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What’s Your #1 Challenge In Flamenco?

What’s Your #1 Challenge In Flamenco?

August 21, 2022 Posted by rina@rinaorellana.com Uncategorized 1 Comment

We are drawn to flamenco because it INSPIRES us, and makes us feel ALIVE. But then when we start learning and practicing, it can become a little OVERWHELMING.

I’ve been dancing flamenco for 25 (!!) years now and have been teaching consistently for close to 20, so I’ve SEEN dancers struggle with so many different issues.

For some, it’s getting discouraged because they want to be able to dance like Carmen Amaya after one 6-week session. That’s just like wanting to be fluent in Spanish after taking a beginner course for a semester. 😆

For others, it’s more of the technical struggles of not being able to physically do what they actually mentally understand- like “hearing” the soniquete of the footwork pattern but not being able to execute it.

For me, my biggest struggle in my first years of learning was being able to listen to the cante (singing) and being able to adjust my dancing with it- besides keeping up with the footwork and compás 😉

Now it’s about making the time to practice outside of the dance classes that I teach.

What about you? What’s YOUR #1 CHALLENGE in flamenco?

Is it just starting? Hearing the compás? Wanting to dance tablao?

COMMENT down below and let me know!!

Of course, everyone will have something a little different. But I can preemptively say that no matter what that challenge is, it’s best to:

  • Face it and not allow ourselves to be knocked down by it
  • Think of what you can do about it
  • Remember that this is a beautiful journey, so nothing is perfect
  • Be grateful that we have this wonderful art form in our lives that stirs our souls!

Have a great week!
❤️ Rina

P.S. Be sure to RESPOND in the comments below and tell me what your #1 CHALLENGE in Flamenco is. ¡Gracias!

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1 Comment

Leave your reply.
  • ram rivas
    · Reply

    August 21, 2022 at 8:56 AM

    My biggest challenge, after the death of one of my first flamenco guitar teachers, a good friend, is finding other local flamenco guitarists (southern California) interested in and/or reasonably competent in the old traditional country-gypsy flamenco, otherwise known as pueblo flamenco, to jam, trade notes, and learn from each other. It seems like most guitarists are just interested in razzmatazz rock n roll modern flamenco-sounding guitar. Very few know anything about the late geniuses like Diego del Gastor, Melchor de Marchena, Perico del Lunar, Pepe Habichuela, the current extant Dieguito de Moron, Paco and Juan del Gastor, Paco de Amparo, etc. I’ve known some of them, having traveled through Moron de la Frontera, Granada, Sevilla, Cordoba (where Manuel Reyes built me my dream guitar), Madrid, Malaga, hobnobbing with gypsy flamencos. etc. Download anything you wish from flamencoGitano com and enjoy! You might not like some of it- or maybe you will, really old stuff from weddings, baptisms, flamenco bars, street performances, from the Golden Age, plus an almost complete collection of the old Jaleo newsletter, published decades ago in San Diego. My gift to the flamenco world. Oh, read Donn Pohren’s great books on flamenco, published back in the 60s. Enjoy! Ole ole!

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