Dear Oscar and all the students at Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy:

Hola de Jerez de la Frontera! I have been here for about two weeks. I just
finished my first week of bata de cola classes with Matilde Coral and I have to say I LOVE dancing with a bata de cola. I feel glamorous and glorious like a Princesa. I went to Calle Franco to the studio to practice yesterday and it was the first time I found myself genuinely happy to be here! I have been practicing Media Vueltas, half turns. So imagine me kicking the bata across the studio floor like a waltz in ¾. 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, Kick low, TURN, kick High, TURN, kick Low, Kick high.WHOO! Flamenco is such fun sport and art.

When else can a woman get dressed up in 15 metres of fabric, kick it and let it swoosh around on the floor?!

Thank goodness the Andalucian sun has come out. The first week I was here, it snowed in Madrid and rained in Jerez. It was quite depressing. I made the right choice in bringing a hefty fleece and my Columbia ski jacket. I laughed at all the fashionable people in their earth-toned leather jackets. BUT now that the weather is nice, I look really weird in my purple ski jacket. Time to go shopping at Zara?!

Monica, Edie, Susan and Andrew have been with me this trip. I have also run into all kinds of Canadians including Pat who is in Jerez for 3 months, Monique from Victoria, Janine from Tofino, Rosana from Calgary, Lynn from Toronto and many friendly faces that I recognize after five years of attending this festival. I am staying in apartment in the centre of Jerez, only 2 minutes walk from Teatro Villamarta. It is very central so everything is within 7 minutes walking distance. For those of you who have been to Jerez, the old Champion supermarket is now called Carrefour! However, the Don Simon gazpacho and the Danone yoghurt is as good as ever.

The first week of the Flamenco Festival, I took workshops with Mercedes Ruiz (Tarantos) and Inmaculada Aguilar (Siguriya). I had a good time learning estilo de mujer from these women. The second week, I took Matilde Coral's bata de cola and abanico class, and learned a very old-fashioned Caracoles choreography with bata de cola and fan. It is really beautiful. I bought a 595 Euro bata de cola in Madrid on my first day. It is my first bata. It is black with 8 ruffles and the tail trails about 1.5 metres behind me. The ruffles have a 1cm red trim. After wearing it for a few days, I have learned that it must be tightened around the waist to keep me from stepping on it. We are doing half turns, full turns and all kinds of things, so the bata skirt has to be above the shoe strap. I am really looking forward to studying this further in Seville in the next couple months because you really feel like a queen dancing in it. To contrast this old Sevillan style, I also found great fun and fire with Maria Bermudez and her gitana spirit. It is really fun to contrast the beautiful, pristine style of Matilde Coral to Maria's raw, gritty Jerezano style. I feel strange flip flopping between all these styles. I feel a natural gravitation towards more emotional, gitana flamenco, but I also have a great affinity for beauty and lines.

Maria took us to the Pena Chacon where we met the famous palmas twins, Luis and Ali. These men live at the pena, are servers at the bar and hang out all day long from 11am to the wee hours in the morning. They just make up bulerias letras all day long. Edie tried taking a photo of me with them when her camera ran out of batteries and she yelled "OHMIGOD!". BOOM, Luis comes up with a witty and hysterical bulerias letra about "La mujer de Canada, las baterias no funcionan, no hay fotos, Ohmigod!" Completely in compas, relevant to the situation, rhyming and ending on 10. We are in the presence of genius. This is Flamenco!

Reflecting upon the roots of flamenco....flamenco is an expression of the canastera gitanos who live, reside and travel by the river, outside of Spanish society. They don't pay taxes, are not registered with the state nor have a permanent home. They make baskets for a living, sell them in the markets.

Apparently the great Farruco family chooses to live this way; camping by the river, singing bulerias and doing flamenco. On the other hand, the casera gitanos are integrated into society, have apartments and homes, often are married to Spanish people and have jobs. Maria's sister in law, Coral, is a Mary Kay saleswoman and also a performing cantaora!

In two weeks I have seen traditional flamenco, gitano flamenco, contemporary flamenco, Sevillan flamenco. Flamenco is a personal expression and no two artists look the same. I am relieved the festival is over because I have seen about 20 shows in two weeks. I need some downtime. Tomorrow I get into the studio for three hours to try to remember all that I have learned.

I miss all of you at Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy and dancing alone in our great big studios. They have NO equivalent sized studios here. We are spoiled by our square footage, hard wood and our sprung floors. You would be aghast at what kind of surfaces they dance on here..marble, particle board, etc. They don't have any sprung floors so you can really feel it in your knees and hips at the end of the day. All their hardwood is built on top of marble or cement! I need Bikram's yoga. I will try a Hatha Yoga class tomorrow at 6:30pm.but it just won't be the same.

Adios for now and keep checking back to the website for more updates.

Best regards,
Kasandra
Vancouver Flamenco Bata Princesa in Jerez de la Frontera
Email: kasandra@mozaicoflamenco.com