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.