It's 8:53am on Friday as I type these words. Last night I was performing at the Andalucia restaurant in Rockville with Sarah Hart. For a student dancer, she makes her teacher Anna Menendez proud with good compas, good lines and the fact that she "hears" the music.

February 16, 2006 8:17pm

You see, I play my introductions differently each time for all the dancers I work with so it's not something you can just memorize and work into routine. As a dancer you have no choice but to listen and figure it out. Well, last night Sarah was able to sense when I was finished with my falseta and came in at the right time. Very impressive!

(photo by Monica) February 16, 2006 8:46pm

For the first set, I opened with a guitar solo before she danced Sevillanas and solea. Then we took a short break. As I was about to go back onstage for the next set, this one table of older folks pulled me aside. They suggested I give an introduction before the show and explain a little about flamenco to the audience which I did. Of course, it helped that the audience was very attentive. (And just like the last time I performed here with Sarah, the restaurant just happened to be fully booked with reservations.)

(photo by Monica) February 16, 2006 8:46pm

For the second set, she performed tientos and ended with a short bulerias.

Afterwards, the table of older folks pulled me aside again and suggested I go around the restaurant and get some feedback from the audience. A while back, I was doing this all the time, y'know chatting up the customers, making a connection, telling them about my website etc. For some reason or the other, I sort of let that slide for awhile.

But I'll get back into that. For one thing, it's good for helping me overcome my shyness. There's one school of thought that says the people should come to you (the performers) if they really have something to say. But last night I went "to the people" and found that all I had to do was say "hello" and they pretty much bombarded me with compliments and questions about flamenco. That was easy!

This one couple of course asked the question that eventually comes up "Where are you from?"

As for moi, everyone knows about my filipino heritage, but I was born and raised in Los Angeles. Sarah is mostly of Irish descent and has been studying flamenco for three-and-a-half years.

The restaurant always treats us to a free dinner afterwards, but Sarah's ride was already waiting outside so she got her food to go. At least I had a chance to meet her family and pass on the news that Sarah danced very well.

My dinner. February 16, 2006 9:15pm

My dessert. February 16, 2006 9:50pm

I'm looking forward to tonight. It's the Gala de Andalucia concert at Lisner. Afterwards, a lot of my friends are heading to My Bakery Cafe in Georgetown to celebrate my friend Jason's birthday. They've got live latin music and will be open until 1:30am.

Oh yeah, I just heard that one of my housemates is moving out soon. If you're an artist or artistically-inclined and wanna move in to the Pink Flamenco house, email me.