shutterbugDANCER

In January of this year, I went back to my flamenco classes.    I took the Fall session off because I has other things to do on Monday nights, but I did miss it, and I really wanted to be in the performance in May.  So here I am, back in flamenco.  I started flamenco dancing in 2011, here in Fort Worth, we only have one school where we can study the dance here. I started the lessons because I wanted to do the Paso Doble in ballroom and I thought it would help me. I never really did paso Doble and I stopped ballroom for a couple of years, but flamenco has helped me all around by strengthening my body and learning how to move it, much the same as ballet has done, but in a different way. I finally did perform a beginner Paso Doble routine this past December (I posted something about it on my blog), and I did get to do some flamenco fan work in the performance, which I loved! I made that costume and I do hope that one day I am able to wear that skirt again, I’m thinking about adding a flounce to it to make it more flamenco-like but could also be used for Paso Doble.

Dallas has so many more options for learning flamenco, and I did go there for about 6 months. I studied with Conté de Loyo, but the travel back and forth to Dallas at night was a bit much.  So now, here I am back to studying it in Fort Worth.   I make my own costumes and practice skirts.  Back in September (or was it August?) I bought some fabric for a new flamenco skirt, but never made it since I wasn’t dancing it.   I documented making the pattern and sewing it when I started up again in January.   Here are some photos from the beginning of drafting the pattern and cutting it out, through to putting it all together. We are working on choreography for a performance and I will wear the skirt, but I need to add two more rows of flounces to it.

We are trying to figure out our costumes, the instructor wants something very specific, which, of course, makes it difficult to find. We need to find a chulapa blouse for our skirts, the same that the Madrileñas wear in the San Isidro Festival in May in Madrid. We need them by mid-May, but can’t seem to find them anywhere in The U.S. My friend and fellow flamenco dancer has friends in Madrid that may be able to get them for us!

So….  weeks later now…  we finished our costumes (although it came right down to the wire, we were still sewing only an hour before the Mayfest Performance…   our Chulapa-like blouses came from China (they are actually Lolita blouses) and we modified them with eyelet and bows.

Here is the Mayfest performance….  we got all of the steps and for the real performance (on stage with lights!!) we will clean it up so it really looks good!

Thanks for reading!        Laura Lynne