Eight months ago, if a student or an entire class asked if they could record the steps after class, my answer was ABSOLUTELY NOT.   First off, for their own sake – it is a disservice to let them do that. Instead, I suggest students go home and immediately review what they remember from class, write it down in a way that helps them remember it. For things they don’t remember, make note of what they cannot remember, so in the next class, they know where their gaps are and can hone in on what they’re missing or come in with a question. The process of trying to remember often helps them recal ..read more

The value of doing the same dance over and over and over:   People often talk smack about Soledad Barrios because she’s been dancing the same solo for 20+ years. But so did Carmen Amaya. Watch her videos – same alegrías over and over and over. Even in other musical styles, the same vueltas quebradas with an abrupt shift to vertical to end the dance, the same side to side marcajes with unabashed hip movement. Nobody ever got tired of that. Why not? Well, for one thing, she did every movement with her all – no holding back. Second, the movements went perfectly with the music. Carmen Amaya w ..read more

Flamenco has community & dialogue built into its core. It’s always interesting to me to see the ways that modern dance contrives programs so that it builds community and dialogue. I deeply admire much of this type of work (think Bill T. Jones’ Still/Here). But at the same time, how can we equally value dance forms that have community and dialogue built-in, dance forms in which that is inherent and implicit? (Many of these forms are folk arts that have been marginalized in the world of “high art” or academia.) I’ve taught workshops where I combined creative movement models and community bui ..read more

I’ve struggled with confidence throughout my dancing career. And the thing is, when you don’t have confidence, people will easily tear you down. When you’re unsure of yourself, it’s hard to convince others to put faith in you, which can create a destructive downward cycle of deflating confidence. Building confidence is integral to persevering in the dance field. Are there tools to achieve this? You bet!!!   Surround yourself with people who do believe in you, even when you don’t believe in yourself.   Sometimes we’re so focused on the future, on goals, on what we lack, that we are ..read more

For those of us who don’t want to jump on the online train… As studios and dancers immediately adjusted to our world shifting online, I took a step back. I am teaching my college courses online, but instead of keeping up my normal schedule outside those classes, I’ve decided to take advantage of the extra time (even just the time I lost to commuting) to explore in new ways and reflect. I had to ask myself, why don’t I want to jump onto this online craze?—Am I being lazy? Am I being stubborn? There are so many classes available, and if your social media feed looks like mine, it seems like every ..read more

Had you told me 15 years ago the dancer who is now Sugar Plum would have that role someday, I would not have believed you. As I have done most years since age ten, while home for the holidays, I danced in Patricia Dickinson’s Nutcracker. There’s just a few of us still dancing that started then, and it’s not the people I would have expected. The ones who have persisted, we weren’t the ones given leading roles growing up. Snow Queen (Lora Sturm) and Snow King (Christo McMaster) in Festival Ballet Albuquerque’s Nutcracker in the Land of Enchantment at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Ah y ..read more

“Aprendí a bailar con las olas del Somorrostro, a mí me enseñó a bailar el mar…” –Carmen Amaya (“I learned to dance with the waves of the Somorrostro (beach in Barcelona), the sea taught me to dance…”) Carmen Amaya. https://fineartamerica.com/featured/gypsy-dancer-carmen-amaya-underwood-archives.html?product=poster     Carmen Amaya. www.AllPosters.com   I went to the beach this past week—it’s been a few years since I’ve been to the ocean. I’m not a great swimmer, and the ocean scares me. First, I was scared, only going knee deep, holding back, cringing when the coldish water ..read more

Curiosity and Adaptability. Necessities for dance. And life. Curiosity I’ve taken yoga off-and-on for several years now. This past year, I’ve taken less off and more on—I’m in class at least a couple times a week at the local yoga studio (Solaluna). Earlier this summer, I decided to take a yoga intensive—approximately 5 hours of yoga a day for a week. What I realized in the intensive is, the teacher, Eric, excels because he’s taken the time to explore—to try things, figure things out, deconstruct the forms and the science and concepts behind them, and then recomposed a method to teach yoga fro ..read more

No to compartmentalization. No to unsustainability. No to quick, meaningless ways of working.   No to compartmentalization: In the past semester—as I planned a symposium, worked on a performance piece, started plans for a performance series in Cleveland, taught and planned my classes, spent time with people I care about—I thought the only way I could get everything done was to compartmentalize. I blocked off my schedule, planning every hour; time to rehearse, time to check emails, time to get class prep done, all before I enjoy any remaining free time. Now I wear my professor hat. Now I w ..read more

Shortly after accepting a position at Oberlin, I was encouraged to put together a flamenco symposium. Although that’s a pretty broad request, I knew immediately the theme I wanted to explore. Ever since I started to discover that flamenco has no limits—flamenco’s gamut extends far beyond the traditional aesthetics, each artist can express their own stories and ever-changing self through the form, and many artists in North America and beyond acknowledge their unique histories and the very hybridity of flamenco in doing so—I wanted to bring together these artists daring to cross both cultural an ..read more