First dance class and an amazing concert

The first day of the Festival. The rain lets up and Jerez is transformed in a matter of hours. The streets are now seething with people. Flamenco music is heard everywhere - blasting from the windows of passing cars... open windows above the street... from behind the big wooden doors. People of other cultures can now be picked out of the crowd , as well as obvious flamenco performers, here to take it in as well.



People shop, and eat, and talk. There are even more cars in the streets than usual - you really have to watch it. It is also the long weekend this week, a city holiday, and everybody is aso preparing for Easter. There are special practice nights for the floats that carry the Virgin Mary . On certain nights (when everybody is off work I assume) they practice with huge platforms - all packed together underneath, with curved cushions around their necks, scrunched up, and patiently and slowly lumbering along the streets - trying to keep it moving level I suppose.



My first dance class was today. Maria Jose Franco is absolutely stunning. I find my fellow students gathering in the gym that is where we will be for the next 10 days. There are people from all over the world.

She conducts the class completely in Spanish but is clear, patient and not all all like what I've heard teachers can be like here.... Except for the room being mirrored on all sides (which is my learning nemesis and curse) I am absolutely thrilled. I make friends with a girl named Naoko Sugiura from Japan, and we go back to my hotel afterwards, and try to remember the sequence she taught us, and film it. I also meet Francisco from Ecuador and a lady from Germany.

I rush to the theatre at 8.30 and the people are crowded around, some people are sitting in the café beside it with guitars, and singing... doing palmas (even in this cold).

I find Kasandra, Monica, and Andrew, get my tickets, and we file into the beautiful old theatre. The crowd is solid flamencos. Good God EVERBODY is here. There are some singers and musicians I've been listening to for years, and some are here in the audience- a girl from Germany sitting beside me points them out. Joaquin Grilo is astounding... the other performers are nothing less than fantastic, but what was an unforgettable experience, was being in that crowd at the the end of the show when they did three encores of fiesta por buleria.. and the whole crowd was clapping and stamping their feet in time. The room surrounded you with the rythm. Up from the floor came the pounding, and around you the sound of thousands of hands doing it "right" and haleos that brought you right to the artists on stage doing bukerias like you've never even dreamed.

We fell out of the theatre and went for drinks and Tapas... the parties will be going on all night, but everybody has jet lag, and starts their classes in the morning, so I walked home to my hotel WIRED wishing I had the courage to go find some foreigners that woud let me tag along. Hmnnnnn - maybe next week!