August 6, 2006 7:41pm

Isabel joined us and we started warming up doing some braceo as I played some soleá. Cindy's dad had a professional sound system that he setup complete with a microphone. So we cranked up the volume and I was actually able to hear myself as these three lovely ladies started working on zapateado.

Now I'm no dance teacher but over the past 15 years, I've been to more dance classes than your average dance student. Well OK, I wasn't taking the classes but I was the accompanist and I still had to carefully listen to what the teacher said to the students. So in a way, I have learned a lot intellectually.

I gave Cindy, Isabel and Raquel whatever advice I could give about technique. But most of all I gave them what no dance teacher can give: feedback from an accompanist's perspective. You see, when the day comes that you're actually performing onstage with a guitarist, the quality of the performance weighs heavily on how well you communicate with that guitarist.

Part of that communication is verbal when you give a quick description of the choreographic sequence before the show and part of it is when you all else fails and you have to discreetly stage-whisper your demands onstage. e.g. "Escobilla!" or "Falseta!" or "Solo de pies!" But most of it will be communication through the dancing itself. If you're serious about becoming a performer, I highly recommend practicing as much as possible with a live guitarist and also getting this book by Paco Sevilla: Flamenco Dance: Secrets of the Professionals. A lot of the advice I would give dancers myself, Paco already covers in great detail in this book.

OK, I digressed. As the rehearsal progressed, Cindy's family and friends came down to check us out and we basically gave a little performance for them. Then it was the family's turn to return the favor. Cindy and her dad perfofmed the marinera, a Peruvian folk dance...

August 6, 2006 8:04pm

Then the family joined in and we had a musical jam session...

August 6, 2006 8:53pm

We topped off the evening with a delicious dinner prepared by Cindy's mom. It was a pork dish called chancho which, interestingly, reminded me of a filipino/Spanish dish called adobo. It was accompanied by white rice with peas and pearl onions, caesar salad and baked potatoes with rosemary. Of course they also had some orange-colored salsa picante which I absolutely loved and of course lots of red wine! There was plenty of food to go around so I gladly helped myself to several servings. However, with all this wine and food and fun, I was ready go to sleep (and it was only 10:30pm). I got home a little after midnight, surfed the Internet for an hour and went to bed. Overall a very satisfying evening! My thanks to Cindy, Raquel, Isabel and Cindy's family for everything.