dance question

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dance question

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rickm

Posts: 446
Joined: Jan. 23 2004

dance question

all this talk of compas etc. My thought is would one learn compas better/easier whatever by taking a course in flamenco dance? If I understand correctly the soul of flamenco is moreso the dance than guitar so the roots to compas are in the dance I am guessing. Just an idea but it does interest me. Anyone here dance somewhat ?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 12 2005 12:25:49

Florian

Posts: 9282
Joined: Jul. 14 2003
From: Adelaide/Australia

RE: dance question (in reply to rickm)

Yes I think that would defenetly improve your compas if you wanna go to that extreme but even just acompanying dancers will force you to improve your compas because you dont wanna get dirty looks from dancers :) when you mess up

Either way is you doing the work only this will force you to pay more attention to it to avoid embarrasing situations, " Is not very cool to have a class full of girls getting into it (buleria footwork) and just as is really good every thing brakes down

because you went out of compas and everybody is looking at you , and everybody is asking what happen ?! (at this point i recomend you imediatly turn to the guitarist sitting next to you and knod your head like to say " You messed up !" that works for a while unless you playing by yourself in which case you have to make this face

and say " Sorry I couldnt hear the feet ". that can buy you about 2 weeks to practice more.

Ton answer your question : Yes i think either learning to dance or accompaning dancers will both help ALOT !
Ps. The show aint finished until the guitarist gets up and does a Buleria

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 12 2005 13:21:57

Mark2

Posts: 1877
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco

RE: dance question (in reply to rickm)

It should improve your ability to play for dance, but unless you stay with dance for a while, it may not help your compas that much. Dance classes tend to teach steps, and there are dance students who have been at it for a while who still don't have much compas, even though they may know a lot of steps or even whole dances. You can see that when they try to do the dance without the teacher. But if you already know some compas, and learn how those steps fit into the compas, I'm pretty sure you would make a lot of progress. I've never spent much time learning dance-my daughter taught me a few steps and I've played for enough dance that I could fake marking and maybe a llamada, but I do know some local guitarists that have put more time into it. Frankly, I don't think their compas is any better than the guitarists who have spent a lot time playing for dance. OTOH, there is a guitarist from Spain working in the US that is probably the best in the country and he started as a dancer. When he gets up for a fin de fiesta, he's got the stuff. In fact, I love it when the guitarist gets up at the end of the show-they are just sitting there the whole time pumping out compas while all the dancers are doing their thing. Then they get their shot at the end, and it's usually something simple but powerful that they express. Many times the energy they project is so flamenco, that it's more moving than the thousand steps you just saw from the "real" dancers. For that reason alone, it's worth it for a guitarist to learn how to mark por bulerias.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 12 2005 17:14:47

Thomas Whiteley

Posts: 786
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: San Francisco Bay Area

RE: dance question (in reply to rickm)

I would suggest learning how to do palmas correctly. Learning how to dance might be fun and open interesting opportunities to learn more about flamenco. It really depends upon what you want to do.

By the way I let my wife do the dancing and singing. That frees me up to accompany!

_____________________________

Tom
http://home.comcast.net/~flamencoguitar/flamenco.html

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2005 3:26:38

gerundino63

Posts: 1743
Joined: Jul. 11 2003
From: The Netherlands

RE: dance question (in reply to Thomas Whiteley)

I can not dance, and better not learn it too, ( I move like a door)

But a frend of mine who plays flamenco guitar studied flamenco dancing too, and it was a lot of help for his playing too!

Peter

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 13 2005 8:17:44

rickm

Posts: 446
Joined: Jan. 23 2004

RE: dance question (in reply to rickm)

thanks for the replies. one of my problems is that I live in a suburb of chicago, and there is nothing close by. there is at least one very good flamenoc guitar willing to give lessons but he lives in chicago and it is totally unwiedly. There is a flamenco dance academy but likewise in chicago and again unwieldy. If there was something closer it I would do it in a snap, but distance etc makes it impossible, so before I make the commitment I try to explore the options. My preference is to play the guitar but really suffers from the lack of partnership. I think flamenco is one style of music that needs others involvment. Perhaps classical can be developed in solo context or even the blues, but I think flamenco needs the sense of community. Like Sabicas said, and I hear constantly you have to play for dancers to really understand, but if there are no dancers around it has to all come from your own head. It is harder to discipline yourself than to have a good teacher to point out whoops play that note stronger. SO that also brings to mind if anyone out there is from the chicago suburbs and wants to join in practice sessions. let me know. cya

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date May 14 2005 14:37:04