Dancer Ginette performing alegrías with singer Hector Márquez and Mateo Romero on cajón, March 20, 2009 (photo by Bella)

It's 11-something am on Monday as I type these words. I'm loving the freedom of mobile computing: right now I'm at a Starbucks sipping a tall café americano and nibbling a blueberry muffin as I work on this blog. :-) I get two hours of free WiFi here which is a perfect motivator for me to finish up my web-related work quickly. So let's get to it.

As you already know so well, it's been a rough winter business-wise: customer turnout has been pretty low at a lot of flamenco venues. Fortunately, these venues have simply cut back on the budget instead of dropping the shows altogether. While it does cost money to hire flamenco artists, we do bring in business. Goes with the saying: "You gotta spend money to make money!"

The pics you see here are from a few weeks ago at Cabanas where I've been performing since September 2005...that's almost 4 years! This is one of those venues where the budget has been cut back temporarily. It's a one dancer show for now and as business picks up, we'll go back to the two dancer format. In the warmer months, the Georgetown Harbour is the place to be. I can't wait until the temperature gets high enough that we can open up the patio doors and feel the warm breeze onstage as we perform!

Continue reading "Flamenco Friday at Cabanas. March 20, 2009" »

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Ginette dancing soleá. February 6, 2009 8:46pm (photo by Bella)

I know...I was a tad loquacious in the previous two blog entries. So I'm gonna shut up. :-) Here's a nearly commentary-free pictorial for your viewing pleasure. Pics by Bella. Enjoy!

Continue reading "Flamenco at Cabanas. February 6 & 13, 2009" »

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The younger generation of DC flamencos (from left): guitarist Mateo Romero, dancer Ginette, singer Hector Márquez, dancer Isabelita, singer Naíto, singer Marylin Márquez and dancer Sarah Hart. September 19, 2008 9:58pm

It's 9-something am on Monday as I type these words. Got a busy day ahead of me. But here's a quickie blog entry with pics from last Friday's flamenco show at Cabanas in Georgetown.

As I took the above pic, it occurred to me that everyone in that photo is a flamenco performer in their early 20's. Three young singers, three dancers and guitarist. Quite a change from when I first started performing in tablaos in 1995 and still in my 20's: my first weekly gig was at Havana Village in Adams-Morgan and I didn't even have one singer back then.

Interestingly, flamenco legend Paco de Lucía partied at Havana Village one time after giving a concert in DC. Fortunately, it wasn't on a night when I was playing at there. Can you imagine what it would be like to have someone like him show up as I was performing onstage? It could happen! ;-)

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Miguelito playing Sevillanas at Cabanas. August 8, 2008 10:12pm (photo by Daniela)

It's 11am on Monday as I type these words. It's been a crazy but fun flamenco-filled weekend so I've been going to bed at 4am or later and getting up late everyday. Anywayz, here are some pics from last Friday at Cabanas. We had a lot of friends in the audience including Daniela and Cindy (and her family), the "Italians" Antonia and Roberto, Marylin and Marcela, Lydia, Nina, Mateo and Idi. Onstage we had dancers Ginette and Shahram, singers Hector "Piraña" Márquez and Naíto and cajón player Jason Vera y Aragón and yours truly, Miguelito, as always on guitar. :-)

Daniela gladly volunteered to be my photographer during the show. Cindy's dad also took some pics..stay tuned.

Continue reading "Flamenco Friday at Cabanas. August 8, 2008" »

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Isabelita Otero and Jason Vera y Aragón dancing Sevillanas at Cabanas. July 18, 2008 10:07pm (photo by Daniela)

It's 3:55am on Sunday as I type these words. My photographer/dancer friend Daniela Maldonado took pics of my show last Friday at Cabanas Restaurant on the Georgetown Waterfont. Enjoy!

Continue reading "Flamenco Friday at Cabanas. July 18, 2008" »

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Ginette and Isabelita Otero dancing Sevillanas at Cabanas. July 11, 2008 9:04pm (photo by Daniela Maldonado)

It's 11:30am on Sunday as I type these words. Here's a random selection of pics from last Friday at Cabanas. My volunteer photographer for the evening was my good friend Daniela Maldonado. Thank you Dani. Enjoy the pics!

Continue reading "Flamenco at Cabanas. July 11, 2008" »

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Ginette, Mateo Romero and Isabelita Otero at Cabanas. May 30, 2008 9:55pm

It's 1pm-ish on Monday as I type these words. Gotta a serious backlog of pics from this weekend. These are from Friday night at Cabanas and Isabelita's birthday party afterwards. Enjoy!

Continue reading "Flamenco Friday at Cabanas and Isabelita's Birthday. May 30, 2008" »

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Mateo Romero, Isabelita, Hector Márquez and Ginette at Cabanas. May 16, 2008 8:30pm

It's 4:00am on Monday as I type these words. It's been a busy weekend which you'll see documented photographically over the next couple of days as I catch up on my blog.

Friday night I performed at Cabanas as usual. The dancers were Isabelita Otero and Ginette. Plus we had the special treat of having Mateo Romero on cajón and cante by Hector Márquez. Overall, it was a very energetic show.

As much as I enjoy having a full group, it does, by comparison, make the nights when we only have guitar and baile seem a slightly less inspiring. Don't get me wrong, we still put on a good show no matter what. It's just that having cante takes the whole show to the next level.

My thanks to Daniela Maldonado for taking pictures during the performance. Enjoy!

Continue reading "Flamenco Friday at Cabanas and Ginette's birthday. May 16, 2008" »

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A few minutes after sunset on a warm Friday night, there's plenty of people partying on the Georgetown waterfront. April 25, 2008 8:06pm

It's 2:00am on Thursday as I type these words. Been a busy week, so I'm just getting around to publishing some pics from Friday. Oh well—better late then never.

Mother Nature was nice to us, yet again, on a Friday night. It was sunny for awhile, but although the clouds filled the sky later in the evening, it stayed warm which meant that the crowds stayed at the Georgetown Waterfront longer. Of course, with the restaurant crowded, I had to wait a little longer to put away my sound system—it's quite difficult lugging a hundred pounds of sound equipment through a dining room packed with customers.

To pass the time, us artists and our friends chilled out in the seating area adjacent to the bar and started a jam session...

Continue reading "Flamenco Friday at Cabanas. April 25, 2008" »

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Isabelita and Ginette dancing Sevillanas at Cabanas. March 7, 2008 9:34pm (photo by Pablo)

It's 3:00am on Friday as I type these words--on vampire schedule as usual. Despite the late hour, I'm in a productive mood. Just finished two loads of laundry, cleaned the bathroom, took out the trash. Added a new event to my flamenco calendar. Now while I wait for the last load of laundry to dry, I thought I'd crank out a quick blog entry before I call it a night.

I've performed in quite a few tablaos in the DC area over the past 17 years. Each one has its own unique ambience. Of course depending on a variety of factors (some controllable, some not), they range from loud and rambunctious to relatively quiet.

Eleven years ago, I was performing at the legendary El Bodegón restaurant in Dupont Circle with dancers Micaela Moreno and Edwin Aparicio (who at the time was just getting started in tablaos). It was a great honor for me to perform on the same stage where distinguished members of the older generation of DC flamencos made their mark including Manolo Leiva, Ana Martinez, Paco de Málaga, Torcuato Zamora, Carlos Ramos (My apologies: I know I'm leaving out a whole bunch of other important artists, but I'll write about El Bodegon more extensively another day).

What impressed me was that the manager/maitre d' introduced us artists before the show began. Very classy! It set the stage, so to speak, for the audience to stop their conversations and direct their full attention to the show. For the most part, it felt as close to a theatre show as was possible in a restaurant setting. I enjoyed my time there, but sadly El Bodegón closed its doors for good in 1997.

The question in my mind at that time was, "Will there be another venue as classy as El Bodegón?

Continue reading "Flamenco and basic etiquette" »

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Timo Núñez and Ginette dancing Sevillanas at Cabanas. December 14, 2007 9:33pm (photo by Serenity/Carol)

It's about 5:00am on Monday as I type these words. And yeah, I'm actually starting to fall asleep. This is my second blog entry in a two-hour period, yay! So last Friday I performed at Cabanas with Ginette plus guest dancer Timo Núñez. In case you didn't know, Timo was in town doing a show with Edwin (here's the review) and happened to be sticking around DC for another week so we squeezed him in as a guest artist in a few local tablao shows. My friend Hector Márquez joined us onstage to sing a few letras por bulerías and alegrías. Serenity and Carol volunteered to be my photographers and got a few pics from the second set. Thank you ladies! Enjoy!

Continue reading "Cabanas with Timo Núñez and Ginette. December 14, 2007" »

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It's 10:24am on Saturday as I type these words. As usual, just enough time to upload photos write an introductory paragraph and head out the door--class at American Dance Institute is at noon and I'm meeting a friend for breakfast at El Patio at 11:00am.

Last night, it was slow at first at Cabanas. Most people probably were in line at the Irish-themed bars. But business picked up later and for the second show we had a decent size audience. My dancer friends Marsha Bonet Savchenko aka Rosa la Huracana and Dmitry Savchenko from Alliance happened to be off on this Friday (a rarity) so they decided to come out see my show (Thanks guys!).

Miguelito, Ginette, Mariya and Jason Vera y Aragon. March 17, 2006 8:32pm (photo by Keith)

Continue reading "Cabanas March 17, 2006" »

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