Carole Edrich Weblog

Contemporary Dance, Arial Dynamics

Strange to think that someone whose name seems so familiar is only now drawing to the end of her new company’s first tour. I’ve no idea whether it’s my passion for extremes that means I’m familiar with Lindsey Butcher's reputation or whether she really is as respected as I believe!

I met her last night at the Royal Opera House. Although she lounged on the chair and her body language was very relaxed I could tell that she was conscious and in complete control of every single movement she made. I get the feeling she controls what she says in the same way. Throughout the interview she was as careful with her words as a writer (something I recognise), answering my questions and expressing herself clearly and with an engaging openness that made me want to go back, interview her again and maybe see if she'll let me try out one or two of the easier moves...

Also responsible for coordinating and developing this complex performance (6 separate pieces, all with different forms and spaces, choreographers, film makers, musicians, performers and props which take significant time to erect), her company’s first performance is an organisational coup as well as a fascinating experience. At different times and in different combinations the pieces conveyed control, abandon, humour, langour, support and passion, and the audience engaged with a serious intensity that I’ve not seen before.

Combining the extremes of contemporary dance with music, film, floor dance and aerial displays (one of which was outside in the Covent Garden Piazza) was a huge creative risk that paid off spectacularly well. The performance is a sensation seeker’s dream!

Lindsey Butcher’s new company Gravity and Levity is at the Royal Opera House until June 25th. www.roh.org.uk
Details of my feature on Lindsey will be released later.

MENCAP Grand Canyon Cycle Ride

As you’d expect, experiencing the tsunami in the Maldives has had an impact. I’ve resolved to have more fun and help more people and the MENCAP Grand Canyon Cycle Ride in September seems the best way to start.

I need to raise a minimum of £3,000 on top of the £2,000 odd I expect to find myself for related expenses, kit etc.. To incentivise people to donate I've decided to… kinda… strip… tastefully.

Carole’s Virtual Bike Trek / Strip for a Cause:

Virtual Carole will trek by bike from the very cold to the very, very hot according to the donations given on a secure internet site. In the virtual world cycling in the cold takes lots of thick, warm clothes, while the only way to cycle in the virtual desert will be to wear very little at all.....

I’ll start the tour when online donations hit £250 and will change the photograph to reflect the increasing heat of the virtual world 10 times - once for every £500 raised. Online donations go directly to MENCAP through JustGiving.com and attract Gift Aid (a tax rebate that adds 28% to the money that goes to MENCAP).

I'm also offering a great package for corporate entities who would like to gain from the publicity, so please let me know of the contact details of anyone you know in the corporate world in charge of charitable donations..

MENCAP is a great charity that works hard on behalf of the learning disabled. Please help them – and me. Give… anything you can…

You can check up on me through my bike blog, donate, or see my virtual progress at www.webwandering.com/bikeblog.htm

Thanks!

Lesson with Mercedes Ruiz

Every Tuesday and Thursday Mercedes and her boyfriend drive from Jerez to Sevilla to give a course at Daniela's studio. An accomplished flamenco guitarist in his own right, he accompanies her at the end of each lesson while she sings and the students dance. This creates a wonderful atmosphere and is a great way of consolidating lessons, one of which I was privileged to watch last night.

On stage Mercedes presents as a strong woman who has experienced all of life’s joys and pains but off stage she has an engaging aura of vulnerability and delicate, graceful fragility that contrasts elegantly with her boyfriend's solid strength.

Even in the lesson the subtle elegance of her moves convey discipline and controlled passion: qualities only a great bailaora possesses. She’s a thoughtful, structured teacher who builds the lesson so that parts of the warm-up and technique combine with other compas to a seamless greater whole. It was a joy to see her dance again, even in the confines of a practice studio as part of the lesson she was giving.

As usual I got lost on the way back and the walk took about double the time it should. That's all part of the fun and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Miguel Vargas didn’t contact me so I wasn’t able to interview him. It’s a shame, because he’s very photogenic and I’d have liked to have covered more of his experience teaching the Japanese ladies I interviewed on Tuesday.

Tsutomu saw the ballet.co entry that mentioned him today. It turns out that he started his own blog for family and friends, which is now visited by about 1,000 people a week! Unfortunately for us (although not; I suspect, for his family) it's in Japanese. He’s off to Granada now and after that will continue his world tour to Italy and Paris.

This was my last day learning Spanish at Don Quijote. It has been fun and I only wish I could have stayed for a few more weeks.

Tomorrow I start a cycle tour of Andalusia. It will be an interesting and challenging week as well as initial preparation for the Grand Canyon Cycle Tour that I hope to do in aid of MENCAP in September. There'll not be much time for dance for a while..

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.

….

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
….

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!
…

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