Hola familias bellas, welcome to Sevilla!!!!!! Everyone arrived safe and sound, no strikes, no delays!
I met Jennifer Schultz, Suzanne and Ruben Flores at the playground in Las Setas. It feels unreal to see each other here in Sevilla! Maya and Avery were happily playing in the playground. Luckily the heat wave is almost gone!
We caught up briefly and started walking to the restaurant Tradevo where we were going to meet up with Sophia, Julia and Richard. We walked by Casa de la Memoria and bought tickets already for Tuesday! Wooohooo!
Finally we arrived to the restaurant and met with Julia, Richard and Sophia.
What a treat to have another group of beautiful and fun families!
While we were eating the girls were running around in the plaza. They were having so much fun! Also it is so nice to have the option of seating outside under the awning with water sprinklers and watching them run around without worrying about anything.
We are ready for a pretty good start.
Tomorrow, Monday 8/6 we will meet at Las Setas at 9:30 am to walk to our studios in El Corralon Pelicano.
This will be our Flamenco lessons schedule for this week:
Lunes 6 de agosto- Viernes 10 de agosto
I am excited to have these siblings as our teaches this week! Click on their names to see some videos!
La Toromba en Estudio 10:30 am - 11:30 am
El Torombo 11:30 am - 12:30 pm (Tuesday Toromba will sub for Torombo)
La Toromba with her students from Las Tres Mil Viviendas
La Toromba with Coco and Pearl last week!
El Torombo teaching
Monday, August 6th 2018
We all met at Las Setas and strolled together through the neighborhoods that are around the tourist areas and "El Centro". We arrived to El Corralon El Pelicano , where our studio and many others are located. La Toromba was already at the Cafe ready and excited to receive the new students. The parents and kids met her and greeted each other with the traditional and sweet one kiss on one cheek and another in the other one.
First day of class and Toromba brought some of her students. Samuel and Lucia, who were with us last week and three other girls. Two of them are the same age of Avery, Sofia and Maya, and the other is only 4 years old, Lola. Lola brought her little sister Manuela, who joined the class a few times. It was quite cute.
I started the our first session with some yoga stretching. The kids from Sevilla also loved practicing yoga with us.
This is Manuela!
With La Toromba they started their session warming up to Solea palo or rhythm . We listened to
They learned more profoundly Tangos palo or rhythm. La Toromba taught them a new letra or song. This was a great challenge because they immediately had to learn it while dancing to it. We finished with a nice stretching session and a sweet conversation. Toromba was very eager to know the Californian Flamenquitas.
El Torombo was waiting for them in his studio. His class started with all of us sitting around a rectangular table with a map of the world on it, where we had to point out where we all came from. After that we experience holding the sand and releasing it from our hand to the other every time we heard the cantaores taking breaths within their songs.
During his class we also learned that Flamenco is a mix of cultures, religions, people and music from many places of this beautiful planet.
In the afternoon we went shopping for shoes at Roberto Garrudo and found great shoes and nice delantales and picos.
Maya and Avery found beautiful delantales that are wearing over theirs skirts.
To celebrate the great founds we went to have one of the best ice creams shops in town, Bolas.
Tuesday, August 7th 2018
Tuesday, we had 2 hours of class with Toromba and one with me.
Today was the last days the younger kids join us. They have a summer camp to go, but Toromba and I were so happy they made it to our camp at least for two days.
We got tickets to see a show at el tablao Casa de la Memoria at 9 pm. We had the best seats and were able to see the siblings Lole and Saray de los Reyes and Felipe Mato. The sisters dance as a duet, which is an unusual format for a cuadro flamenco, theyThe singer Jesus Corbacho, married to Saray also was part of the cuadro. It was an exciting hour; watching flamencos who are related to each other doing their art is a fascinating experiencing. Jordi Flores was the guitarist, who is an amazing artist as well. We got very lucky tonight!
Wednesday, August 8th 2018
El Torombo cancelled our session today due to a tour he had in Almeria.
La Toromba also used the tangos choreography we have been learning to another letra or song. This new song has a different structure and it is faster than the original. The girls learned that we can use the same material to different letras, which takes some listening skills in order to make the dance fit to the letra.
This was a very productive session, toward the end I could see how much progress the girls have made.
As usual we had a yoga session to start and end our flamenco camp.
We all went to my classes to watch my teacher Leonor Leal giving intermediate/advanced lessons. This time Srta. Sandra was taking flamenco lessons!! It was a challenge for me to be focused knowing that my students and families were watching us!
Leonor Leal wearing blue and short hair!
She also signed her book "Catalina sin Pamplinas" for our girls!
In the afternoon we all met at Mercado Lonja del Barranco before we cross el Puente de Triana or Puente de Isabel II. We had some beverages in the market and off we went. It was so beautiful to cross to Triana with the girls. We have been singing Tangos de Triana for quite a bit, so this was a fun little adventure. We walked around Triana for a little bit.
Ruben took Maya and Avery to have some ice cream and then they went home. They were very tired.
At 9:30 pm we had reservation for El Arenal to see and listen to more flamenco! Again, we completely got lucky. Gema Moneo, a very young and talented dancer was part of the cuadro. She is definitely one of my favorite dancers! Getting to see her by surprise in such a small venues was an exquisite treat! Another dancer I really like was Hugo Sanchez, who we saw last week at La Casa del Flamenco with the first group.
Thursday, August 9th 2018
We resume our classes with El Torombo. He set his class in the patio under the jasmine vines and we learn how to feel the music internally while softly playing the cajones, following his footsteps, using the bastones (canes), our fingers softly hitting pieces of wood as percussion instruments. It was a vibrant class and our last class. Even though El Torombo is an extraordinary teacher, the girls were having trouble understanding his method and his very fast and passionate Spanish. I learned a lot in his class and I am eager to pass it to my students.
La Toromba brought Lucia and Samuel again and it was so much fun to have them back dancing in the class. We are getting ready to show what we have learned to our parents!!
We went to my place and played housing each other down in the terrace! It was soooo much fun!!!
We had a fabulous photo Session at Plaza de España with Avery and Sofia! This place is so beautiful! We spent an hour taking pictures!
To finish the night we had a beautiful dinner at Bar La Bartola.
Friday, August 10th 2018
Our last day in Sevilla and our last Flamenco Session.
La Toromba rehearsed the numbers the girls were going to dance.
The girls helped to organize the studio to welcome our parents and friends.
They danced Tangos and sang at the same time "Cachito de Pan" (A Little Piece of Bread) and "Al Gurugu".
This palo is quite challenging to understand and to dance it. The girls did great!
The last number was fitting the Tangos choreography to a different and faster letra. They had to change a few things to fit the new song coherently.
Finally, we all got up and danced!! Toromba and I guided a mini lesson to parents and kids! Las Mamis and Ruben had a blast, especially Ruben!
We all went to Maya and Avery's house to do some arts and crafts. We decorated peinetas for our hair.
To finish up our quiet afternoon we made some noise jumping and playing in the pool!
To close our beautiful week we went to Tradevo to have our last meal together.
The girls made some friends and we had a great time and food.
It was so hard to say so long. At the same time it felts so satisfying seeing the girls go away with a week of flamenco in their pockets, souls and hearts. I feel lucky I was able to facilitate this experience for them.
I will miss my Chambitas and Flamenquitas so much!! Keep on dancing, guapas! I love you all the way to the moon and back!
