OK back to role playing. The bulerias is over and the dancers leave the stage.

April 9, 2006 6:39pm

OK so this dance number is over and now the stage is empty except for me (pretend the seats are filled with audience members). Time for my musical interlude. Yada, yada, yada. OK five minutes later, my guitar solo is over. Applause, applause.

April 9, 2006 6:40pm

The stage is still empty and I'm waiting for the dancers to come back for the next number. Except they're taking longer than expected. Ugh. Only thing I don't like about this theater is that there are no stage wings where I could have the reassurance of seeing the dancers standing and ready to go onstage. Nope.

So I have to just sit there quietly and calmly and act as if everything's under control. It's really not that bad, but when I'm onstage by myself with 150 people staring at me and with no idea if the dancers are ready or not, my sense of elapsed time gets seriously warped. :-) Thank God for stage managers keeping the performers to a tight schedule.

I'm used to it: I go through this routine every week at my tablao gigs where I open the show with a guitar solo whilst the dancers are frantically getting into their costumes and putting on makeup. As I improvise my guitar solo (yeah I never know exactly how long it will take dancers to get ready) I occasionally look up and scan the room for sign of dancers in costume and ready to perform. The moment I get the visual cue that they're ready, I end my solo and start with the first dance number, usually Sevillanas.

Anyway, back to the show. Furia Flamenca shared the stage with students and company members of the Spanish Dance Society. When Furia wasn't onstage I had time to chill backstage and take a few pics.

Heidi Kershaw and Kjersti Ulvestad. April 9, 2006 7:16pm

I've seen Heidi grow as a dancer and a performer over the years. She' s about to graduate from George Mason with a degree in dance. In the pic below is Lourdes Elias about to go onstage with her student dancers.

April 9, 2006 7:17pm

Fast forward an hour or so later, the show is over and the people rush backstage to greet the performers. We had flamenco celebrity, Manolo Leiva, come to greet Antonio Santaella, Furia Flamenca's special guest artist. Antonio and Manolo are longtime friends who probably have personally worked with more famous flamencos than you and I will meet in a lifetime! Antonio is a dancer based in Puerto Rico and Manolo is a cantaor based in the DC area.

Antonio Santaella and Manolo Leiva. April 9, 2006 8:30pm

Meanwhile, the last remaining dancers carefully put away their costumes...

Katherine and Estela. April 9, 2006 8:32pm

Aref is packed up and ready to go out and celebrate!

April 9, 2006 8:33pm

My thanks to Furia Flamenca and the Joy of Motion stage crew for a fun flamenco-filled weekend!

It's 9:01am now. I'm going to back to bed for a little while longer, shower and get dressed to meet a friend for lunch in Dupont Circle. Might as well go to Cafe Citron early and drop off my sound system for tonight's show. See you there!