February 24, 2007 6:43pm (photo by Curt Krhounek)

It's pretty exciting for me to see the Baltimore flamenco scene grow little by little. This past Saturday my dancer friend Tamara Sol Flys gave an introductory flamenco workshop organized by Things to Do in Baltimore.

Tamara writes:
Hi Michael! Here are the pics from the Intro to Flamenco class that I taught for Things to Do Baltimore. The pics were taken by one of the owners of the organization - Curt Krhounek. The class was sold out at over 20 people! We had a lot of fun! We've already schedule another one for April 14th. It will be posted on www.thingstodobaltimore.com in the coming days. If people are interested they should sign up quickly since it does sell out. At the next workshop I'll focus on technique and the 2nd copla of Sevillanas.

February 24, 2007 6:40pm (photo by Curt Krhounek)

February 24, 2007 6:31pm (photo by Curt Krhounek)

February 24, 2007 5:15pm (photo by Curt Krhounek)

Tamara performs every Tuesday at Red Maple. Call 410-547-0149. For more information about Tamara and the lateset updates on the Baltimore flamenco scene visit her website at www.tamarasolflamenco.com

Posted by Miguelito at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, it's like 1:18am on Monday as I type these words. No, I'm not at home. But there is a computer here with Internet access, yay! I really should go to bed soon, but while I'm here, I might as well write a quick blog before calling it a night.

Everyone likes receiving gifts, right? I certainly do. But while I do appreciate the finer things in life, it's the thought behind the gift that really matters. Oh and let's not forget the presentation.

So the other day, I was hanging out with this dancer friend of mine and we were working out some rhythmic ideas for one of her dances--just the usual rehearsal kind of routine. But you know how it is, coming up with new contras and variations takes a lot of concentration so you gotta take a break. So we sat on the couch and talked for a while.

At one point, I needed to excuse myself, so I set my guitar down on the couch and a few minutes later, I returned but instead of picking up my instrument and sitting next to her, I just grabbed a nearby stool, sat down and picked up where our conversation left off.

We talked for a little while longer, and then totally out of the blue, she says, "Miguelito, teach me something new on the guitar."

"Sure. OK." I was caught a little off guard but I just shrugged it off, got up and picked up the guitar and found a little surprise...

On the seat of the couch was a small teddy bear tied with a ribbon to a box. "What is this?"

She smiled and gestured me to open it. So I untied the ribbon, released the teddy bear, removed the box lid and carefully peeled away the layer of tissue paper to reveal the contents: inside was this beautiful gold-plated miniature-guitar. I was very pleasantly surprised and touched. I mean it's not Christmas or my birthday or anything so this little gift was totally unexpected.

Apparently, she saw this in the store a few months ago and being that I am guitarist, she thought of me and decided to buy it and hold on to it, until she could find just the right time to give it to me.

Of course I totally love this little gift, but more importantly it's the thought behind it that really counts. There doesn't have to be a special occasion. It's just a way a saying, "You're a good friend and I appreciate what you do for me."

February 25, 2007

Every now and then when I step back and look at the big picture I realize that while flamenco is my way of making a living, it's also something very important to me personally. Many (but not all) of my flamenco colleagues usually end up working the most with artists who are or eventually become their closest friends. That's the way it is for me. I figure that if I'm going to be spending a lot of time involved in the art of flamenco, I should do it with people that I get along with very well on a personal level.

Conventional wisdom says that it's not good to mix business and friendships. Oh well, what can I say? Art is all about exploring boundaries and taking risks. This way of thinking does not always give perfect predictable results but it leaves one open to greater creative possibilities.

Posted by Miguelito at 1:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Genoveva and Anna Menendez in Sevillanas. February 24, 2007 11:41pm

It's 3:04pm on Sunday as I type these words. Despite going to bed at around 5:00am, I got up at 10. When I looked out the window, at first I was pleasantly surprised to see snowfall. A minute or so later, the pleasantness was replaced by dread: I realized that I had better go out NOW and start shoveling cuz you know what happens when it rains later and then freezes overnight: you get dangerously slippery rock hard ice which is practically impossible to manually remove.

I like to think of myself as a good citizen having done my part to make the sidewalk in front of my house clean of snow, but I did the shoveling for selfish ol' me for the reason that it would be less of a pain in the butt for me to enter and exit the house with my hundred pounds or so of sound equipment later this week.

Anywayz, last night after my gig at Tapeo (which was a LOT of fun, by the way--I love the combination of dancers Ginette Perea and Samantha Zerpa!), we had the Sala Rociera flamenco party at my house. I arrived early for a change (around 11:00pm) so I had time to chill and socialize a bit before having to set up my sound system and start the live music portion of the evening.

I was very pleased to finally see both Genoveva and Anna Menendez at the party.

It was Genoveva's first time here at the Pink Flamenco--although I did remember inviting her here for the DC Flamenco 10th anniversary party last year when she had just arrived in the area and was looking to meet and network with the local flamencos. Now of course, Genoveva is well-established in the community and making a quite a name for herself as a teacher, not to mention the fact she's also an amazing dancer too!

I don't remember exactly when I last saw Anna here for a Sala Rociera party. And although it had been awhile she still has done her part over the past year to encourage her own dance students to attend this great opportunity to dance with live music (provided by yours truly and other local professionals), meet other flamencos and just have an overall good time.

I'm kinda chatty right now cuz I'm a bit delirious from the serious cardio workout I got shovelin' snow. Plus I have a feelin' I'm going to be stuck in the house for the rest of the day, ugh. So if you're on my buddy list, buzz me cuz I'm definitely in da mood to chat!! But I'll just shut up for a few minutes and let you enjoy the rest of da pics...

Genoveva, Edwin Aparicio and Tamara Sol. February 24, 2007 11:43pm

Here a few random pics from the Grand Ballroom at the Pink Flamenco.

Sevillanas line dancing. February 25, 2007 12:13am

February 25, 2007 12:13am

February 25, 2007 12:18am

February 25, 2007 12:19am

Samantha Zerpa and Guadalupe Cerritos in Sevillanas. February 25, 2007 12:34am

We had a raffle ticket drawing for the prize of a free class in Edwin Aparicio's upcoming workshop.

Vanna White, um I mean Genoveva, drawing a raffle ticket. February 25, 2007 12:40am

Torcuato, Miguelito and Jason providing Sevillanas music. February 25, 2007 12:56am (photo by EdwinAparicio)

More Sevillanas line dancing. February 25, 2007 1:27am

My housemate got home around 3:00am and caught the tail end of our party. A couple of us flamencos stuck around awhile so I asked Beth to bring her laptop down so we could plug it into the sound system and get some swing music going. She's a serious swing dancer and since I had learned the basics when I was regularly working at the Alliance Dance Institute last year, I thought that I might as well put my lessons to use for the first time in awhile.

Swing dancing. February 25, 2007 3:32am

Don't know how long we kept at it, but it was probably another half and hour or so. I even remembered the basic step for the Fox Trot (that I learned last year in ballroom class) which worked with some of the Big Band swing music! And Beth gladly got us all started with the basic swing step and got the party vibe going again with a different feel--it wasn't flamenco but it was still good. Must've been 4:00am or so and eventually even us late night party people have to go to bed sooner or later. Someone took the initiative and eventually we called it a night.

I'll probably crank out another blog entry later today. Stay tuned and stay warm and dry!

P.S. in the craziness of last night I seemed to have misplaced my mobile phone, or maybe it fell out of my jacket while I was shoveling snow and it's probably now buried in one of the five-foot tall mounds of snow I made. So if you need to reach me, send me an email or an instant message to dcflamenco at Yahoo! Messenger or Google Talk.

Better yet, put on your tire chains and drive up to the Pink Flamenco and bring me a Tupperware full of hot chicken noodle soup (or chupe de camaron) or a venti hot chocolate from Starbucks. I'll be your best friend forever. Hehe. Well, maybe just for the afternoon.

Posted by Miguelito at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ginette Perea, Rafaela Carrasco and Miguelito. February 18, 2007 10:05pm (photo by Claudia la Peruana)

It's 1:31 on Sunday as I type these words. Last night dancer Ginette Perea and I both took the night off from our gig at Tapeo to attend the Rafaela Carrasco concert at Lisner Auditorium. Speaking for myself, it was the only concert in the Flamenco Festival series that I was able to attend, but oh well, that's one of the few drawbacks of being a busy local performer.

It was a 70-minute program without intermission:

Encuentros (bulería)
Began with an overhead spotlight on center stage with a dancer, presumably Rafaela, executing short choreographic phrases without musical accompaniment. Then suddenly another spotlight came on to reveal another dancer, then it would go dark as another spotlight came on to reveal yet another. I couldn't help imagining the challenge for the lighting person staying on top of all the cues.

Eventually they'd leave their spots to interact with the other dancers, and sometimes the males lifted their female counterparts, turned them sideways and did a slow turn before gently releasing them. Sometimes I was caught off gaurd when the two males would dance with each other.

And despite the fact that all the dancers were wearing flamenco shoes, there were many times where they made a deliberate effort to not make a sound. (Although later in the program one of the dancers did in fact dance barefoot--something I would normally see in modern dance.)

While the whole experience was well-executed and very very beautiful to watch, the flamenco purist side of me was dying to know, "Um, what is this?" But I just told that side of me to chill out for awhile, sit back and enjoy and ask questions later.

When the music at first came on, yeah it was in the bulerías compás (finally something I can recognize!) but the instrumentation was different, most notably pianist Pablo Suárez was more musically prominent using the more jazzier sounding extended chordal voicings, meanwhile percussionist Nacho Arimany seated cross-legged and barefoot was playing a variety of instruments such as clay-pots (I asked Nacho what these were called but can't recall their names) and a cajón laid on its side so he could play it like a bongo.

This first piece set the tone for the evening. Rafaela Carrasco most definitely was here to entertain us, but at the same time she wasn't afraid to push the artistic envelope a bit and challenge our perceptions and personal tastes.

Here's a relevant quote from her interview at Flamenco-World:
"I'm tired of sensationalist shows seeking easy applause; I'm against selling oneself out. I need to be told honesty even if it's very scant. I don't ask for a big deal technically; I don't care if you give me three turns or one or none. What I want is for you to tell me truth and honesty."

Solo un solo (Malagueña)
Again this piece opened with a single spotlight but this time it was a lone flamenco guitarist playing in a libre style. I didn't recall the sequence of palos from the program and it was too dark to read it at that moment, so I played the mental game of "Guess that palo." My instincts told me it something from the fandangos family and sure enough it was confirmed a few minutes later from the opening "Ay!" of singer Antonio Campos as he and a female dancer walked onstage from opposite sides. When the rhythm of the guitar became more regular, the guitarist played very simple traditional accompaniment for the palo of a Malagueña.

Falduca (Farruca)
In my experience, it's been very rare these days to encounter a Farruca in a concert. The accompaniment for this piece consisted of guitar and cello, although the singer did sing an entrada then quickly left. A dim spotlight came on stage left revealing what appeared to be a pile of black fabric. I must've had this puzzled look on my face, because as I was about to figure out what it was, Ginette nudged me, "It's a bata!" (a bata de cola is a very long flamenco skirt that was used a lot in the old days) And sure enough that's what it was. A female dancer picked it up and held it behind her as she started to slowly move around stage.

At some point more lights came on to reveal two male dancers, and they were wearing bata de colas too! The flamenco purist side of me woke up again and asked, "What's going on here?" I told it to shut up again and went back to enjoying the performance. When I thought about later, it dawned on me that since the legendary female flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya garnered her fame by going against tradition wearing pants (when women at the time only danced in skirts) and danced the Farruca (which was traditionally only a male dance), why not turn the tables a bit and have men wear skirts and dance a Farruca? I tried very very hard to keep an open mind, but I just couldn't watch these guys dancing with bata de colas without chuckling to myself. They knew how to handle the bata as well as any dancer I've seen, but was still a bit on the strange side.

Eventually I stopped fixating on the cross-dressing costume detail and sat back and enjoyed the piece as a whole. I especially liked the music. Farruca can be a very repetitive and musically-numbing but the guitarist was very creative in his choice of harmonies. There was just enough of a musical hint of a traditional Farruca that I could still recognize the palo so that when he musically seduced me into another harmonic realms it didn't bother me much because at the same time I was mesmerized by the almost human vocal quality of José Luís López's cello.

Entre dos (Taranto)
When this piece came on, I knew that a lot the local dance students in the audience were probably on the edge of their seats enjoying every moment with anticipation. Local flamenco teacher Genoveva is currently teaching a Taranto in her classes. Anna Menendez happens to also be using Taranto a lot in her classes. Now that their students are armed with a basic knowledge about this palo, I'm sure they found a lot in this performance that resonated with what they learned. Speaking of Anna's classes, I'm about to head out and play for her class in about an hour so I'll quickly finish up this blog and hopefully some of you readers out there will add some commentary about the other pieces in Rafaela Carrasco's Saturday night concert at Lisner Auditorium. (Or maybe I'll just pick up where I left off when I get home later tonight)

De antaño (Martinete)
Soledad acompañada (Soleá)

Donna, Gina and Ginette. February 18, 2007 9:30pm

For the past few years, the folks at Lisner, director Rosanna Ruscetti and marketing director Carl Graci, have been kind enough to give me pair of complimentary tickets as a kind gesture for all the promotional efforts I do for the Flamenco Festival. The past couple of years, I usually invite my dancer friend Ginette Perea to join me. But I also wanted to do something special for her mom, Gina, who does so much for us from giving rides to gigs, creating costumes, taking pics and videos, moral support backstage and in the audience...the list goes on and on. Her birthday is actually tomorrow (Monday), but I decided to surprise her with a pair of free tickets to see Rafaela Carrasco. I wasn't able to get seats next to Ginette and I so I got her two tickets so she could invite a friend. Gina asked her coworker Donna to come along. Needlessly to say, they were both very pleasantly surprised to be able to go to Lisner last night--and of course I got them great seats in the orchestra section. Happy birthday Gina!

There was no intermission, so there wasn't the usual DC flamenco community social gathering in the lobby. I love seeing all the familiar friendly faces of the community all in one place! But It seemed that most of the people quickly left after the show. I did manage to take a few pics...

Sharon, Ulrika Frank and María Roncal. February 18, 2007 9:43pm

I'm planning to interview Ulrika and her company Mirada Flamenca next week to help promote her last show in the DC area before she moves back to Sweden.

Roxana, Jason Vera y Aragón Indira Terrazas and Ginette. February 18, 2007 9:48pm

It was Jason's birthday the previous night, but I think they were going to continue the party at Las Tapas. I went there the previous night and stayed out until 4:30am and I decided to pass this time, but we had to go out and celebrate Gina's birthday anyway so Ginette and I went backstage to say hello to Rafaela and company before heading off to T.G.I. Friday's.

I was surprised not to see a crowd the local DC flamencos at the stage door. The moment we walked in we ran into percussionist Nacho whom we met two years earlier here at Lisner when he performed with Rocio Molina. Nacho's a really friendly guy who spoke to us briefly about his experience working with Rafaela. I can't translate his words perfectly, but basically he said that he very much enjoys working with this company, of course, but more importantly it's a chance for him to artistically explore new areas of flamenco with a variety of musical influences. One thing that stood out quite prominently was his syllabic vocalizations that you would normally only find in Indian music (I don't know enough about Indian music to be more specific).

I'll email Arimany to get a more accurate translation, but in the meantime checkout his website.

Ginette and Nacho Arimany. February 18, 2007 9:59pm

Of course, as expected I couldn't recognize any of the faces of the artists in the green room. You know how it is: without the costumes and make-up, the cast is almost unrecognizable in their ordinary street clothes.

Fortunately, Arimany found Rafaela for us and after introducing ourselves and offering our congratulations, Ginette asked her about the significance of her not wearing the bata de cola. Why did she merely hold the bata against her body instead? Rafaela said that the purpose for that was no more than to introduce the next dance which was a Farruca. Ginette found it interesting because she had never seen a dancer do that before.

We would have stayed a little longer and asked a few more questions, but poor Rafaela was coughing quite a bit. What a trooper! So we cut our backstage visit short, politely asked for a picture which she was gracious enough to allow, said goodbye and headed back out.

Right now I have to get ready for Anna's dance class. In the meantime, I wanna hear from some of you out there who read my blog. What did you think of last night's show? Ciao for now!

P.S. Here's the Washington Post review of Rafaela's concert at Lisner. Also, read Carol Basilio's blog for another review.

Posted by Miguelito at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Paco de Málaga, Joaquín Grilo, Ana Martinez and Isabel Bayón. February 13, 2007 11:46pm

It's 2:55am on Wednesday as I type these words. Yeah it's late but the good news is that I got into the after-concert artist reception for free--well actually I was invited (my thanks to the staff of Lisner and the Embassy of Spain). The bad news is that going home after the metro closed at midnight, I had to take a taxi which charged me double-fare due to the weather. Oh well. At least I got some pics of the performers and got to meet them in the swanky surroundings of the Circle Bistro.

I took my time nursing a single glass of delicious red wine while enjoying a fancy assortment of tapas--although the presentation was gorgeous as they were served on silver platters by wandering servers, some of them were so artfully prepared, I coudn't quite identify what they were made of, but trust me, they were all very tasty.

I found it funny when I heard someone mention that some of the dancers seemed shorter than they expected. There's something about being onstage, apart from being elevated a few feet, that makes these dancers seem taller. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that we are visually drawn towards them onstage and somehow the emotional impact of the cante, guitars, palmas, jaleo and percussion combined makes them seem bigger. And let's not forget good posture, line, costuming, facial expression. So many factors.

Despite their larger-than-life presence onstage, someone else mentioned that in the intimate ambience at the reception, they were pleasantly surprised that these "stars" are really down-to-earth kind of people. I found myself very comfortable just walking up and talking to them. Although I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that, with the exception of Joaquín Grilo whom I've met before here in DC, the rest of the cast I didn't really know that well at least not well enough to instantly be able to say who's who. Not that I don't appreciate them. It's happened before when I've gone to concerts in the past to see well-known flamenco artists. After the performance, I'd go backstage as usual and find that I can't recognize anyone with certainty. Well sometimes I think I know, but of course, I don't want to offend some of them by using the wrong name.

You all saw the Bienal de Sevilla show last night at Lisner, so there's no need for me to say more about the artists. But feel free to post your comments on my message board. I'll just shut up now and show you a few more pics...

Nelson Sitton, Karine, Joaquín Grilo and Lourdes Elias. February 13, 2007 11:47pm

Well, OK, let me just talk briefly about a few of the DC flamencos I saw at the reception. Those of you who have been involved with the DC flamenco scene as long as I have will recognize Nelson. He performed for several years with the Spanish Dance Society more than 12 years ago. Recently, he was studying flamenco for a few months in Madrid and is now living in DC. Welcome back Nelson!

Of course, we all know the very lovely Lourdes Elias. Although I did admit to her that I've been neglecting her the past few years. I just realized that I haven' t published any pics of Lourdes or interviewed her recently. Note to self: schedule a visit with the Spanish Dance Society.

Karine, a local dance student and frequent supporter of the local tablao shows was there with her husband Jan. She very much wanted to meet and talk with the performers most especially Isabel Bayón. I acted as translator and I did surprisingly well in communicating back and forth. But when we were talking with Mr Grilo, I did something that a professional interpreter shouldn't do: I added a little extra commentary in my Spanish translation that Karine didn't actually say. Maybe it was the little wine I had that inspired it, but I did manage to get a good laugh out of Joaquín. When I explained to Karine what I actually said in my translation, she laughed too and said, "That's a good line." I won't repeat it here, but if you see me in person sometime, ask me and I'll tell you what I said.

Joaquín jamming with the cantaores. February 13, 2007 11:50pm

Miguel Marín is a number of amazing things at the same time: producer, artistic director, manager, the list goes on and on. He's one of the major driving forces in making this highly successful flamenco festival happen. Combine that with strengths of Lisner Auditorium's director Rosanna Ruscetti who uses business skills, arts administration experience, intuition as an arts lover and at the same time manages to push the envelope while keeping a fine line between what the people want and what new and interesting stuff is out there. These are the people who make sure everything behind the scenes is working smoothly so the artists we are paying to see can focus on just on the performance.

Miguel Marín, Isabel Bayón and Rosanna Ruscetti. February 14, 2007 12:01am

Of course, I absolutely have to mention Lisner's marketing director Carl Graci, who I'm in frequent contact with each year as soon as the festival artists have been confirmed. Of course, it's not just the flamencos in town that come to the concerts, but when it's time to reach the local flamenco commuinty Carl calls upon me, DC's flamenco information guru. How is it that the DC flamencos end up getting the best seats at Lisner year after year? Perhaps it's because every now and then, Carl leaks out flamenco announcements to me before releasing them to the general public, which I pass on to you the DC flamenco community!

Olga Pericet and Nelson Sitton. February 14, 2007 12:15am

It seems that Nelson and Olga Pericet know each other from Carboneras tablao in Madrid. I didn't catch the whole conversation because I had to pull away suddenly when someone else called me over, "Miguelito! Take a picture of me with (insert famous flamenco artist's name)."

Nelson Sitton, Manuel Liñán, Marco Flores and Karine. February 14, 2007 12:22am

OK so it was cool to hang out with the stars, but more importantly I had the opportunity to talk a little about myself and make them aware that we have an active community here in DC that very much appreciates the art of flamenco. When I spoke with Olga about the performance, she mentioned that she could sense the positive energy of the Washington DC audience.

I'm very pleased that Miguel Marin selected Washington DC for the USA debut of the "Gala 2007: Bienal de Sevilla" concert and judging by the overall vibe that I picked up on at the reception, I'm pretty sure that the artists felt they got their USA tour off to a excellent start.

In my brief conversation with Isabel Bayón she described how hard it was to get so much done in so few rehearsals. In my own experience of doing several runs of the same show in a short amount of time I know that the first performance is in many ways the hardest since you don't know what to expect until you're actually out there. The anticipation drains you before you even set foot onstage. So when I asked Isabel if she was tired after the rehearsals, the travelling and the performance, I was confident she'd say yes. But instead she just smiled and shook her head, no!

Here's the Washington Post's review of the concert.

Posted by Miguelito at 2:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At Cafe Citron: Mariya dancing soleá with Jason on cajón. February 12, 2007 10:03pm (photo by Ronaldo)

It's 10:48am on Tuesday as I type these words. This is going to be a one pic blog today. Got lots to do and the snow is not helping much--I mean it's not that bad, but I just want to finish up my personal errands so I can spend the rest of the day chillin' out. Perhaps I'll go check out a movie this afternoon. Plus I just heard that my show tonight at Las Tapas is cancelled because of the snow which kinda sucks. I mean, yeah half of the time, the people there don't pay attention to the show even though I'm performing with the best flamenco dancers in DC. But I still have a good time and I need my flamenco fix!

I can remember 10 years ago, I was performing at El Bodegón restaurant in DC (it's now closed). There would be seatings at certain times for the customers like 7:00pm, 8:00pm and 9:00pm. When everyone was served dessert, the maitre d' would dim the lights and walk up to the microphone and in a very classy way would introduce the show. Perhaps people in general (not just limited to Americans) are less cultured and have worse manners than decades ago, but the audience we had 10 years ago was for the most part very respectful and I felt that we had their attention for the duration of the show. I mean, I'm not expecting everyone to love us and I realize that a restaurant is not the Kennedy Center, but at least they should have the decency to be quiet enough so that others can enjoy our show.

Anywayz, last night at Cafe Citron was a lot of fun (90% of the time I have a blast there, but we all have our bad nights). If you've been to Citron, you are familiar with the layout which is very narrow and long. So that when we set up the stage at one end of this place the space where people can stand or sit to see the show is very limited. So people literally crowd around the stage. When there are enough people, it feels like we're playing at a private party with all our friends gathered around giving palmas and jaleo. And it so happened we did have a lot of friends last night some of whom got up to dance some Sevillanas. We normally do two shows and when the DJ comes in at 10:00pm, I pack up my sound gear and hang out with my friends. But this time we had a few people requesting a third show! But I already had half of my equipment broken down and my dancer Mariya was already changed. Just performing for ourselves is pretty satisfying on its own, but it's also nice to be appreciated by our audience.

Just heard that flamenco guitarist Gino D'Auri passed away January 29th. You probably don't recognize the name, but it has special significance for me. I bought a recording of his titled "Passion Play" in my senior year in college when I first got involved in flamenco. At the time, there was this very beautiful girl, Isabel Montes, that I was hanging out with a lot at Cal State Fullerton and she happened to be a flamenco guitarist and she was practically my first teacher. So I listened to Gino D'Auri's "Passion Play" a lot back then and occasionally when I listen to that recording today, I'm transported back to all those good times in college. To give you an idea of his music, here are a few sample tracks.

While I lived in the Los Angeles area, I saw him perform a few times at El Cid restaurant in Hollywood. He was accompanying a dancer friend of mine, Lorinda, that I knew from the Blanca Luz dance academy in Buena Park (Southern California) where I got my first start in accompanying dancers. I also saw him accompany singer Chinin de Triana at a guitar festival in Northridge.

I never actually met Gino but it doesn't really matter. He touched me emotionally with his music and continues to inspire me today. Now that I'm a performer, I'm in that same position to inspire others although I'm not famous yet (well maybe a little ) but I still occasionally meet people who tell me that I inspired them to start learning guitar, or start taking flamenco dance classes or go to Spain or that I just made their night special. It's a cool feeling being able to touch people in this way. Thank you Gino. You will live on in my heart, my soul and my music!

Posted by Miguelito at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Samantha, Miguelito and Ginette posing after the show at Tapeo. February 10, 2007 9:26pm (photo by Ginny)

It's 2:24pm on Sunday as I type these words. It was a late night last night so I just got up a short while ago, chatted online with a flamenco friend, got some breakfast and settled back down in front of the computer to publish a few pics from the Saturday night flamenco show at Tapeo.

Just like last week, the dancers were Ginette Perea and Samantha Zerpa. So far this combination is working out very nicely. Besides being very good dancers and feeling very much at home performing onstage, there's that special chemistry that we seem to have and we're not the only ones to notice it. Even the members of the audience commented on it too.

Admittedly, Samantha is just getting used to performing with live guitar, but she's got an excellent sense of timing and I can start to feel her responding to my music and vice-versa. And like many of my dancer friends, flamenco is not only her passion, but it's also a sort of escape. No matter what stressful things were going on earlier that day, when Samantha takes the stage, she totally immerses her self in the flamenco ambience and we get to see another side of her, a more passionate side, and Ginette and I feed off of that in an artistic way of course, and allow her take us on a flamenco journey. Pretty cool stuff!

As for Ginette, I've been working with her almost every week for the past three years now and as I said to one of the members of the audience after the show, "I never get tired of performing with her because she really listens to the music and in moments of inspiration spontaneously comes up with beautiful rhythmic variations. So I always have to stay alert. It's actually pretty exciting just to see what she'll come up with next."

Someone else commented, "That must be very difficult to not know what's coming next." Well yeah, if you're just getting started accompanying dancers, it is hard. But between the two of us, we've got enough experience to pull it off with confidence. Borrowing terms from sports psychology, when you're on top of your game and totally in the zone, it's almost as if we are one: in this mental state I'm able to pick up on Ginette's very subtle cues and instantaneously provide the appropriate guitar accompaniment and she answers back with more cool dance moves and it just goes on and on back and forth. It's challenging but it's very very satisfying when you're able to pull it off successfully. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Add flamenco singing on top of all this and the experience gets taken up to another level!

Ginette responded, "You don't realize it, but there is a lot of communication going on between the guitarist and the dancer and Miguelito is really good at following me."

You get the idea. Going off on a tangent...this morning I read the interview with dancer Sara Jerez-Marlow titled The Whirling World of a Flamenco Dancer in the Sunday Source section of the Washington Post. I enjoyed reading it of course and was very pleased that she mentioned DCFlamenco.com to the interviewer. Thanks Sara!

And the timing is perfect since the article was published as Lisner Auditorium's 7th annual Flamenco Festival just got started. Anything to make more people aware of the local flamenco scene is a good thing. But more importantly, this 15 minutes of fame, is a great opportunity to squeeze in a dash of education about this very popular but often very misuderstood art form. Loved the way Sarah responded to the question, "The dance at times seems very serious and dramatic. What's going through your head while you dance?"

Sara said, "...you listen to what the cante [song] is doing; you get into the words or the music that surrounds you. I get a lot of energy from the people in the audience, and it really sends me to a different place, whether it's a happy dance or a sad dance."

OK, enough talk. I know you people love to see pics, so here you go. Enjoy!

Samantha dancing alegrías. February 10, 2007 9:10pm (photo by Ginny)

February 10, 2007 9:11pm (photo by Ginny)

Samantha setting the tempo for her solo de pies (footwork solo). February 10, 2007 9:12pm (photo by Ginny)

Ginette Perea executing the opening llamada for her soleá por bulerías. February 10, 2007 9:15pm (photo by Ginny)

February 10, 2007 9:15pm (photo by Ginny)

Cool silhouette of Ginette and Miguelito. February 10, 2007 9:16pm (photo by Ginny)

February 10, 2007 9:17pm (photo by Ginny)

Samantha dancing a buleria. February 10, 2007 9:21pm (photo by Ginny)

Ginette dancing a buleria. February 10, 2007 9:23pm (photo by Ginny)

February 10, 2007 9:24pm (photo by Ginny)

The flamenco show at Tapeo is every Saturday at round 7:30pm and 8:30pm. Call 703-416-6431 for more information and reservations.

OK, it's about 3:00pm now, and I'm about to head out to DC Dance Collective to play for Anna Menendez's 4:00pm class and we'll see where things go from there. Ciao for now!

P.S. Read this review of Lisner Auditoruim flamenco festival by Ken McNaughton.

Posted by Miguelito at 2:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My now clean Windows XP desktop. February 9, 2007 10:36am

It's already Friday and I haven't blogged since, when was it, oh Sunday. But I have been thinking about it during my few free moments the past couple of days. Here's what's been keeping me away from blogging:

I've been bogged down with configuring all kinds of new web-related software that I'm testing out. And you know how it goes with computer code: sometimes when you leave out a single character or accidentally spell a variable in lower case when in should be in upper case etc, the whole program crashes. Yeah, I know it's usually just a simple tiny error that gets in my way, but it's the tracking down of the error that takes forever--for me, it's like looking for a spelling error in a foreign language that I don't know.

Mainly I've been looking for a program that allows me to publish polls just for fun and to get an idea of what's on the mind of my loyal readers. I did implement some really cool poll software a few years ago (check out these flamenco poll results), if you remember, but then I found out it was a high security risk--basically it made my website directory an open playground for malicious online hackers. Ugh.

Then my webhost decided to upgrade a certain feature of their services, which is supposed to be a good thing right? Well to accomodate this upgrade, I had to (and still am) replace a few lines of code on a lot of pages on my website.

Another thing keeping me busy is that I've announced a few upcoming events including Edwin Aparicio's Flamenco Master Class in March, Ulrika Frank's workshop series (lots of cool topics focusing on stuff like llamadas, remates, vueltas etc) and the Post Gala Artist reception and just a few minutes ago, I created a new banner in Photoshop for the next Sala Rociera flamenco party. You would think that it would take like five minutes to just cut and paste text but I like to double-check the info and edit it to make sure everything is accurate, complete and fits in with the format of my website.

Omigod, my head's about to explode. I promised myself I'd get my DC Flamenco postcards printed by today so I can have a stack of promo materials to leave in the lobby at Lisner Auditorium during the Flamenco Festival. At this point, I'm almost tempted to just skip out on that though since I figure people will come across my site anyway when they get home from one of the Festival concerts all inspired. All they have to do is type in the search terms "DC" and "Flamenco" in Google and I come out first every time!

I know I've been falling behind on publishing photos contributed by my friends. Part of the problem was that some of my friends have these newer cameras which output photos in humongous file sizes that would make my mailbox explode! So I finally got myself a mini flash drive (Mini TravelDrive U3) so I could visit my friend's house, plug it into her computer, download the photos in seconds. I love it!

Despite all the frenzy, I did manage to find the time to go to the movies with a friend Wednesday night. Saw Pedro Almodóvar's Volver. For me it was the second time to see this movie, but it's pretty good. Love the scene where Penelope Cruz lip-syncs to Estrella Morente's cante.

Anywayz, earlier this morning, to give myself a sense of starting anew, I cleaned up my Windows XP desktop (see pic above) and got rid of all kinds of extraneous files and unnecessary software. Feels great! I also love and highly recommend the Google sidebar which I keep on the right-side of my desktop--the sleek interface lets me add a web radio that lets me listen to flamenco, salsa, trance and other kinds of cool music while I work.

As for today, I've got a few errands to take care of before a flamenco rehearsal scheduled at 2:30pm which gives me perhaps an hour or two to squeeze in a nap before heading out to my Friday night gig. It's cool though. Next month will mark 7 years that I've been doing flamenco full-time. Yeah there are stressful moments and times when I can barely catch my breath but it still beats a boring day job anytime!

Posted by Miguelito at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After the first flamenco show for the night: dancers Ginette Perea and Samantha Zerpa with Miguelito at Tapeo. February 3, 2007 8:03pm (photo by Christopher Kobar)

It's 10:23pm on Sunday as I type these words. Got home from Anna Menendez's class a few hours ago, chatted online with a few friends, took a nap and here I am back at the computer again. This is my second blog entry for the day. But this'll be a quickie too since I need to finalize some web-related work for a paying client by Monday.

So last night (Saturday) I had the pleasure of working with two young and very beautiful talented dancers: Ginette Perea and Samantha Zerpa.

Short recap about Samantha: although I first met her last summer at Cafe Citron I didn't actually invite her to perform at one of my tablao gigs until November when she subbed for Ginette at Cabanas. She performed with me again at Cafe Citron a short time later sharing the stage with dancer Mariya. She originally studied flamenco in Venezuela and recently moved to the DC area. (checkout her pics from the tablao "El Jaleo" in Venezuela) She's now performing regularly on Friday nights at Tapeo with Isabelita dancing Sevillanas and rumba. Anywayz, I just thought I'd invite her to perform this past Saturday night in my tablao show at Tapeo.

The bad news is that I don't have any decent photos from our flamenco performances that night. The good news is that the restaurant was packed with customers which meant that my friend Christopher couldn't get a clear camera shot from his seat at the bar. Oh well.

So business was good, yay! Of course it helped significantly that Samantha had her personal cheering section of about ten people, her family. Ginette and I had our friends in the audience including Christopher, Sarah (student of María Roncal) and her fellow recent college graduates. Plus we made a few new friends and I passed out a few more Lisner Flamenco Festival brochures.

So you'll have to settle for these posed pics taken after each of our two shows. At least it gives you an idea of the beautiful costumes they wore

For the first set, Ginette wore a fitted pink shawl which was expertly tailored by her mother Gina (see above pic). Most dancers I know like to wear a costume that complements the mood of the dance while some like to wear one costume for all the dances. There's no one right way to do things: it's a very personal artistic decision. Anywayz, the cheerfullness of pink really went well with her solo for the first set: an alegrías (choreographed by Anna Menendez). Just for a little variety, she performed the alegrías wearing black pants.

As for Samantha, she performed a tangos which she originally learned and performed in Venezuela to a very catchy Arabic-influenced song by Ruben Blades. I got some work to do on the music though--it's a challenge to live up to Mr Blades' music using only one guitar and palmas.

Ginette, Miguelito and Samantha after the second flamenco show for the night. February 3, 2007 9:03pm (photo by Christopher Kobar)

For the second set, Samantha danced a soleá por bulerías which she choreographed herself. She did a pretty good job. Like Ginette, she's a good performer and knows how to engage the audience. But as we rehearse and perform more often and get to know each other artistically, our performances will just get better and better.

Ginette also danced a soleá por bulerías which pieces together various choreographies that she's learned from different teachers over the years to which she's added some of her own moves and rhythmic variations. From week to week Ginette comes up with new choreographic ideas, tests them out with me right before the show and performs it right away. Love it! Although I work with Ginette all the time, there's always something different or new so I always gotta stay alert and pay attention--that's the way it should be anyway!

I'm happy. The essentials of life: flamenco, good food and friends! February 3, 2007 9:58pm (photo by Christopher Kobar)

We got a late dinner of the usual array of tasty tapas here at Tapeo. Ginette got the steamed mussels with white wine, garlic and herb broth and I got the sautéed mahi-mahi steak cubes with onions in a lemon-ginger white wine sauce, accompanied by fresh bread, olives and followed with flan for dessert. Mmmm!

Dim the lights, it's chill out time. February 3, 2007 11:02pm

Around 11:00pm, they dim the lights and the DJ sets a loungey mood with a tasteful variety of chilll-out, house and trance. It's not the first time we found ourselves lulled into a loungey frame of mind and ended up relaxing and conversing at the bar with our friends until very late.

Samantha left shortly after her family finished dinner and said goodbye. We lingered at the bar for a little while longer before calling it a night and going our separate ways. It was a very enjoyable evening overall and we'll do it again: next Saturday here at Tapeo, I'll have pleasure of performing with Ginette and Samantha. See you there. Ciao for now!

Posted by Miguelito at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dancer Ginette Perea in the lounge at Cabanas. February 2, 2007 8:37pm

It's 2:55pm on Sunday as I type these words. I only have a few minutes to blog here since I've got to head out pretty soon to grab a quick bite before arriving at DC Dance Collective in time for Anna Menendez's 4:00pm class.

Last Friday, dancer Ginette Perea and I were performing at Cabanas, but we didn't see any friends in the audience that we could've asked to take pics for us. So we passed the time between sets casually taking pics that we might use for publicity for the restaurant. I even converted one of the pics to use as a graphic for my website to announce the Friday night show.

Anywayz, like I said, I gotta go. But I know how much you all love to see pics, so I'm just going to publish a few random ones here for your enjoyment to tide you over until I can get back to actually writing something interesting...

Ginette and Miguelito. February 2, 2007 9:20pm

February 2, 2007 9:21pm

February 2, 2007 9:56pm (photo by Valerie)

February 2, 2007 10:16pm

February 2, 2007 10:19pm

I'm also known for my food pics. They treat us well here. On a cold windy Friday night, we enjoyed some healthy food by a warm fire. I got the Mahi-Mahi salad and Ginette got the shrimp caesar salad. Yum!

Dinner finally! February 2, 2007 10:29pm

OK, I'm outta here. See you at Anna Menendez's flamenco class at 4:00pm at DC Dance Collective. Ciao!

Posted by Miguelito at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dancer Pam de Ocampo with guitarist Miguelito at the Andalucía. February 1, 2007 8:04pm (photo by Monica Serrano)

It's 9:26am on Thursday as I type these words. I'm supposed to meet a friend for coffee in downtown DC at 11:00am and I still have to take a shower and get dressed etc so I'm going to make this blog quick. Don't I always say that?

If you didn't know this already, the Andalucía has live flamenco guitar music by yours truly every Thursday. They feature a flamenco dancer only on the first Thursday of the month. Last night I had the pleasure of performing with dancer Pam de Ocampo. She danced Sevillanas, seguiriyas, alegrías and bulerías.

Regarding photos, some flamenco venues are featured more often than others in my blog. According to my statistics, I've published 285 pics of the Andalucía over the years. Compare that with the number of photos I've published of Cafe Citron: 1,487! I mean it is my blog so I can play favorites if I want, but the real reason is that some places have better sight lines and in very informal places like Cafe Citron, it's a lot easier for me to ask friends or random people to take pics for me. It's probably not cool to ask people I don't know, especially in a sit-down restaurant like Las Tapas or Andalucía, "Excuse me. Can you take some pics with my camera?" Actually, I do ask anyway and every once in a while people do say yes. Meanwhile, their dinner goes cold while they take pics for me as the show goes on for 20 to 30 minutes. Oh well.

In the case of the Andalucía Restaurant, since the stage is only raised a few inches, it's hard to get a decent shot without having audience members blocking the view. OK maybe it's not a photographer's ideal setting, however, you can still enjoy the show if you're just watching. That's the beauty of actually being at a live performance--there's more than the visual enjoyment. As opposed to viewing a photo as you are doing now, when you are actually in the intimate setting of the Andalucía, you can take in the whole experience from the ambience of the room, the people enjoying the show with you, the range of emotional expressions on the face of the dancer, the slight breeze as she quickly moves around the stage, the rhythmic interplay of her footwork and the guitarist's falsetas, the shouts of jaleo from your fellow audience members as you share in the whole experience.

I'm making a big deal about this to explain why I finally have a pic from a show at the Andalucía. Manager Monica Serrano had like 30 seconds of free time between busily serving the customers, checking on their orders in the kitchen and answering the phone and taking reservations. Whew! I gave her my camera and crossed my fingers and hoped that she would be able to take at least one pic for me and she did. Thanks Monica!

Incidentally, as of July it will be ten years that I've been performing here at the Andalucía! That's the longest time I've been at any one job. Hehe. If I'm not mistaken, it's also the longest running flamenco show in DC after El Bodegón which featured live flamenco for 35 years (1962-1997).

OK I'm outta here. Tonight I'll be performing at Cabanas with dancer Ginette Perea. See you there!

P.S. I'm working with Lisner Auditorium on an exclusive Post Gala Artist Reception on February 13, 2007. That's right, I said "exclusive." It's open only to DC Flamenco readers like you, the Flamenco Festival artists and special guests of the Embassy of Spain.

Posted by Miguelito at 9:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)