A Dancer's Conundrum

Yesterday, three days into our intensive two-hour-and-a-quarter-a-day flamenco course, Carolyn and I realized we just couldn't keep up in class as long as we kept wearing our old, battered flamenco shoes. Seriously. The thing about flamenco shoes, for those of you who don't know this, is that they need to support your foot properly. Otherwise, you could wipe out or get seriously hurt while dancing. So, after our practice session from yesterday morning, we headed out on a mission to find new shoes. We were going to get some anyway... We just didn't realize the need would make itself apparent so soon...

The mission was successful... So, where is the conundrum from the title of this post, you may ask?

Well... What happens when the old shoes are too old and the new shoes are too new? Flamenco shoes, like any other kind of shoes, need to be broken in a little. So, wearing a brand-new pair for two hours and a quarter of intense abuse... I mean use... ? Not such a good idea. In such a situation, it would be wise to wear the new shoes for a little while, then switch to the old ones... But if the new pair feels soooo stable, have such a great sound and are sooo solid... What harm can it do to just keep wearing them, right? Well, tell that to my sore toes and Carolyn's heel blister. :-( Needless to say, we were back to our old flimsy shoes today... And missing the new ones... I don't know about Carolyn, but tomorrow, I'll start all over again with the new shoes... Wear them for the first bit of class. Then switch. None of this "but they feel sooo solid and sooo great" BS. You'd think I'd know better by now.

And speaking of shoes... Carolyn just got a new second pair. They're purple and gorgeous, and the only reason why I didn't get a pair just like it, is because they didn't have them in my size. I'm so jealous!

Instead, I ended up getting myself a pair of basic runners after discovering a hole rapidly forming in the ones I wore from home (shame on me). I suppose I liked those old runners so much I almost literally wore them to death... (Kinda like the flamenco shoes I brought with me... May they last me long enough for me to properly break in the new ones!)

No show tonight at the Villamarta, so Carolyn and I decided to take the night off and treat ourselves to a nice real dinner. At an Italian restaurant (the only veggie-friendly type of restaurant in this town). We owed it to ourselves... Especially since I had forgotten that yesterday was Andalucia Day, a holiday in, well, Andalucia. Grocery stores? Closed. Our fridge? Empty. If it hadn't been for a bakery that happened to be open and a bit of cheese left over from our first and quick grocery run from Saturday, we might have been rather cranky by the time the grocery stores opened again today.

So all's well that ends well. We have a fridge and cupboards full of good stuff and we're ready to tackle the rest of the week!