More of a statement than a question from the flamenco happyoukai (performance) organiser. Amanda’s resounding “No, everything is not okay. In fact _nothing_ is okay” pretty much echoed my feelings. What part of our not being able to do the dance could possibly look okay? Is there some magic dust that we’re meant to have sprinkled on our feet so we can master a dance in a few short weeks when it has taken us months and months to almost master the previous dance? Cos I missed out on it.
On the up side, I can actually remember all the steps so have a hope in hell of practising enough to sort of blend in. If only I could practice at home. Last night I got to see what everyone else was wearing…they’ve all bought flamenco dresses. Gotta say, not really into the styles they have, and *gulp* they probably paid over AU$400 each…that’s if they bought them cheap through our teacher. Getting them at a dance shop here would mean an outlay of at least $700. Phew. This is why I don’t have one. I’ve never paid that much for a dress I would actually want to wear outside of performance, there’s no way I would pay that amount for the possible once a year performance. Anyway, my plan to totally melt into the background by wearing all black and nothing flashy – not going to work. Not when _everyone_ else is wearing bright red. They were all impressed by my choice of colour and told me again and again how much I would stand out and catch everyone’s eye. I think they thought that was my aim, and didn’t understand when I said I don’t want to stand out. Rethinking now. I have a red top….
I told the organiser I’m leaving flamenco after the performance. Now I just have to tell the teacher.
Sad news
I think it is sad that you are leaving, as you seem to enjoy the dancing side of things. I understand that a difficult teacher can really take the fun out of a dance lesson though.
Try not to let it take all your confidence, think about how much you have learnt rather than how much you haven’t, how much more agile your feet are than they were at the start, that sort of thing. The basic body mobility can help in any sort of dancing, even if you stop Flamenco.
Hey, you could always take up Morris Dancing?
Cheers,
Nat
Re: Sad news
I still enjoy flamenco, and still like the teacher. Yes, they all seem a bit insensitive over this upcoming performance, but other than that they’re okay. It’s more that this has made me realise that I’ve reached a point where to get more out of it I should start practising outside of class and I’m not prepared to spend the time doing that. I resent the extra time I’m taking at the moment, and more so the way it is filling my head.
So many times i have decided to ‘learn’ photography and every time I get distracted and busy with others things that I never quite get there. I’m determined this time will be different and I can see I need to pare down my activities to what I am dedicated to and what i want to thik about. I want photo stuff to b filling my head, not flamenco. Plus I’m already doing poi, which fulfills a dance/performance side of me and which has priority over flamenco.
Of course, I want to start bellydancing again! Trying to work out whether that’s another thing to distract from photography, or whether it would be good as exercise (the original reason for flamenco, to get me active)
I’ve spent the last few months trying to work out if I was serious enough about flamenco to get the shoes, and thought I was but somehow it never panned out, and now I’m glad and suspect that a part of me doubted my committment. Rightly so 😉
But thank-you for the confidence shot 😀