Behzad Habibzai, Jason Marcinski, Ramin Rad, Jen and Richard Marlow. November 26, 2006 12:42am

In the above pic, by sheer coincidence, all in one place stood the DC members of the Flamenco-Teacher.com forum.

Sevillanas line dancing. November 26, 2006 12:57am

The "Pavorotti" of cante flamenco in DC: Torcuato Zamora with Edwin Aparicio doing palmas, Jason Vera y Aragón on cajón and Ramin Rad accompanying on guitar (not pictured). :-) November 26, 2006 1:11am

More Sevillanas line dancing. November 26, 2006 1:13am

Eventually, it would be great to get dance students from a wider variety of local flamenco schools to come to the Sala Rociera parties. Laurel-based teacher Natalia Monteleón has managed to convince many of her dance students to come. This was very evident when she asked them to all come up and dance Fandangos de Huelva with live guitar and cante provided by Torcuato Zamora. There were more people "onstage" than in the audience!

Fandangos de Huelva. November 26, 2006 1:25am

I encourage students from other schools to come to future parties. Besides the social opportunity of meeting other local flamenco students, you can try out your Sevillanas or other choreographies with live flamenco music. It's a good reality-check in your flamenco education. You've heard me rant about this before: recorded music is fun to a certain point, but you can't interact with a recording. Think about the reverse: can you imagine a guitarist accompanying a video?

Dancing with live music in some ways is more difficult because as a dancer you need to communicate what you want solely through the clear confidence in your movements. On the other hand a live musician can accomodate the dancer if she forgets a section or accidentaly gets out of compás. But more importantly, the live musician will support the emotional expression of the dancer and reflect that feeling in the music he spontaneously creates on the guitar. It's a pretty cool feeling when the guitarist notices every little nuance of your dancing and plays something to musically support it.

Recordings are good to a certain point. But eventually as a flamenco, you'll be dancing with live music. Might as well get exposed to it early. Don't become one of those "advanced" students who can perform complex choreographies with a recording but can't work with a guitarist to save her life. :-)

Oops. Looks like I did go off on a little rant anyway. Anywayz, back to reporting on the party...

November 26, 2006 1:31am

November 26, 2006 1:36am

Even Baltimore-based teacher/dancer Tamara Sol showed up and stayed 'til the end. She was smart enough to arrange to crash at a friend's house. November 26, 2006 1:37am

Sometimes I half-jokingly call Tamara the "sexy scientist." You see, three years ago, we had a Halloween party here at the Pink Flamenco and she arrived wearing a white lab coat, designer black frame eyeglasses etc--checkout the pics. Funny thing is that in real life she is a scientist and I'm sure most guys will agree with me on this: Tamara is sexy. Hehe.

Of course I've gotta mention my friend Carol Basilio who came all the way out from Philly to be at this party. Unfortunately, I didn't get her in any of my photos that night. Oh well. Where were you hiding Carol??? :-)

Kike, Emily, Sarah and Juan. November 26, 2006 1:38am

November 26, 2006 1:39am

Tamara doing a little bulerías solo. November 26, 2006 1:47am

Natalia Monteleón's turn to do a solo. November 26, 2006 1:49am

Carlton Ashton' turn. November 26, 2006 1:51am

Sarah, Pam and Emily get up to do a little bulería choreography. November 26, 2006 1:55am

November 26, 2006 1:56am

Tamara and Juan dancing Sevillanas. November 26, 2006 2:25am

Pam and Jason in Sevillanas. November 26, 2006 2:25am

Behzad congratulating Emily on her palmas. November 26, 2006 2:27am

Carlton and Jen doing the seated version of Sevillanas as Jason provides palmas. November 26, 2006 2:28am

Natalie and Pam doing Sevillanas. November 26, 2006 2:28am

Pam and Carlton in Sevillanas. November 26, 2006 2:31am

We're skipping the month of December on account of holiday-related schedule conflicts. So the Sala Rociera committee decided to schedule the next party on Saturday January 27, 2007. Mark your calendars! That gives you about two months to at least brush up on your Sevillanas. Get to work! :-)

It's 1:39am now. I managed to publish three blog entries in a 24-hour period. Pretty good, no? It's not just writing commentary. I have to select and edit photos too. It's labor-intensive but it's all in the name of flamenco. And through my photo blog, if I can persuade just one more person every now and then to come out to a local flamenco show or Sala Rociera party, I'll consider all my hard work a success. Going to take a nap for a few hours and work on some more stuff for my website. Goodnight for now!