had already decided that I was not going to go around cutting more of these flowers and putting them in vases inside my house. Before Stefani told me about their life span, I had discovered on my own through trial and error that these flowers would be better enjoyed in the garden.

For the time being at least . . .

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Three Things to Remember When Dancing Bulerías

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Three Things to Remember When Dancing Bulerías

I have some more bulerías advice from Ani for you about feeling good today. But first,

Let's talk briefly about steps

Because you learn a lot of steps in in bulerías class.

You could say they are just steps.

To play with.

To practice.

To try out.

To hold on to. (Or to let go of.)

They can even be thought of as tools for understanding how the conversation works.

But going back to the liking them thing...

One day in Jerez

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How to Keep the Challenge Going in the New Year

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How to Keep the Challenge Going in the New Year

I enjoyed spending the last week of the year with you during the Dance as if You Were in Class With Mercedes Holiday Challenge. Today I share with you one small way you can keep the challenge going (along with a video of Mercedes Ruíz) ...

Great artists tell me

that they spend enormous amounts of time watching those they admire.

Studying their every move and learning by observation.

So, I invite you to enjoy some time observing one of your favorite artists this week.

And since we've been focusing on Mercedes:

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Day 7: Dance As If You Were in Class with Mercedes Holiday Challenge

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Day 7: Dance As If You Were in Class with Mercedes Holiday Challenge

As you know the challenge has involved some squeezing in this week, for me at least. But over the past seven days, I've come to see this squeezing more as taking advantage of moments of opportunity.

Por ejemplo:

"Hey, we have a few minutes before going to do (thing we need to go do) Margot, do you want to do an exercise with me?"

Or, "Is my pompi dentro?" I've found myself asking myself while washing a dish.

And you already know about teeth brushing.

Stuff like that ...

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Day 6: Dance As If You Were in Class with Mercedes Holiday Challenge

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Day 6: Dance As If You Were in Class with Mercedes Holiday Challenge

I didn’t tell you this, but I decided to do something I have not done in the past with the choreography I learned from Mercedes in Jerez last fall, I decided to keep it.

You may think I keep all of the dances I learn from her, or perhaps you know me better than that.

My pattern is to let them go.

In fact, this intention I set last fall during the FlamencoTour to Jerez, to retain and polish the choreography Mercedes taught us, is part of the reason I set up the holiday challenge.

I gave myself many excuses as to why I could not do this over the holidays:

'You have other flamenco things to work on Laura.'

'It is December. It is holiday time. It is not time for flamenco discipline.'

'It won’t be the same as being in class with Mercedes. It won't be anything like it...'

I almost didn't do it.

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When Writing Gets in the Way

Writing saved me in Jerez, ... And then it got in the way.

Today I want to talk about how writing can become, well, detrimental in class.

Yes, detrimental

I'll begin with another excerpt from my notebook:

April 19, 2011

Mercedes scolded me once again in class this morning, calling me back out onto the dance floor. Clearly I was to be dancing, not writing.

Yes, once again, Laura and her book has come up.  It comes up a lot.  No one else writes anything down in Jerez.

They don't get me, I know, but I totally don't get them either!

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How Writing Saved Me in Jerez

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How Writing Saved Me in Jerez

I can't imagine learning flamenco without pens and paper. I really can't.

On paper I take notes.  On paper I figure things out.  On paper I put the thoughts that circle inside my head.  And there's just something I like so much about the feel of the pen moving atop the paper.

I often write in little books

They helped me a lot in the beginning, in Sevilla.

They help me today.

And they helped me a lot in Jerez.

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How to Avoid Castanet Burn-Out

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How to Avoid Castanet Burn-Out

Yesterday I told you we’d talk about what to do when castanets frustration hits. Because it will.

Below are some ideas:

1. Don’t worry that you’re not producing the right (or any) sound.

This is part of the castanets learning process.

The movements are AWKWARD. Please give your sweet fingers some time to assimilate new movements they’re not used to making.

Sometimes remembering you’re not alone helps a lot. (You're not alone!)

2. Keep trying.

When I would tell Mercedes I can’t do it, she would always say the same thing,

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How I Finally Learned to Play Castanets (& How You Can Get Started)

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How I Finally Learned to Play Castanets (& How You Can Get Started)

As you know I stayed away from castanets for quite some time. I had my reasons.

Which I’ll share with you today along with the best thing you can do for yourself when starting out.

Let’s begin with my reasons for having avoided castanets for so long

Reason #1: Rebellion.

In part I was rebelling, at least that’s what I told myself.

Rebelling because when I would mention that I danced flamenco it seemed just about every other person would assume I played castanets,

"Ohhhhhh, so you play those things,” making motions with their fingers, “that make the clacking sounds?”

“No, I do not play those things, and actually you don’t need to play those things to do flamenco,” I’d say.

It’s true, one does not have to play castanets to do flamenco, but there was certainly a little bit of defensive me who-didn’t-know-how-to-play-so-don't-ask-me-that talking.

And then there was Reason #2,

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How to Play Castanets for Sevillanas | La Cuarta

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How to Play Castanets for Sevillanas | La Cuarta

Learning to play castanets can be frustrating, especially in the beginning.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

In the coming days I’ll be sharing some tips on how to deal with some potential frustrations that come with learning this (completely and totally worth it to learn) technique.

For today, let's look at the toque for thefourth copla por sevillanas.

As usual, you'll find it written in two different ways.  Use whichever makes the most sense to you.  And remember, there are different variations of the toques, and this is one of many!

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How I Went In | Class With Mercedes

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How I Went In | Class With Mercedes

"I want to be in class with Mercedes ALL of the time." That is what I wrote in my journal on April 13, 2011.

But let's go back in time.

I arrived in Jerez on Friday, March 25 and began investigating classes to take.

Though secretly, I did not want to go to any.

A week in Jerez by myself.

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How to Play Castanets for Sevillanas | La Tercera

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How to Play Castanets for Sevillanas | La Tercera

You've probably read the basics about sevillanas.

And you've probably seen my detailed explanation of the steps to the sevillanas I learned in Jerez, from Harumi who learned them from Ani.

But now,

What about sevillanas with castanets?

The toque for the first sevillanas is here, along with the reason why I write them out in two different ways.

And you can find the toque for the second one here.

Today I post the third one ...

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