3. May 19-22, 2011

Thursday May 19, 2011

Oh Wow. What wonderful things are happening. I have done shamanic journeys for two days now in Spain and everything is turning around. 

Last night I emailed Chris about our internet problem. We first met Chris when he when he was in his early twenties and he attended UC Santa Cruz as a music major and started to study Flamenco guitar with James, our land-mate at home. Along with James, Chris accompanied the Flamenco dance classes that I taught.

That year Juan del Gastor did a residency at UC Santa Cruz while staying at our home. He inspired Chris, who took his classes, and when Chris graduated, he moved to Spain to study Flamenco more intensely. He stayed in Sevilla for several years. But one of his roommates’ friend visited from Germany and Chris fell in love and later moved to Germany to be with her.  

He just happened to decide to visit Sevilla for a month and showed up at our house yesterday, having just arrived. Later I emailed him from Café Hercules about our internet problem. This morning he showed up and fixed it! Now we have great wifi and we are grateful for it! We don’t just take it for granted. 

I took my first class (on this trip) from Lakshmi. We worked on Angelita dance vocabulary so that when Angelita starts to teach I won’t have to worry about what foot I’m on. The class was wonderful and I have another one tomorrow. My feet were so heavy when I started and by the end they were moving lightly and the right way! 

Lakshmi’s small studio is on the ground floor of her apartment building. Her building has only three apartments, one on each floor above the studio. The owner’s son, who used to live in Lakshmi’s apartment before she did, was a dancer. Only tenants are allowed to use the studio, but it is OK for Lakshmi to teach classes there and is very convenient. It has one barred window to the street and the metal door, which everyone uses to get to the stairs to their apartments. The residents store their bikes there. That floor also has a tiny room with a washing machine and a toilet. Just down a short hall the stairs start. Lakshmi is on the middle story. She has a balcony to the street and when we arrive, we call “Lakshmi” up to her window, and she either comes down or throws down the keys in a plastic bag so we can let ourselves in.

Lakshmi has been in our lives a while. A year younger than Stephanie, Lakshmi too has long dark hair and an exotic face with beautiful blue eyes. She is like a daughter to us, and even her parents refer to us as her second parents. They worry less about her when we are in Spain. She moved to Spain when she was twenty, to study Flamenco. She had been raised in a Faire family of performing musicians and she danced from the time she was a child. She imitated and learned from the Belly Dancers and Flamenco dancers who performed on the Faire circuit. 

Lakshmi has immense talent along with incredible discipline and her dancing looks very Gypsy. People are always amazed when they find out that she is American. Even her Spanish sounds Andalucían, with the accent of the southern Spain. She dances in a club six nights a week and performs at other Flamenco functions when hired.

This year when I arrived she lent me a small bike that just needed to have it brakes fixed. Angel took the bike to the bike store for me and they fixed the brakes for six euros. He lent me a lock, because bicycle theft is very big in Spain.

Immediately after Lakshmi’s class, I rode the bike home and arrived five minutes before Juan del Gastor did. Juan taught a group cante class at the house with Yuko, Madeleine Perlman, and Madeleine’s student Diana. Yuko and I had already shared another cante class with Juan, so this was our second one this year. 

After the class I ate a little and tried to take a siesta but couldn’t sleep. A little later, Angel came and removed the top bunk of the bunk bed in the loft, so that the person who is in that room can now sit up in bed! Yuko had had trouble sleeping there because she had to get out of bed by sliding out first, so she could then stand up. Next Angel removed one of the twin beds from my room (as requested) and now I have space there. All that remains to be done is for our practice stage to be moved and set up.

Tonight Yuko and I went to see Ines Bacan and Tomas de Perrate and Antonio Moya. Of course many of my friends were there too – I saw Jill, and Lynn, and Lucy, Steve Kahn, and Madaleine Perlman (who took Juan’s singing class with us today). 

On the way there, I passed a structure that they have been building in Plaza Incarnación for years. It is finally done and quite ugly. But that night there were great crowds there and a demonstration was beginning. I learned later that this was one of many demonstrations going on in Spain right now. The people are tired of the economic crisis. They also want to be free to vote for people not just on their party’s ticket. There is a movement growing here. Our landlord Angel is very excited about it and sees it as one of hope. In Spain, people vote on Sunday.

After the performance, Antonio Moya (the guitarist for the singers) and I reminisced about when he carried Freddie up our steps in Soquel (California) after Freddie’s stroke. I had gotten permission to take Freddie to the show from Rehab, but after the show, which they dedicated to us, we took him up to our house to visit with the artists from the Arte y Pureza Flamenco troupe who were staying at the house. Freddie couldn’t walk up the stairs, he was still in a wheelchair and mostly paralyzed at the time. Antonio, who is big, carried him. I am sure the hospital would have had a fit if they had known. They did call the house to see where Freddie was! Antonio is another one with a big, good heart.

May 20, 2011 – Friday

As I do every year, I called Concha Vargas on her birthday today. She was in Cordoba and on her way to perform in France. She likes that I always remember her birthday. She is now living in Lebrija and teaching classes there. She says that students come from Sevilla to Lebrija to take lessons from her. We made plans for me to visit when she returns from France.

After my class with Lakshmi I was finally able to reach Hector by phone, to find out how Freddie is doing. Freddie was at the beach and Hector said that he was doing great. I have been trying to reach Hector for days, but we keep being out of sync. He returned my call while I was in the Ines Bacan concert with my phone turned off. Then I had to try calling Hector several more times, because he doesn’t always have his phone on him. 

I miss talking to Freddie. I am using Freddie’s phone and mine is still in the shop trying to get fully unlocked. But today the technician said that he may not be able to unlock it! He will know for sure by Monday. If not, I have wasted money on a phone and will have to buy something for Freddie, so I can talk to him while we are apart! 

I also tried to find a ride down to the beach but I couldn’t. Several people are going next week and I will definitely catch a ride with one of them. So, instead of taking the bus back after just having returned here on Wednesday, I have decided to stay here and rest. 

I haven’t been getting enough sleep because I have been having too much fun, and then spending a little time writing. I didn’t even have time to take a siesta today and I woke up earlier than planned. This room that I am now sleeping in has more morning light in it that the room that Freddie and I are used to sleeping in at this apartment. Yuko is now in that room. She likes it better than the loft. And I love the room I am in, except for waking up too early. And try as I may, I rarely seem to get to sleep early enough. 

After I returned from Lakshmi’s class I ate some lunch and before I knew it, it was time for the stores to reopen. I didn’t have any time to sleep or rest, although I did do another shamanic journey. 

I had many errands to do, but the first one took all my time. I rode the small, old bike that Lakshmi lent to me. It bounces a lot on the cobblestone streets and the seat is hard and I can feel it in my bottom hipbones. The bike doesn’t have gears, so I have to work hard, especially going up hills. On the way home I was riding down calle (street) Amor de Dios and another bike passed me, going more than twice as fast. Its wheels were normal size, not small and thick like mine. I am grateful to have a bike my size, but it is not easy to ride, and I rode for hours today, looking for a specific book. I did finally have success but I forgot about the other things I needed to buy. I have to finish by Saturday at 1:00 PM because all the stores will be closed after that until Monday.

When I arrived home, sweating and tired, Lucy was there with Yuko. We are still trying to organize classes with Angelita and Lucy had talked with her. Lucy had called me, but because my phone was in my pack while I was riding the bike, I hadn’t heard it ring. Right now, we don’t have quite enough people for a class with Angelita. The person who organized her classes last year has not been able to get her class going this time. Angelita is a great artist and should have a full class. It is more about advertising than anything.

This evening, after a shower and a quick bite to eat, my roommate Yuko and I walked up to Peña Macarena. Although I was exhausted and pushing myself even to go out, it felt so good to walk there. Ever since Freddie’s stroke we have taken taxis and I forget how close things really are in Sevilla. And the walking revived me as well.

Our friends Javier Heredia and Luis Peña were performing at the Peña (a Flamenco social club) along with two singers, a guitarist, and a female dancer.  Javi and Luis both do palmas, sing and dance. They are “festeros”, artists who perform at Fiestas and are multi-talented. When Freddie was still in the hospital just after his stroke, Javi and Luis, who were in California on tour with Cihtli and Ethan’s Arte y Pureza, came to the hospital and danced and sang for him! We have known Luis since 1999, when he was still Luisito, when he used to hang out in la Carboneria. He was a young protégée of Juan’s then. Now he is a respected artist performing at the Peña and other places and countries as well.

Lakshmi rode her bike over to the Peña after her show at Palacios, still glamorous in her makeup –and always beautiful. She arrived at the end of the show, but we all hung out in the patio afterwards and talked and did a little dancing. Javi always likes to dance and when he recently stayed with us in California, we danced and laughed for weeks.

Chris was there (it is as if he still lives in Sevilla) and I saw and reconnected with many people, some of whom I remembered and some whom I didn’t! I have been around Sevilla for so many years, that I know a lot of people. Sometimes I forget how many people I have met and connected with here. But I did miss being there with Freddie! Of course, everyone asks about him and Luis especially wants to go down to the beach to visit him. But no one has a car. I keep asking.

One of the people I have also known since 1999 is tall Naoko, a striking dancer from Japan whom I met in Concha’s class in 1999 when Freddie and I were living at la Carboneria and Concha Vargas was teaching there. Naoko was already an advanced, star student then, and she is still studying with Concha and also with Luis. She also knows Yuko. The Flamenco world here is small, especially among those of us who love Flamenco puro, the old, funky Gypsy style. 

At the Peña I also reconnected with a woman and her daughter whom I had met in Angelita’s class last year. Her daughter had been devastated when Angelita’s class was canceled this year. She really wants to continue her studies with Angelita. She is in school but will be able to start classes after next week, if we can get them going. Meanwhile, I keep working on Angelita’s dance vocabulary with Lakshmi, but I want Angelita too!

I have to stop writing and get to bed. This always happens, but I do love to write. 

Sunday May 22, 2011

I am on the bus going to Palmar, via Cruces de Conil. I finally talked to Freddie last night and he really wanted me to come and Hector and Freddie said that the weather was beautiful; so here I am. –Total spur of the moment. I had been trying to reach Freddie by calling Hector since I left. I reached Hector once who told me that Freddie was fine, but last night I finally got to talk to Freddie himself. Freddie has not figured out his internet so he didn’t get my emails. I will see what is going on when I get there. I also plan to get him his own Skype name so that we can Skype when I am in Sevilla. We have been missing each other.

So this morning, after not enough sleep, I got up very early so I could get a taxi and catch the 9:30 bus. As usual, I was ½ an hour early because everything moved like clockwork. But if it hadn’t ….

With no classes today and Angelita’s schedule being uncertain, I might as well be at the beach. Lakshmi is doing a gig in Italy today, so my guess is that our Monday class wouldn’t happen anyway. She was supposed to let me know. I may return Tuesday or Wednesday for class with Lakshmi if Angelita’s doesn’t start. I will take advantage of the beach and the pre-season quiet there. And I will be with Freddie, whom I miss and who misses me. 

SPAIN CHRONICLES 2011

May 10-25 Writings
May 18 Writings
May 19-22 Writings
May 23-29 Writings
June 5-10 Writings
June 11-16 Writings
June 18-19 Writings
June 21-26 Writings
June 27 – July 9 Writings
July 17 – August 3 Writings
August 5-6 Writings