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Last flamenco show at Tapeo. May 3, 2008 Flamenco Flashback...Checkout the pics from Miguelito's first trip to Spain. CritiqueRead the 'Alma 100' critique of DC Flamenco. Facebook & MySpaceYet another way to keep up with me and the DC flamenco scene...   |
Introducing Flor Pérez Taboada
Miguelito: Where did you begin your flamenco studies? Flor: I started in Argentina fifteen years ago and after five years I decided I wanted to go to Seville because in Argentina I had already studied with everyone and was ready to do something more professional. The first time I went to Seville it was for three months. When I returned again to Argentina we were very fortunate that Spanish teachers were starting to come all the time. For example, one month was La China, the next month was Isabel Bayón. For a couple of years, having all these Spanish teachers here made it feel like were like living in Madrid. Every now and then I would go to Seville sometimes for three months, four months or six months. When you add it all up, it was about a year. The Seville style is what I like the most. Of course, I went to Jerez and learned about bulería de Jerez. In Madrid I didn't like the classes as much because I think it's a very different style. I studied with Joselito Maya Romero. Every time he was teaching I was with him. But I didn't try a lot of teachers in Madrid. M: Whom did you study with in Sevilla? F: It's a long list! M: Give me a short list. F: Manuela Ríos, Torombo, Concha Vargas, Manolo Marín, Toná and Juana Maya. Most of all it was Manuela Ríos. I was doing private classes with her because she was unknown at the time. It was like ten years ago. So it was the first time someone was asking her to teach. And she was like, "Oh I don't know. I'm not a maestra." So I said, "OK, but I like your style very much." And now she's teaching a lot. At that moment, she wasn't so expensive to take private classes. That was great because I was by myself and she was giving me all the tips to get the Seville style. But I also love Torombo, his philosophy, the way he talks in the class helped me a lot to understand a lot of things. M: What brought you to Washington DC? F: My husband was transferred. He worked in a hotel that's nothing to do with flamenco. And he was working in Madrid and that hotel closed. So we had to move. That brought me here. When I lived in New York, I was by myself. I was single. I had a best friend from Argentina and she had an apartment in New York. I just had appendix surgery and had to rest for one or two months. So she said come and you will live at my house. And when I was there I wanted to rest from flamenco but one day I visited a flamenco tapas bar. I was curious about the flamenco in New York. So I went. And that day everybody was telling me, "Why don't you dance because if you dance there you will be something new. It's always the same people. You will find work in all the tablaos here.” And somebody from Argentina gave me all the names and telephone numbers. Five days before I was going back to Argentina and I called this one tablao and they said I could come and they’d give me a month contract at Mesón Flamenco--it was the main place at that time. Now it's closed. It was a very nice offer and my best friend offered to let me stay in her house again. So I came back and I was working there and all in all it was two years. I started school. I was working. I was doing my own small company. It's a different situation then now. M: Tell me about your teaching style, you teaching philosophy, how you do your classes.
Also I was studying theatre and musical theatre. And it helped me a lot to learn how to be onstage in a different way than what you learn just by going to flamenco class. How to get up from the chair, how to project your energy. Being onstage is another part of what I want to work on in class. How to walk onstage. How to feel the space. I also will work with the choreographies because you need the material to explain the different ideas. But I will go into how people dance with weight, with peso. What can you do to get that sensation? Being more flamenco or more modern or andaluz. Small things that you don't usually see in a class. There are things that I have learned with my experience but nobody told me. And now I can pass on this knowledge. But I don't want to do a very technical class like a lot of footwork. But I know this is all very abstract so I'm afraid that people won't understand. So I want people to try it. Come and try one class so they see how it is. When I started, the teacher had no levels. So I was doing my first classes and it was for soleá and the students with me were dancing for six years and it was my first month. But it was a good thing because I didn’t have in my mind, "OK if I'm a beginner I have to do Sevillanas and then the following year I will do tangos." It’s not really necessary to go about it that way because for me it was simply like, "What is a soleá?" And I was learning every movement alongside the more advanced dancers. It was more natural. It was like a Montesorri. Now my baby is going to Montesorri and they put all the students of all ages together. The younger ones follow and interact with the older ones. So that’s how it was for me. But I think that when you are a beginner, you still need to focus on how to do planta, tacón, golpe and how to move your hands, just basics of technique. Continue reading "Introducing Flor Pérez Taboada" Text and original images ©1996-2008 by . Please do not republish content from this website, including text and photos, in whole or part without prior written permission. |
 News and updates5/8/2008 Added details about the Arte Flamenco 8th Annual Recital coming up on May 17, 2008.  Michael Bjerknes, who founded the American Dance Institute in Rockville (where Anna Menendez teaches flamenco classes), passed away in April. Dance critic Lisa Traiger wrote a blog entry summing up Michael Bjerknes' contributions to the DC dance community. |
F: That's something that I'm trying to change now. I was always teaching beginners before. And I was working a lot with the technique of María Magdalena and now I want to do something more, not technique or choreography. I want to work with people that are more intermediate or advanced, ones that already know more or less how to dance. But they want to know something more about how to find their own style, how to create their own choreography, how to improvise. Things like knowing the traditional structure of alegría for example while not being such a slave to the teacher's choreography. If you don't finish the choreography in the class you can still work with it. They should be able to take their favorite steps from various teachers and put them all together. Things that will help to find your own style and inspire you to create your own choreographies.