Day trip to Sevilla

I love Sevilla. So lively, so lovely, so clean.

One of these decades, I really should make a point of going back and staying longer than a day. Mind you, my full day and a half there four years ago was loooong in comparison to today's quick day trip.

We took the 9:30 train out of Jerez and arrived in Sevilla just before 11. Then, we walked, walked, walked. And walked some more, crisscrossing all over the historical centre. We oohed and aahed at the cathedral and the outside of the Reales Alcázares, even though both Carolyn and I had been there before. But, let's face it: the biggest cathedral in the whole wide world? Still a sight to behold. My favourite part is still the super tall minaret-turned-belltower, the world-famous Giralda.

After oohing and aahing, we shopped for some flamenco-related items impossible to find at home and had lunch at a little Italian restaurant facing one of the many little plazas in the historical centre. Why go to Spain and eat at Italian restaurants, you may ask? Because they're like the Second Coming when you're vegetarian, that's why!

On our way back to the train station, we stumbled upon a "flamenco museum." We didn't go in, but checked out the super-touristy shop and these:

(Couldn't resist the cheesy photo-op...)

Anyway, tomorrow it's back to classes -- this time in the mornings. Hard to believe we've officially hit the half-point of our time in Jerez!

All's well that ends well...

Today was the end of our first week of classes. Time sure flies when you're having fun! Tonight we're off to see Isabel Bayón's company at the Villamarta--I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a more traditional show.

Tomorrow's our one day off, and we're using it to go to Sevilla on a day trip (did anyone say, "crazy wonderful flamenco shopping district?") Then, on Sunday we start our second week of classes... And we go on till the bitter end!

Here's hoping for happy toes! (current status = Owie)

More pretty shoes...

And, this time, they're mine! 

Hungering for a bit of flamenco puro...

An odd title, yes. Especially considering I'm in Jerez de la Frontera, if not the birthplace of flamenco, as close to that as anything gets.

But the thing is, so far, we've been so busy with classes and practice (and the consequent sore toes [me], blisters [Carolyn] and the odd strained muscle or joint [both of us]), we've pretty much stuck to the shows at the Teatro Villamarta. So far. Because the Flamenco Festival is not limited to the theatre, no sir. There's flamenco all friggin' over, all friggin' day and night long. Official festival programming all over town, plus the usual peñas, café cantantes, juergas and all other shape, manner and form of flamenco imaginable and unimaginable in this world (and, likely, others).

Still, the shows at the Villamarta are free for us students, so it's not something to be passed by just 'cause. The tricky bit is that, it being the Festival de Jerez, it's a showcase of old and new, traditional and innovative, puro (pure) and fusion. And, so far, the only traditional (puro) flamenco we've caught at the theatre was on our first night, with La Farruca's fantastic show...

On Day Two, we had that Japanese guy's flamenco / balleticky rendition of the Spanish traditional play, La Celestina.

Day Three = dark stage

Day Four (yesterday) = Rubén Olmos's very strange, very fusiony show, which had very little flamenco, but lots of modern and fusion and ballet and... Carolyn loved it, self-admittedly because of her ballet background. I mostly hated it, self-admittedly because it seemed to me just a crazy mix just for the sake of making a crazy-mix show. There were bagpipes at one point on stage, for crissakes! BAGPIPES! And a marching band. And a cross-dressing principal dancer in a fluffy-sleeved bata de cola. And... did I mention the friggin' bagpipes??? I'm not saying the dancers weren't talented, or that the show didn't earn kudos for its courage and inventiveness, but... Bagpipes and a marching band? There's flamenco / modern fusion. And there's somebody's crazy dream turned into a stage production. In all fairness, though, there were a couple of the group choreographies I did enjoy: a foursome of women doing an amazingly in-sync piece with mantones, for one thing, and crazy Rubén's use of his very own mantón (or is it a MAN-ton?)

Day Five (today) = A cute, enjoyable more-play-than-dance-show production by Javier Latorre and his company. I felt bad for the non-Spanish speakers because there was a lot of dialogue and some of it was pretty poetic. Overall, I enjoyed it because it was fun (and, self-admittedly, because of my theatre background) and cute and clever. But I still want to watch some "real" flamenco pretty soon...

The program for next week looks promising, though! Manuela Carrasco, Mercedes Ruiz... I can't wait!

And there's, of course, the other flamenco. The peñas, the café cantantes, the odd construction worker breaking into song or the person reviewing their footwork in the middle of the street. Or the car going by, stereo blasting flamenco out of the open windows...

Five days in, and we're practically Spanish!

Actually, I was just referring to our eating habits--Carolyn still doesn't speak the language and, even though I do and I'm getting used to the Andalucian accent, I'm still having a hard time with it at times. But we've started to sit down for dinner between 9 and 11:30 at night! Now all we need is a siesta between 2 and 5 in the afternoon, and we're set! Ole!

All week we've been waking up early (for vacationers) and heading down to Joanna Parmelee's practice studios on Calle Benavente Bajo, a short walk from our little flat. Mind you. In downtown Jerez, everything is a short walk away from everything else. We knew of Joanna from our Victoria flamenco mentor, Veronica Maguire, who strongly suggested that we book one of Joanna's two little studios to practice what we learn in our workshops. These are the two little courtyards inside Joanna's place:

And here we are, at the front door:

If we look bundled, we are. Today was the coldest day here so far, at 14 degrees Celsius. Still better than 5. And so much better than snow (and windstorms--sorry, Victoria friends!)

Till next time.

Inane? Yes. Inspiring? Yes.

The Spanish know how to get you to eat your fibre!

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!