Ginette Perea and Miguelito and the Andalucía. March 1, 2007 8:24pm (photo by Monica)

Would you believe that as of this coming July it will be ten years that I've been performing at the Andalucía? In 1997 and for many years after that we had shows every week that featured at least two dancers. But lately, the flamenco dance shows are scheduled only on the first Thursday of the month and only feature one dancer. I had been rotating through a small list of various dancers the past year or so, but this time around, I was lucky enough to book Ginette Perea. She hasn't appeared at this particular venue in quite a while.

In fact the first time I worked with Ginette in a tablao setting was here in this very restaurant way back in January 2004 when at the last minute, one of the regular dancers couldn't make it, so I had to find a sub and I decided to give Ginette the opportunity. At the time, she was just getting started performing with me on a regular basis and of course now, a little more than three years and a couple of hundred tablao shows later, she now has the special kind of confidence and skill that you can't learn in a dance studio. The tablao experience is an education in itself. But you've heard me say this before: dancing in a class and performing on stage are two different skills.

Uh-oh, I hear a lecture coming on....but I'm going to stop myself now before I get all worked up and start. Thing is that I'm working on part two of Ulrika Frank's farewell interview and ideally I want to publish it sometime tonight--I'm blogging right now to take a break, believe it or not. It's pretty labor-intensive since I first have to transcribe the interview from my digital voice recorder (this takes up the most time), then make any necessary grammar corrections etc, convert it to HTML and add a few accompanying pics which I have to select from the 350 photos I took last Wednesday at Mirada Flamenca's rehearsal, not to mention having to tweak them in Photoshop--another time-consuming process.

Seriously, I'm not complaining though. My self-appointed job duty in the DC flamenco community is to keep you all informed. And while I do try my best to keep up with everyone's events and announcements, it's the in-depth interviews like Ulrika's (and previously Carmel Shelly's) that really give you some insight into the minds of the "movers and shakers" of the local flamenco community. While I may not always agree with everything my interviewees have to say (and this goes for just about anyone), deep down inside I realize we're all the same on another level: we all share a love for the world's greatest art form, flamenco, and hopefully this point is communicated in the articles themselves. As an added bonus: if this commonality helps bring our community a little bit closer, then it's definitely worth it. As for the "free" flamenco concert tickets I frequently receive (and appreciate very much), trust me on this: I earn them!

Aw man, did I digress or what? Meanwhile back at the Andalucía...since I have a dancer perform with me only once a month here, it's rare that you'll see pics. Unfortunately, my usual Andalucía photographer Monica is the manager and server and hostess amongst a million other duties, so she usually only has like two seconds while she's working to pull out the camera and snap a few. So here's what I got for you...