Friday, October 17, 2003

Amit left on the 14th. Her plane was delayed due to weather and she missed her connection in Madrid and arrived home a day late, but safe!

Our friend Debora was robbed while walking down Rubina’s street after getting off the bus we had ridden together. She is Italian. We met her in Torombo’s dance class and she turned out to be a close friend of Alexi the violinist’s mother (see former Chronicles) and a former girlfriend of Alexi. She has started to go to Concha’s group class with us too. It was after one of Concha’s group classes that she and I and a German guitarist named Ulrich took the circular bus together that runs around Sevilla home from Triana. Debora needed to go to Plaza Alfalfa to pick up some bread so she got off earlier than we did and was walking up Calle San Esteban about ten PM. The street was filled with people. Then, without warning, a motorcyclist drove by and snatched the purse Debora had carefully slung around her neck and shoulder (the proper way). She said that she was thankful the strap broke or she would have been injured. The thief got her cell phone, bankcard, house keys and about four Euros. But Debora was traumatized. She couldn’t call anyone -and all her phone numbers were stored in her phone. She couldn’t get into her house that night without her house keys. She came to our house but couldn’t remember the apartment number to buzz us to open the iron gate and of course she no longer had our phone number! So she went on to La Carboneria and ran into Alexi’s new girlfriend who brought her to their home. Debora ended up staying with them until her landlord returned the next day to Sevilla to give her a new set of keys. After all that, she had to make a police report but the police near Corte Ingles had moved! I directed her to the Italian Embassy and they told her about the new police station next to the Giralda. She could not get another bankcard until her bank in Italy received the police department report so it meant that she could not withdraw money! Then she ended up getting this cold and having to miss her dance classes. I saw her on the street today and she said that her parents are coming to bring her home in two weeks! She also has a husband and child in Italy. They had been here with her in Spain but had returned home about the time we met her. Debora’s experience has made us all a little more careful and paranoid. Rubina was robbed on that street last December. Francesca-Diana was robbed the same way this year on a crowded street as she walked with a group of friends! We are hearing about more and more robberies again. For a while it seemed that Spain had become safer. Now that safety is disappearing. Someone recently mentioned that you don’t see policemen around on the streets any more. That is true. I used to see more of them in other years. Although it is scary, I have to remember that most of the crimes I hear about here are robberies but are not violent like the ones in America. People don’t usually hurt you intentionally here. They are after your money. You hardly ever hear about rape or gang killings, etc. But robbery is scary enough. I know people have to be very careful to properly lock up their apartments too to prevent robbery. Last year our apartment had a new alarm that was a response to an earlier apartment robbery there. Here in this apartment you must enter through a locked iron gate.

Last Monday I got the head cold and runny nose that is going around. I learned that in Spanish they don’t say that your nose is “running” (I learned because people laughed when I said that. So I asked.) In Spain they say that your nose is dripping, or more accurately “dropping drops”, “goteando” (gote is a drop). Each year we learn more Spanish, depending on our experiences. I have also learned the words for ankle and sprained! Now Freddie has this awful cold too. I am almost all better. But my nose is a little red. I got Freddie some medicine at the pharmacy today; cough medicine and a packet of powder to drink to stop the running nose. I took one too and I think it helped. I also bought Fosomax (for bone strength) here. It is cheaper here than in the states, in spite of the exchange rate. I also bought bandaids. Last night a fairly large part of the nail on my big toe just came off. I must have bumped it a while ago and not realized it, because it wasn’t bleeding when the nail came off last night. But it was tender and so I had to tape it with a bandaid to wear my Flamenco shoes today. It worked. This year my body seems so much more fragile than ever. And I just want to dance!

October 12, the last day I wrote, seems like so long ago. We have lent Rayhana Freddie’s cell phone so we can be in touch with each other. Being here without a phone can be frustrating. Now we call each other a lot and see each other more. Rayhana has been getting massages from Toshi over here and loves him too. He told her to do more stretches so we have started doing them together. Rayhana went with Rubina and me to watch Angelita’s class today. I took three of Angelita Vargas’ classes this week. After her first class on Monday, I got sick with this cold and went home and slept. I had to cancel my private classes with Concha for the week because I wasn’t up to them. I also missed my group classes with Concha and Torombo and Angelita until yesterday. Then I went to a great Concha group Alegrías class last night and then tonight Concha got sick again with this stomach virus and had to cancel class. I was disappointed. I am also enjoying my group Torombo classes and am trying to learn his beautiful Silencio for the Alegrías.

My Solea classes with Angelita did not go well for me. For one, I discovered that the floor of that studio at Endanza, the dance center where she teaches, that I had assumed would be a good one, was awful. This was not good for my ankle. Then, Angelita’s style has a lot of footwork with a lot of golpes, a flat hitting the floor with the full foot, and that particular movement is one of the worst I can do for my ankle. Thursday I was almost in tears and very, very frustrated because my foot was hurting and I had lost days of the choreography when I was sick and not in class. I told Angelita that I could not continue her class and then she said to come back again today and she would work with me on upper body, arms, hands, head, skirt, -all the things I really wanted. So I returned today, but that didn’t really happen. She had me do the footwork very slowly and lightly but that wasn’t what I needed. I needed upper body and less footwork. I needed her to dance more in class so I could try to absorb her style. She had us go over the choreography (which I had missed a lot of while I was sick) while she sat in a chair and watched us (a common form of teaching here). I did not want to pick up the style of the other students I was following to see what to do next and I didn’t really care about learning Angelita’s choreography as I already have a beautiful Solea from Concha. I was again totally frustrated and have decided not to continue classes with Angelita at this time. Rubina, on the other hand, is doing phenomenally in Angelita’s class and will continue studying with her with joy. She learns from Angelita as easily as easily as I learn from Concha or Torombo. Angelita is a perfect teacher for Rubina but the wrong teacher (at this time) for me. Angelita is a lovely person and a wonderful dancer and I am happy to have had the opportunity to take a few classes from her and to meet her. But at this point, I don’t get the joy out of the classes the way I do with both Torombo’s and Concha’s classes.

Almost everyone says that three classes a day are too much for my body anyway. And now I know which one to scrap. But, my body feels better when I dance more. At home (in the US) I dance three or four hours, at least, almost every day so here my body craves the exercise. I have a private class with Torombo tomorrow to try to get more of the Alegrías Silencio. Rubina has one just before mine and she has invited me to share her class. I decided to do it because I miss dancing! Her class will warm me up for mine. It’s hard to explain, but if I don’t dance hard or do certain steps, I can dance for hours and not hurt myself. I just have to really watch how hard I hit the floor with my feet and to stay away from too many golpes. In Torombo’s class today I really felt myself dancing again and I loved it. He encourages dancing from inside and feeling each movement. He also showed us yesterday how to continue the movement from the “profound” planta (a step made with the ball of the foot) through the body. Tips like this are invaluable to me.

Last night in Concha’s class we worked on the Alegrías beginning and the letra. Concha’s choreography is beautiful. Although the class had progressed while I was sick, I had learned enough of the material in other classes and other contexts that I could keep up well. That is the Alegrías that I want to do. I will insert Torombo’s exquisite Silencio into it. Concha’s classes move more slowly than many other teachers’ classes here, but I like the pace. I am also very familiar with most (but not all) of her steps and with her style, so of course they are easier for me than if I had not experienced her before. She is very thorough and makes sure that all her students learn the compás well. She has now insulated her walls and her doors. The toilet that broke soon after it was installed was scheduled to get fixed today. Hopefully that happened. The studio is still coming together, but it is very nice and Concha loves having her own studio.

I have a line on two different studios to rent to practice in and then I want to continue my private classes with Concha until she leaves in November. Last Monday after class we practiced in the studio Angelita teaches in. It felt good to practice, but that was the studio with the bad floor. Concha did not teach that night because it was a holiday (Columbus day) so I was able to go home and rest. But it was that night that I felt the sore throat come on that preceded this cold. Then the next day the cold hit me hard and all I could do was to stay home and sleep. I think I had gone to Torombo’s class that morning and was all set to go first to Angelita’s class and then to Concha’s class when I realized that I could not walk straight. I was very dizzy and was afraid to be walking in the streets that way. I did not consider being too dizzy to dance. But when Freddie insisted I stay home, I listened. Before I had been ready to leave I had laid on the floor on my back and told Freddie, “I’m sick”. Then I got up to leave and couldn’t walk. Luckily I listened to him. I called to cancel my classes and then I slept like a rock. Rayhana was here watching some belly dance videos and Amit phoned to stay she was stuck in London for the night. Rayhana took the call. I could hear some of it but I couldn’t move or respond. I felt like a rock. Toshi came to give treatments to both Rayhana and Freddie. I was “dead to the world”. When I woke up three hours later I felt a little better. But then I went back to sleep. That night Freddie went to Huelva with Luis Agujetas and Carlos Heredia on a “boys night out”. They had a performance at a Peña. I was still sleeping when they returned late that night. Now Freddie is sleeping nonstop. I guess this trip is giving him the rest he needs. But his immune system seems to be down, as he is getting sick a lot. But then again, so am I, and so are a lot of other people here! Wednesday night I dragged myself to Jesus the wonderful acupuncturist in La Plaza de Armas and he gave me a good treatment for both my ankle and my cold. I think it helped to push me through my cold. I feel much better today.

I just looked at the time because I hear them washing the streets below me. It is one AM. Freddie and I slept all late afternoon after I iced my foot after Angelita’s class. Souren came to visit and to bring us an English newspaper but I couldn’t wake up. I thought I might have dreamed his visit. But Freddie told me it had really happened. I slept so soundly, again, I must have really needed it. Freddie had a Toshi appointment at 8:30 PM and I slept all evening. Freddie joined me in bed after his appointment. We are now sleeping on the fold out couch in the living room because our bedroom bed seems to be causing some of my left leg problems. I got up to eat and then started writing and now it is late!!!! Time keeps flying.

One of the Americans at Angelita’s class, Cathy, a dancer whom I had met when she and her husband danced in a show with Andrea and Richard Black in Santa Cruz, California, is a physical therapist. She told me about a new drug they use in America for ligaments, Promo (I think is its name). It is like a sugar they inject into the ligament and it then strengthens the ligament. She also told me about a different theory of taping my foot, a “hard” taping. She has offered to help me tape it her way to see if it makes a different to my ligament. People are nice here.

Saturday, October 18, 2003

It is raining and I feel great. I had a fantastic private class with Torombo today. We worked on the Silencio and I did very well. Freddie dragged himself up from his sick bed and joined me. Now he is home and is sleeping again. When I walk to the C3 bus now I usually walk through the Murillo Gardens, the park that borders our side of Barrio Santa Cruz and the big street Menendez Pelayo. Today on the bus, a thin, older man made room for me to sit next to him. (I still wear my air cast, so it is easy to see that I am injured and should be sitting instead of standing). He was tapping rhythms gently with his feet. I listened for a minute and then asked him if he were a dancer, a Flamenco dancer. He said yes. I told him I was a dancer too, a student of Concha Vargas. He commented on the flower in my hair and then looked at the air cast on my foot and asked me to show him something with the arms. I did a little something sitting there on the bus, catching the energy with my hand. He said, yes, baile Gitano and we laughed. He knew about Concha’s new studio in Triana and said he lived nearby. Then he told me he was actually a singer. He was on his way to (or from) the doctor’s and got off in Triana before my stop. I did not ask his name. But I was warmed by the exchange.

I will be taking more private classes from Torombo this month, because, like Concha, he will be leaving the country in November. What a shame. Freddie and I have been trying to decide if we will stay in Spain for the entire month of November. Now one of my other reasons for staying is leaving! What will I do in November without Concha and without Torombo? I could go site seeing and visiting. I could practice. Perhaps I might be up to studying with Juana Amaya, but I am not sure that my ankle can take it. It did not hurt at all today in Torombo’s class. I will try a private class from him early in the morning on Monday and then use the eleven o’clock group class to review, practice and enjoy what I learned in the private class. Torombo used the word enjoy. I really enjoy his philosophy about dance. He really works on encouraging the dance to emerge from within, to be “profound” and not superficial. And he seems to have a talent for showing me how to achieve that.

Monday Rubina and I will look at a studio to rent nearby Torombo’s class. It belongs to Manuel “Polonio”, a frequent visitor to Torombo’s class. I don’t yet know more of his history or his relation to Torombo and to Flamenco. I do know that one day he brought his young son to class and they both played the rhythms on the Cajon. I will also call about renting another studio about a ten-minute walk from our apartment. I just have to figure out the hours I want before I call. And that is the hard part! Studio rental seems to be big business here in Sevilla. Dance students need a place to practice what they learn. The floors must be good and the neighbors must not be disturbed. I sure do miss La Carboneria and the easy dance studio there. But as I have written, now I must dance only on good floors. It is not worth the risk of re-injuring my ankle again. Now I am like the other dancers, scrambling for a place to practice.

Monday, October 20, 2003

I have been in dance heaven all weekend, ever since Torombo’s class on Saturday. I learned the Silencio, finally seeing it as a dance piece instead of just a series of unrelated, tricky steps. Rubina and Rayhana came over and we danced. I showed them the steps and sequences. Rayhana is interested in incorporating Torombo’s wonderful body moves into her Middle Eastern dancing. The three of us are really enjoying spending time together. We dance a lot together. Rayhana has a very good eye when watching Flamenco. I know that is because she is truly a dancer, in the deep sense of the word. Rubina also has a good eye in Flamenco. And I am able to pick up the steps more and more quickly. With the basis Concha has given me, the attention to accents and the clean footwork, I can now pick up new steps and patterns fairly easily. And my foot is hurting less and less. That helps a lot. So we all tried to sequence, under my direction, in our apartment, dancing so lightly on the marble floors, not doing the footwork, or course, because of the neighbors. I woke up on Sunday with the Silencio running through my head. And we went through it all day. But today, it was so early and I was so tired, there was nothing in my head.

Freddie and I got up so early today! We left our house at eight thirty AM and were down at the coffee shop in Plaza Pelicano for Torombo’s class today at nine AM. Stores are just beginning to open at this hour and everyone is going to work. The sun was out and the weather was brisk. I had coffee and fresh squeezed orange juice and a bite of Freddie’s tostada with jamon and aceite (more like a toasted English muffin with thin prociutto like ham and olive oil). I am not eating many carbohydrates or sugar these days and I am losing weight. I can eat oil and fat and protein and vegetables and I do. I miss my bread, but I am happier with my weight as it is now. So occasionally I eat of bite of Freddie’s bread.

My class today was again wonderful and I am excited about learning and dancing. Torombo is working on my body and carrying movements through. It’s hard to describe, but it is exactly what I need now. The joy is back. The excitement is back. I am happy.

Tomorrow Freddie will take a private baston (cane) and Cajon (box-like drum) class from Torombo at 9:45 AM. Then I will take the group class at eleven. Today, Rubina had the stomach flu so she did not come with us. But after class, Freddie and I went to see the “nearby” studio with Manuel “Polonio”, whom I mentioned earlier. As we walked for about fifteen minutes through the narrow streets of the Macarena, a poor district on the far side of Sevilla that has blossomed with dance studios and dancers, we questioned Polonio about his personal story. He has a fifteen-year old son who often performs Flamenco dance with Farruquito and Antonio Canales and Israel Galvan. We met Polonio’s younger son who played Cajon in Torombo’s class. He also dances. Polonio seems ageless, but may be in his thirties. He has longish short light brown hair, a weathered face, and teeth like many Spaniards, bad. His warm smile and shining eyes feel playful and alive. He used to sing with El Moreno, Farruquito’s father. I wrote about the homenaje (memorial) for his death in former Chronicles. We told Polonio a little about us, and the Spaniards who have performed and taught and stayed at our home. He knows a lot of the same group of Flamencos here that we do. When I mentioned Luisito, he already knew that Luisito’s father had just died. I don’t think I mentioned that. Luisito was with us when his mother phoned him to tell him that his father had had a heart attack in Almeria where he lived. Luisito did not think there would be time enough to go down there, but he immediately returned home to his mother and younger brother to decide what to do. Unfortunately he was right about the time element. His father died a little later. He was only forty-eight years old. Although Luisito was not close to his father, it is still a shock and a loss to lose a parent. He said it was like a thorn in his heart.

As we walked to his studio, Polonio showed us the street that Juan del Gastor and Lucy live on. Earlier we had passed Endanza, the dancer center on Calle San Luis. Near Calle Feria, where Freddie lived in 1985, we turned. There under some picturesque apartments with wrought iron balconies, was Polonio’s little studio. Two women were dancing in it but we entered and sat in a tiny back room and looked at the scheduling book and talked. The only hour it was free was at two PM and that was too late for my needs. I will call the other studio tomorrow. I had wanted to practice closer to Torombo’s studio at twelve thirty or one. That isn’t possible. So I will check into the other studio that is closer to our apartment. Polonio also has an apartment for rent above the dance studio but Francesca-Diana told me later that it is claustrophobically small.

When we left the studio Polonio invited us for a “cervecito” (a little beer) so we accompanied him to a nearby bar. Here in the Macarena things feel to us more like the old Spain. Even the prices are cheaper. In the bar the old, toothless men sat playing dominos and drinking beer. Most of the time I was the only woman in the bar. They didn’t have mineral water or fresh orange juice and I hadn’t eaten breakfast so I had two tapas (little appetizer servings). I ate meat and tomatoes and some delicious whole mushrooms cooked with olive oil and garlic. I drank tap water. Freddie drank Cerveza Sin, beer without alcohol. Freddie and I are both liking the Macarena area this time and are thinking of renting an apartment there next year. In 1999 it used to be more dangerous and filled with drug addicts, whom, rumor had it, would threaten people with AIDS infected needles when they were robbing them. But now, in the residential areas, we have heard, it is no longer dangerous. It might be more dangerous in our area, in the Barrio de Santa Cruz, because our area is where there are more tourists and tourists are targets. You don’t see many tourists in the Macarena; the foreigners you do see are mostly Flamenco students. There is an old, neighborhood feeling about the Macarena.

Around two thirty we caught a taxi home and took a nap. We were both exhausted but exhilarated. I woke up with enough time to eat a yogurt and some green vitamin powder, to refill my water bottles (we have a Brita water filter which we keep here in Spain) and to walk to the bus to take Concha’s seven o’clock group Alegrías class. That was my day today. While I was at Concha’s class Freddie went out to the pharmacy and bought medicine for Rubina and took it to her. She was still very sick, he said, this evening. Hopefully she will be better tomorrow.

Now we have to find time to get more groceries from the MAS as well as to cook again. My birthday is Thursday but I feel too busy to be very excited about it. I am thankful that my ankle and leg are letting me dance again. That is my best birthday present. But I still have to be very careful and to continue icing my foot.

SPAIN CHRONICLES 2003

Sept 14 – 15 Writings
Sept 17 – Oct 4 Writings
Oct 5 -12 Writings
Oct 17 – 20 Writings
Oct 25 – Nov 2 Writings
Nov 4 – 9 Writings
Nov 11 – 17 Writings
Nov 23 – 24 Writings
Nov 25 – Dec 2 Writings
Dec 5 – 8 Writings
Dec 10 – 14 Writings