My dancers for this evening were Sarah Hart and Shahram Tehranian. For the first set Sarah did her tientos and Shahram, his Garrotín. Our audience grew little by little as the show progressed.

Sarah. June 17, 2006 9:12pm (photo by Esin)

For those of you who haven't been to Tapeo, it's located in a courtyard next to a major shopping mall. Our stage is at the outdoor patio in front of the restaurant so pretty much everyone in the courtyard can see the dancing and hear the music (I really crank up the volume). All kinds of people, from the cute little kids who grab with their tiny little hands the metal barrier next to the stage and watch in amazement (yes! we're planting the seed of flamenco in their young minds) to the older folks who regale us later with their nostalgic accounts of their Spanish experience and everyone else in between.

Miguelito. June 17, 2006 9:17pm (photo by Esin)

Some stay for the whole show, while others watch for a few minutes and move on. Some pull out their digicam and take a few pics and some even take videos. Yeah it's definitely something unique here. Well, the shopping mall corporation sponsors a summer concert series here and I'm sure it's very entertaining, but c'mon, flamenco is something that you don't see everyday (unless of course, you're me, hehe).

Bedriye joining us onstage for Sevillanas. June 17, 2006 9:18pm (photo by Esin)

For the second set, Shahram did a soleá por bulerías and Sarah danced soleá, the strongest palo in her repertoire. She's obviously very talented and I'm enjoying watching her grow as a performer. You learn all kinds of stuff onstage that you can only learn from experience--mainly how to deal with unexpected technical problems and make it look like everything's under control. Not that there were any major problems. Just the heat--even I was sweating and all I do during the show is sit there and play guitar--yeah it's work but it's not enough to break a sweat.

Not to get too philosophical here, but even though I perform nearly every night, I still give each and every performance all I've got. Perhaps as I try to get into the "groove" so to speak with the dancer, sometimes I reach a point where I'm feeling what they're feeling everything from the bodily thud of each golpe to the sweat dripping down the forehead into the eyes--yeah it stings, I know. You might blink once or twice for relief but you keep on dancing. And even though I'm just sitting there playing guitar, I'm working up quite a sweat too!

Esin, Ayhan and Bedriye. June 17, 2006 10:01pm

This is going sound kind of funny, but it's like riding in the front passenger seat of a car with a friend who drives like a maniac. When said friend comes to a red light at an intersection, she waits until the last second to apply the brakes. But the car keeps on drifting forward and you think you're going to crash into the guy in front and you, the passenger, nervously apply pressure on the floor as if you have an imaginary brake on your side of the car. Logically you know It doesn't make a difference but you do it anyway. The point is that you visualize yourself in your friend's position on the driver side and you do this so intensely (is that word?) to the point where you feel as if you're actually doing the driving. That's me with dancers except I'm not nervous. More like ecstatic. When I'm able to concentrate and I'm playing well, I'm inside their heads and I'm mentally dancing on that stage and they're losing themselves in my music. We become one. It's a pretty cool feeling that I can't get enough of.