During one of my over-ambitious moods I registered for two evening classes. Yoga, and Flamenco dance.
Not one of my wiser decisions.
Yoga is on Tuesday evenings. It's fantastic, focused on flexibility and relaxation, nothing too taxing, feels like a massage.
Beginner's Flamenco is on Wednesday evenings.
Doing them at the same time is really confusing me.
Yoga requires grounded feet, balanced. Barefoot, quiet, soothing. Flamenco is all about the balls of your feet and making lots of noise with your heels and trying to coordinate your arms one way and your feet another.
I'm running into the same problems I did with tap class. When the instructor says to me, "Use the BALL of your foot, not the TOES!" I'm like, my toes are my ball. My abnormally small feet are retarded. In tap, I couldn't make the right tappy sounds because of that. Then again, a bum mechanic blames her tools. In the middle of my first Flamenco class, I got so frustrated.
There were real dancers there, wearing loud Flamenco shoes and cute Danskin ensembles. I should have just shown up in full costume, I would have felt less ridiculous than posturing in my frumpwear.
The teacher, at our first class, shows us a cool combination move, then she's gets all Debbie Allen, going "and a 5-6-7-8! GO!!" and all the Danskin girls are stomping toward the mirror with attitude all over their faces and perfect steps like they're freakin' Carmen.
THEN...there's me, hiding in the back, flailing about and tripping on my feet. "Stick out your chest!" Ok, I got that part. I also mastered the Flamenco fingers, so when in doubt, stick out the chest and do the fingers and fake the rest. Am I the only beginner here?
I've taken lots of dance classes - ballet, modern, ballroom, tap, square (my youth group in church held square dances - I know, it's a miracle I didn't marry a cousin considering the way I spent my teen years) - and yet the only dance I've mastered is the one where you get up on the bar, raise your arms and yell Whooooooooo!
The really excelente thing about the class is that I can't think of anything else when I'm trying not to fall on my ass.
I admit that one reason I decided to take Flamenco is so I can get the cool dress someday.
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