Arcadia Spain

Do you like dancing? If you do, you probably know that any type of dancing is harder to learn than it may seem. With flamenco, people often think there is just some clapping and tap dance. However, it is much more than that.

Last week, some of our students dared to take a flamenco master class. For one hour, we learned to clap within the appropriate rhythm, use the arms in a “natural” flamenco style, tap dance in the wooden floor, and balance the body weight in an attempt to remain standing at all times. Do not forget your facial expression either… smile!

In this class we learned flamenco tango (nothing to do with Argentina’s dance), a rather simple flamenco style (or so we thought). Once we grasped the clap rhythm (1-2-3-4), and the importance of the hand position to make different types of sounds, we realized how important it is to balance the body weight at all times. Managing the feet was one thing, but then hands and arms came into play. Wait, are you supposed to do everything at the same time?

And, there is more! Once we were sort of mastering these movements (feet + arms/hands) the instructor was interested in our twerking abilities. Wait, what? One of the classic movements of flamenco is to turn around yourself (while your feet and arms follow you in a gracious movement). And hey, after all, these girls did a great job at balancing their waist movement!

In the video you can see the final result after one hour of deep concentration and sweating.  We had a lot of fun, and it is not every day that you have the opportunity to take a class with a reputed flamenco professor and dancer in this unique atmosphere. Olé!