One of the highlights from our recent San Francisco trip was live flamenco at La Taza de Cafe in Oakland. San Francisco has some of the best flamenco in the entire continent, so before anything else, I made arrangements to find flamenco.

www.sfflamenco.com is a great guide to flamenco performances, nightlife and classes in the Bay area. It was there that we found out La Taza de Cafe in Oakland has live quadro flamenco on Friday nights. Cuadro flamenco is where you have a singer, guitarist and two dancers taking turns dancing and doing palmas (clapping). There is nothing quite like seeing live flamenco in such an intimate setting, typically the size of a living room and kitchen put together. The power and passion of flamenco is felt strongest in this arena.

We had the honor of taking in a spellbinding performance by bailoras Melissa Cruz and Kerensa DeMars with singer Azriel “El Moreno” and guitarist David Gutierrez. They captivated us for two sets consisting of Sevillanas, alegrias, bulerias por fiesta, solea por bulerias and even a rumba with special guest performances from audience members! I was pulled up by Kerensa and given a chance to make it up with her on the spot. Exhilarating!

Additionally, the staff at La Taza are incredibly accommodating and pleasant – plus their food is AMAZING! Thanks for a great night of fabulous food and flamenco!

FLAMENCO NIGHTS at La Taza de Café

Friday nights!

Flamenco Nights at:
La Taza de Cafe
3909 Grand Avenue (@ Sunnyslope)
Oakland, CA

Fridays each month
Visit www.latazadecafe.com for featured artists
Call (510) 658-2373 for dinner reservations

Pirouz Ebadypour – founder/owner of flamenco.ca (Photo Credit: www.ElviraYebes.com)

The search is on for a flamenco singer in Utah! We are a flamenco guitarist and dancer in the Salt Lake City, Utah area. If you know of anyone, please send them our way!

The picture above is of Pirouz Ebadypour. Originally from Iran, he now resides in Vancouver and is making a big impact on the flamenco community there. He has an amazing flamenco voice and I have had the privilege of working with Pirouz on several occasions. Pirouz is also the mind behind www.flamenco.ca – be sure to check out their online flamenco radio station!

Weak ankles are a dancer’s nightmare! My right ankle is chronically weak and I seem to roll it every 6 months to a year. Of course, after seeing many doctors, I know exactly what to do when I roll my ankle:

1. Ice
2. Elevate
3. Compress
4. Maintain mobility (this is a new one, care of my wonderful chiro, Dr. Bryan – he suggests to roll a medium sized ball under your foot to keep up movement)
5. Rest… and then begin strengthening

I’ve been a good girl and stayed off my foot for the last week and been doing all of the above. I’ve been living vicariously by listening to mad flamenco recordings (care of Gabriel Edgar, my flamenco DVDs and YouTube) and running old choreographies in my head. Dance class tonight will tell…

Any suggestions on how to better heal would be much appreciated!

Today I decided to do something I haven’t done in a long time – flamenco. It was invigorating to think I wasn’t doing this for Tim, Blue Bijou or Pre-Paid Legal, it was just for me. You gotta know when I’m standing at work with co-workers and have the urge to break out into Sevillanas mid-conversation, it’s time to dance again.

The Academy of Dance Design in Saratoga Springs (website to come) has an airy, spacious studio that I rent to practice old choreographies. During the summer of 2006, Kasandra of Mozaico Flamenco taught a Solea por Bulerias choreography which I really took to and even performed that October alongside Pirouz of www.flamenco.ca and Marek of La Triana. Thanks to a recording from dear Farnaz, my Solea is being polished once more.

Picture Credit: Jennifer Wood. Pictured – Sarah, Pirouz, Marek

This Saturday night, Bien Flamenco is performing at the Arte Latino festival in Park City, Utah at the Kimball Arts Center, 6pm. For more details, visit www.kimball-art.org. I look forward to being inspired by live flamenco and meeting Sariah, the genius behind Bien Flamenco. There is a growing caravan of us attending, so feel free to invite yourself and join us for this Saturday night getaway in Park City!

After a one year hiatus, I have officially returned to flamenco. Upon relocating to Utah, there were no studios to pick up where I left off and unfortunately my flamenco dancing dwindled. There is a new dance studio called Studio of Dance Design that opened up five minutes away from home by a gal in our neighborhood. I will rent the studio to dust off old choreographies and breathe some life into them again. Thankfully I have vidoes of old performances to go off of…

I was watching flamenco videos on YouTube this morning (many of which were somewhat painful to behold) and happened upon one of my favorites, Eva Yerbabuena. She came to Vancouver in February of 2004 and I had the pleasure of seeing her perform at the Orpheum theatre. It was astounding and inspiring. I happened upon this photo again today — one of my favorites in all flamenco.

After watching some pretty bad choreographies on YouTube, it made me appreciate even more Kasandra “La China” and Mozaico Flamenco in Vancouver. You just don’t get that kind of quality everywhere you go and I’m grateful for the time I have been able to spend under their tutelage. Hopefully it won’t be long before I will study with them again.

In the meantime, I have contacted a performing flamenco group in Utah called Bien Flamenco and will be attending a show of theirs in March. Sariah, the leader of the group, is apparently “the closest thing to the mother land [Spain] in Utah” so I look forward to pursuing private lessons with her.

Furthermore, what Utah is in serious need of is a pena like Kino Cafe where people can go to see raw, live flamenco in an intimate setting and enjoy drinks, tapas, good company and be inspired.

Viva flamenco!