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Flamenco Night at Jalapeños in Annapolis
Flamenco dancers Rocío Montoya, Sara Jerez and Pam de Ocampo in bulerías at Jalapeños Restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland. January 26, 2012 (photo by Fran Farkas) January 31, 2012 It's almost 1pm on a Tuesday as I type these words. I actually started working on this blog yesterday, but I was shall we say, brain dead. I'm guessing that this past flamenco-filled weekend totally wore me out. Anywayz, last Thursday I had the pleasure of performing again at Jalapeños Restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland. All the photos are by Fran Farkas with the exception of one courtesy of Pam de Ocampo. Joining me onstage were a few familiar faces that you've seen in my blog countless times over the years: dancers Pam de Ocampo and Sara Jerez as well as singer Carlton Ashton. It's always a blast working with these people of course, but we also had a special guest all the way from Granada, Spain: dancer Rocío Montoya! 
Guitarist Miguelito playing the intro to Rocío's alegrías. January 26, 2012 (photo by Fran Farkas) Those of you who have gigged with me a lot know how I like to arrive at the venue super early—as in two or three hours early! Trust me on this. I've done enough shows to realize that I need to chill before going onstage. I used to be able to do that: walk in 15 minutes before showtime, quickly setup and start the show. Not anymore. But of course, life is unpredictable and sure enough on the way to the gig, we hit some major traffic. We factored in some extra travel time just in case of traffic but we had to sacrifice the quick rehearsal with Rocío that we originally planned. 
Sara, Pam and Rocío in Sevillanas. January 26, 2012 (photo courtesy of Pam) Not that we couldn't pull it off without a quick run-through, but it just helps to get a feel for each other before starting the show. You see, it was the first time for me (actually for all of us) to work with Rocío. And the fact that she tours with Riverdance and the Company of Rafaela Carrasco was a tad intimidating, not going to lie. But as we were pleasantly surprised to discover during the show, she was so friendly, down-to-earth and easygoing! So we arrived around 6:15pm and the show was scheduled to start at 6:30pm, yikes! Still had to setup the sound system and lights which I completed in a record ten minutes, yay! Five minutes to spare. Can't do much warming-up in five minutes so I elected instead to head to the bar and get myself a nice cold beer to relax. 
Sara dancing soleá. January 26, 2012 (photo by Fran Farkas) A minute before showtime, I headed to the dressing room area to at least say hello to the dancers before going onstage. Before I could make it backstage, the owner catches my attention and gestures me to start the show right now with a guitar solo. 
Pam dancing seguiriyas. January 26, 2012 (photo by Fran Farkas) Fine. But how will the dancers know when to come out? It's not like we have a stage manager reminding them, "Places in five!" But thankfully 5 minutes into my solo, I noticed the one of the dancers in the far corner of the room. With both of my hands occupied playing guitar all I could manage was a quick nod of the head. You get the idea. Yeah it was stressful but I've done this a million times before and pulled it off just fine. But as for the show itself: it was a lot of fun. We had a very attentive audience and I should add that it was a full-house! 
Singer Carlton Ashton performing bulerías. January 26, 2012 (photo by Fran Farkas) The first set at 6:30pm
Second set at 8:30pm
Rocío Montoya dancing soleá por bulería. January 26, 2012 (photo by Fran Farkas) By the second set, I finally had time to catch my breath, had a few beers, noshed on some delish guacamole and chips backstage and chatted with a few flamenco friends who came out to support us. I was in a better state of mind to put on a good show, yay! Not to downplay the fabulous dancing by Pam and Sara, but Rocío's alegría in the second set literally and figuratively took my breath away! With no more than a 10-second onstage discussion of the number of letras etc we jumped right in. It was absolute delight to play for her: intricate but easy to follow footwork, very musical phrasing, graceful braceo. The solo de pies was a lot of fun if not a bit self-indulgent. In the end, Rocío won over the audience (and myself) as demonstrated by the extended applause and the many people who stopped by our table afterwards to offer compliments. 
Rocío. January 26, 2012 (photo by Fran Farkas) The next flamenco night at Jalapeños is set for Thursday April 5, 2012. And I can almost guarantee it will be sold out yet again so call 410-266-7580 and make your reservation now. With three top-notch dancers, a singer and a guitarist, it's always a fabulous show. I'm hoping that we can book Rocío for this show. I'll have a confirmed lineup of the featured performers soon so stay tuned! She'll be in the DC area until mid-April so it's possible she may appear at other venues, who knows. And yes she is currently teaching at the Arte Flamenco Studio in Laurel, Maryland. Thanks to my friends Fran Farkas and Pam for the fabulous photos! Happy 16th Birthday DCFlamenco!
Sixteen years is a very long time to be on the Internet, and if you're interested, I pretty much covered the origins of my website in last year's birthday blog. And yeah, while I've definitely had a huge impact on the DC flamenco community as far getting the word out about the local scene, the truth is that DCFlamenco is dying. Just kidding…I'm being overly dramatic to make a point. But the "game" has changed. Social media is where it's at: consequently, my website has been relegated to being just one of many sources of information that people go to in their search for info about flamenco in DC. The quality of the content in DCFlamenco is still the same of course. What's changed is that people go to social media more than individual websites like mine.
Visitor stats for January 2011-January 2012—more or less steady with an uptick in May for the DC Feria. There was no Lisner Flamenco Festival last year so there was no uptick for February. Compared to previous years however, the overall number of people visiting has gone down. Facebook is one place where I get a LOT of traffic to my website. And I know this because of the statistics I get from Google Analytics which tells me so much about my website visitors, it's scary. Anyway, within Facebook, a lot of individuals are promoting flamenco intentionally or unintentionally in their status updates. Of course, you have the performers and artists tooting their own horn and on the other hand you have the flamenco fans raving about the show they just went to or a YouTube video of an artist they like. And if you see a post by me, chances are it's about the flamenco scene with a link usually to my website. 
31,000 visited DCFlamenco in the past year. Most of the search traffic was from Google and most of the referral traffic was from Facebook. If you're like most Facebook users, you probably skim the Newsfeed and click on individual posts that interest you (as opposed to regularly visiting individual Facebook profiles). And if that post is about a flamenco artist or event then that's probably what will drive you to visit that artist or event's website or Facebook profile. Of course, I don't have the statistics on user behavior to back that up, but you can't deny the fact that I get a significant number of visitors through Facebook. So what does this all mean? Well, it's not really that the DCFlamenco website is dying. Visits to the DCFlamenco.com website have gone down for sure. But the reality is just that my visitors are spending more time Facebook, Twitter and other social media. And to keep up with this shift of attention, over the past few years, I've focused my efforts on building a presence of DCFlamenco.com primarily in Facebook and Twitter.
As far as a celebration, in honor of 16 years of hard work, I'll just pat myself on the back and do an extra shot of Stoli before going onstage for my show tonight at Las Tapas. And if DCFlamenco.com is still around in 2016 for its 20th birthday, I'll have a big party then! Who knows what the future will bring? For now, you can keep up with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and of course on DCFlamenco.com! And yeah, I am working on a mobile version of DCFlamenco for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. I was going to release it today, but it's taking longer than I expected. Stay tuned! Flamenco Cante Master Workshop with Esperanza Fernández in Vienna, Virginia
Flamenco singer Esperanza Fernández and Furia Flamenca director Estela Velez at Born 2 Dance studio in Vienna, Virginia. December 4, 2011 (photo by Stan Peters) January 8, 2010 It's almost 8pm on Sunday as I type these words. And yeah I know this workshop took place a month ago, so it is kind of old news, but I so much wanted to document it here. And on top of that, these photos were already published in FaceBook and lots of people "liked" them and posted many positive comments. So why do I bother to publishing this blog entry? Well, my DCFlamenco.com website (which hosts this blog) will be turning 16 years old this Tuesday January 10th. Without a doubt, it has been and continues to be THE online source to go to when you want find out what is going on in the DC Flamenco scene currently as well as what was going on many years back. Who knows? In 2022, when FaceBook eventually gets replaced by some other social network, DCFlamenco will very likely still be around (knock on wood) as it has been for the past 16 years to document the history of flamenco in DC. I know you how you all adore my conversational writing style.
Esperanza accompanied by flamenco guitarist Behzad Habibzai. December 4, 2011 (photo by Stan Peters) Behzad Habibzai: I had played for the Ana González workshop hosted by Emily Mazzotti, where I was approached by Estela to see if I was interested in playing for the Esperanza Fernández workshop. It was a definite yes from me, as I try to play for as many workshops as I can (even for the Ana González workshop, I asked Emily if she would allow me to play. I remind people that I don't want or expect any money from these opportunities, so there is a hesitation to ask me. But I try to take as many opportunities as I can. It is such a great learning experience). I had the opportunity to meet Esperanza after her performance with Ricardo Marlow at the National Gallery, she was very nice and delighted to hear that she was going to have a guitarist for the workshop. The workshop was in good attendance, old faces and new. As far as I know, people as far as Philadelphia had traveled to attend the workshop. A bunch of people came straight from Edwin's Sunday Matinee show 'Flamenco Men' at Gala Theatre. No one knew what to expect for the workshop. 
December 4, 2011 (photo by Stan Peters) It was open for everyone, yet dancers did not know whether to wear their flamenco gear or not. The format ended up being a straight up cante workshop. Everyone received a copy of the letras being used, and everyone participated—meaning, everyone sang! Esperanza did not just perform for everyone, she actually made everyone participate. The workshop was on alegrías. Esperanza taught alegrías from the perspective of a dance number. So, there was the salida ("tirititran"), a letra, a second macho letra, a castellana, and I believe a bulería de Cádiz (I remember she sang it, can't remember if it was taught). Esperanza danced the whole time! Her dancing was very good, she was making up choreographies on the spot. At times, she pretended to have a mantón and even did high kicks appropriate for manipulating the bata de cola. She improvised really nice escobillas. Even though escobillas have nothing to do with cante directly, there was a palmas component, so everyone was expected to keep the palmas while she did some cool escobillas involving contras. 
December 4, 2011 (photo by Stan Peters) She taught things really slow, making sure that everyone got it, and then applied it to her dancing, up to speed; she made sure everyone was on the same page. She was very humble, very nice, very inviting. Overall, she is very genuine and a great teacher! What your readers may or may not understand is that Esperanza Fernández is über-famous. She is a living legend. When listing the most famous cantaoras of our day, you can only go through a few names at best before you get to Esperanza's name. It was truly an honor and amazing experience playing for her workshop. Thanks to Estela for putting this together and for having me. I also hope that Esperanza graces us again in the very near future! 
December 4, 2011 (photo by Stan Peters) Estela Velez: A few weeks ago I had the honor and pleasure of hosting Esperanza Fernández in what ended up being a truly unforgettable evening. When the idea of a cante workshop with Esperanza came up, little did I know that what we would all end up getting would be so much more than just cante. As a flamenco dancer, your flamenco education must not just be restricted to dance but must include the music and singing. So, while there are not that many flamenco singers in the DC area, the thought was that a cante workshop would still be very useful and so it was. I was overjoyed when Esperanza agreed to make the time out of her busy schedule for a master class. Just being in the room with Esperanza was an amazing experience. Her joy for the art of flamenco is contagious. And, while the workshop started focusing on the cante, it quickly became a class in all aspects of flamenco. Esperanza incorporated a palmas rhythm lesson and perhaps what was most unexpected, she provided a dance demonstration. Indeed, Esperanza spent the entire workshop singing and dancing. 
Esperanza with some of the workshop attendees. December 4, 2011 (photo by Stan Peters) Focusing on alegrías, in just a little over an hour she walked us through all the sections of the palo, we all sang, learned how to give palmas and sing at the same time, and were shown how the dance fits into it all. Esperanza was completely engaging as a teacher. While being a good performer does not automatically translate into being a good teacher, Esperanza proved to be excellent in both aspects. Those of us who were able to attend her performances, got to experience first hand her amazing artistry. Those of us who were able to attend the workshop were also able to learn from a master in flamenco, someone who proved to be very giving as a teacher and very humble as a person. Perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the workshop was when Esperanza thanked US for being interested in flamenco and for helping in keeping flamenco alive outside of Spain. The consensus from those who attended the class was that we all wish it could have been longer. But, considering how busy her schedule was, we consider ourselves very lucky to have experienced this opportunity. 
Esperanza and Estela. December 4, 2011 (photo by Stan Peters) For me, as I got to know Esperanza more personally and spend time with her during the course of her week here, I can truly say I met one of the most gifted artists in flamenco, but most importantly, I met one of the most humble, caring and just plain best human beings I have met in a long time. For now, I am staying in close contact with Esperanza and we are already working on her return to the DC area. [Editor's Note: My thanks again to Estela and Behzad for taking the time to write some commentary for my blog. And of course thanks also to my longtime photographer friend Stan Peters for contributing the photos you see here.] Text and original images ©1996-2012 by . Please do not republish content from this website, including text and photos, in whole or part without prior written permission. |
 Details in the calendar.  News and updates1/10/2012 Just heard that dancer Rocío Montoya from Granada will be teaching from January-April at Arte Flamenco studio in Laurel, MD. Formerly with the Rafaela Carrasco Company and Riverdance! More info at Arte Flamenco. 12/20/2011  Checkout this preview photo of the upcoming mobile version of DCFlamenco.com! 12/18/2011Read George Jackson's review of Edwin Aparicio's "Flamenco Men". 12/14/2011Read the Metro Diversity review of Edwin Aparicio's "Flamenco Men". 12/07/2011Just added to the calendar: Read the Washington Post review of PostClassical Ensemble's "El Amor Brujo" mentioning flamenco singer Esperanza Fernández. 11/29/2011Lisner Auditorium's Flamenco Festival is back in February/March 2012!!! Sign up for their mailing list to get early ticket buying privileges. 11/21/2011Check out the music sample of DC-based flamenco guitarist Behzad Habibzai on his ReverbNation profile. 11/14/2011New Tuesday night Adult Intermediate Flamenco Class by Yolit Yospe starts November 15th at 8:00pm at American Dance Institute in Rockville, Maryland. 10/30/2011Read Sarah Halzack's Washington Post review of the Friday October 28th performance by Compañía Flamenca José Porcel at George Mason University's Center for the Arts. 10/28/2011If you're on FourSquare, live in DC and love flamenco, checkout my list Flamenco in Washington DC. 10/27/2011Read Natalie Stemp's review of the 2011 Velocity DC festival that mentions flamenco dancer Anna Menéndez. Read Rebecca Ritzel's review of the 2011 Velocity DC festival that mentions flamenco dancers Edwin Aparicio and Anna Menéndez. 9/11/2011Special message for a friend Alegrías por Giulia Risso  Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. La Comunidad Flamenca en DC, tus hermanas y madre dentro de este arte y tu familia te desean lo mejor en esta nueva etapa. 8/11/2011 Yeah it's official. Miguelito (that's me!) is going to start teaching guitar again. If you're interested in flamenco lessons, message me. 8/10/2011New Class by Anna Menéndez: Intermediate Flamenco "Lunch Hour Workshop" at DC Dance Collective from 12:30pm-1:30pm. Beginning September 7th through October 26th, 2011. Email or call 410-598-7562 7/9/2011Just added to the calendar: Flamenco Night at Divino Lounge in Bethesda. 6/6/2011 Dancer Kyoko just started an intermediate-level flamenco class at DC Dance Collective focusing on upper body/stylization. Thursdays 7:30pm to 8:30pm. "We will be working on everything but the feet (although some footwork will be introduced as part of the choreography) - so this means arms, wrists, shoulders, hips, torso, head, turns, markings, etc!" 6/3/2011Just added to the calendar: Una Noche Flamenca at Area 405 coming Saturday June 18th. Only 100 seats. Buy your tickets early! 6/2/2011 Yes it's true: Cafe Citron is officially back open! So is Cafe Citron's flamenco show this Saturday at 7:30pm and 8:30pm. 5/26/2011Just added to the calendar: Sergio Bernal-Alonso flamenco workshop from June 27th through July 1st. 5/23/2011Checkout this preview video of a flamenco documentary titled Inheritors of a Burden: A documentary by Carolina Loyola-García which features some DC flamenco artists including Richard Marlow, Anna Menendez, Edwin Aparicio, Marija Temo and Manolo Leiva. 5/16/2011Just added to the calendar for June: Furia Flamenca and Natalia Monteleón's Arte Flamenco at the Washington Folk Festival. 200% more visits compared to a month ago! The day after major flamenco events like yesterday's DC Feria de Sevilla, the number of visits to my website DCFlamenco.com goes way up. Not that more visits makes me rich or anything, but it pleases me that more and more people are taking an interest in flamenco and thanks to me, they have an online resource to help them find out more about it! 5/14/2011Just added to the calendar in June: flamenco shows at Taberna del Alabardero and concert by Carmen de Vicente at Gunston Arts Center. 4/26/2011Just heard that due to overwhelming demand, 3:00pm matinee added for April 30th performance of Anna Menendez's Pastora Flamenco at The Warehouse Theater. 4/23/2011Just added to the calendar: Bridging of Two Cultures: Andalucía-Crete at Lincoln Theatre. 4/9/2011Checkout the pics of the flamenco show at El Manantial in the Reston Patch. 4/2/2011Just added guitar teacher Maurice Arenas to the Teacher Directory. 3/15/2011Dancer Yolit Yospe is now teaching at American Dance Institute on Tuesdays at 8pm. Intermediate-beginners class. Technique of upper body, arms, foot work, and choreography for an alegrías. Just added to the calendar: Pastora Flamenco at the Warehouse Theater on April 30, 2011. 03/03/2011Sylvia Melecio is now teaching flamenco at Forever Dancing Ballroom in Falls Church, Virginia. A new session starts this Sunday March 6th at noon! 2/27/2011Here's the video of Berklee Flamenco at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage from last night. 2/24/2011Just added the Miguel Vargas masterclass to the calendar. 2/1/2011Just added a new event featuring dancer Sarah Hart and Behzad Habibzai coming up on February 17th. See calendar for more info. 1/27/2011Starting Thursday February 3, 2011 La Tasca in Old Town Alexandria will feature Sevillanas shows with dancer Sara Jerez and guest with live guitar by Miguelito. Performances at 7:30pm and 9:00pm. Call 703-299-9810. Paco Peña, Carmela Greco, La Truco, María Juncal and Pepa Molina are coming to DC! Just added a few new events to the calendar to start off 2011. Flamenco dance costumes for sale here. |
I think we spent more time jamming in that section than the rest of the dance itself!
In essence, the DCFlamenco website lives on through individual posts on Facebook and Twitter. And if I get some website traffic as a result of the posts, great. But more importantly, if more people are made aware about a flamenco artist or event (whether they visit my website or not), then my mission is accomplished!
flamenco show at 