Carole Edrich Weblog

Flamenco and Spanish in Seville

Thursday

I finally found a Japanese man to interview. His name is Tsutomu, he's from Tokyo, is doing loads of travelling and got here by way of San Franciso. His fantastic sense of rhythm and coordination was clear in the flamenco lesson today.

At lunch I got talking to a lovely Danish couple who have promised to introduce me to some gypsy friends. Should be interesting..

Still no sign of Israeli flamenco dancers though. I'm getting a little worried.

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Wednesday

It’s my third day of learning Spanish and I find myself thinking that I should have come for at least 6 weeks. The staff are great and facilities better than I hoped. There's free internet access, a nice library, a TCP-IP connection for those with their own laptops, vouchers for gym use and more.

I met Daniela in the evening in a bar on Alameda de Hercules. It’s a surreal place. The staff are all gorgeous dark-skinned types and you can stay indoors or sit outside on a large sandy square under billowing white tents with low chairs and tables peopled by serious looking businessmen and trendy artistic types. Daniela is a friend who represents some great flamenco performers such as Mercedes Ruiz, Andres Pena and Gerardo Nunez. She's also touring with Bebo y Cigala in two weeks time so we had lots to cover
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Tuesday

A car playing flamenco music just passed me and got stuck in one of the many traffic jams that are inevitable because the streets here are so narrow. As I walked past I heard the people in the bar start Palmas (clapping) to the music they could hear from the car.

Emako; who is in my Spanish Language class at Don Quijote, has come here for quite a while. She's concentrating on Spanish for the first ten months and then will spend her days learning flamenco over the following two years. This may sound unusual but long stays in Sevilla are the norm. At Don Quijote the average person takes at least four weeks of language courses and the Swedish and Japanese tend to stay for more than thirteen!

Emako introduced me to a Singaporean lady who teaches traditional Chineese ballet back home and is also here to learn flamenco. They took me to Miguel Vargas' lesson and introduced me to their Japanese friends, each one of which has an interesting story about why she came to Sevilla to learn flamenco.

Miguel’s lessons concentrate strictly on technique and expression. When he tells the class they’re not dancing he means they’re not feeling the music properly or not expressing it clearly. Not content with giving lessons from the front of the class he gives each of his pupils individual attention and if they don’t understand enough Spanish to do what he says, guides their arms and legs himself until they get it right.

It's a class full of women. The teacher is the only guy there, he's good looking, a great dancer and (I know I'm belabouring the point here) a man, so even though everyone knows he's married the dynamics are..... interesting...
...

Monday

I’m sure that it would have taken me ten minutes to get to the Don Quijote Language school if I had not got horribly lost on the way. In the end I asked a local how to get there. He said it was too complicated and walked me right up to the school door! All in all, it was just as well I gave myself an hour…

The Don Quijote Language School in Sevilla is in a beautiful historic building. Most rooms have light marble tiles on the floor and beautifully patterned ones on the walls because they help keep the interior cool. Keeping cool is a major preoccupation in a city where the summer heat can exceed 43 and the tiles look great to boot.

The lesson was fun and the people in my class are friendly, open and come from all over the world. The first flamenco class – taught on the premises - was a reasonable basic level and quite full. It’s great to meet so many flamenco enthusiasts doing serious Spanish classes but not really a surprise. How can you hope to interpret the music if you don’t understand the words..

The rain's over and the weather is now as I expected. The streets are clean and picturesque, the architecture beautiful, the people friendlier than I remember (maybe because I'm on my own .... solita...) and the ambient temperature is wonderfully comfortable; even at night.

There’s a whole subculture of Israelis who save their military service money so that they can come here to learn flamenco and another huge group of Japanese. I know this is true because I interviewed them on previous visits. I’ve commissions to write about both groups and don't have any photos. Now I just have to find out where they are!
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Sunday

I arrived earlier than I told the guys at Don Quijote and in a different place. It was pouring with rain and I wondered whether I had brought the right clothes for my stay. Despite the last minute change of plan Helen; the Don Quijote Greeter, met me at the bus station and took me by taxi to the family where I’ll spend the week. I’m right by Puente San Telmo and the Barrio Santa Cruz (great for night life) is right outside my door. Helen told me that the school is less than ten minutes walk away and showed me the best route on the map provided by the school.

Spanish lessons in Spain

Posted by carole at June 2, 2005 03:08 PM