I have had the honor to work for Ana Morales at the Dance Workshop Studios in Birmingham, where the flamenco teacher Ana Garcia holds some of her regular classes.
With almost no time to rest after a long couple of weeks of intense work, culminating with the presentation of her show "Sin permiso. Canciones para el silencio" at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London, maestra Ana Morales still had full power to offer us a wonderful two-days workshop.
The flamenco weekend:
The very first class of each day, imparted by Ana Garcia, was aimed for beginner dancers. Although the material seemed challenging at first, by the end of Sunday's class the students were dancing a "letra por bulerias". While the challenge to keep up with the 12 beat pattern remained, Ms. Garcia shared the good old trick I like to call "The America Method"... that will probably stick.
For the rest of the morning we had Ms. Morales masterclasses, and that's what I am going to give more detail about in this post.
Apart from a very special technique class the super attentive attendants had the opportunity to learn a short choreography for "guajiras" and another over the "abandolao" rhythm, each dance comprising a "falseta" and a "letra".
Saturday, we worked on the falsetas, a time for me to really squeeze my brains right there and then for something interesting to play but simple enough rhythmically so dancers (and myself too) could keep up. On Sunday, we added two traditional letras to complete the effective and tasteful pieces.
Guajiras: falseta
To be honest, it caught me off guard that the first day, first hour, and first thing Ana wanted to work on would be the falseta... I wasn't feeling much awake yet so I started to doodle and sketch around the basic chords and turnarounds praying to the great masters, their muses would help me... or at least a leprechaun? a goblin?
This doodling, eventually made me relate to something I had composed inspired by a Cuban bolero some time ago. That, and some bits I currently use for the guajiras number in our show "Raices" with Lourdes Fernandez and company, felt enough like a palette to start working plus something to lock on and attribute to my work.
I think what I managed in the class was good enough to be repeated and danced over a few times, but it was sketchy and on every repetition I'd try to define bits or go for something different here and there without drifting much from the harmony chosen and, off course, always respecting the "compas" above all things!
Here it is the definite transcription of my falseta por guajiras:
Guajiras: letra
Ms. Morales chose the classic, (tan flamenca) guajira:
Me gusta por la mañana despues del cafe bebio pasearme por la Habana con mi cigarro encendio y sentarme muy tranquillo en mi silla o mi sillon y comprarme un papelon de esos que llaman diario y parezco un millionario rico de la poblacion | I like it in the morning after the coffee drunk stroll through Havana with my cigar lit and sit very calm in my chair or my armchair and buy me a piece of paper of those they call daily and I look like a millionaire rich of the population |
But decided to skip the 5th and 6th lines in order to make sure the choreography would be finished by the end of Sunday's class, wise decision.
I have found a video with a singer omitting exactly the same lines:
Abandolaos: falseta
For this falseta I actually adapted one that I had been working on during the week before. That piece was originally made over tangos rhythm for one of Ana Garcia's dance students group at Elmhurst Ballet School (more about it in a future post) I took the challenge to adapt it to the ternary beat of abandolao and see what would come up...
The idea worked surprisingly well and it was the exact length for what Ms Morales had in mind! Still, it was a bit sketchy and needed a bit of care taken, here it is after a run through:
Abandolaos: letra
Abandolao is really a folk rhythm pattern that can be traced to the area of Malaga, specially the country side. There, the groups called "pandas de verdiales" sing and perform a kind of fandango that is considered one of the most primitive kinds.
Fandango song form was very popular all around the peninsula at some point, it is actually older that flamenco as we know it today and is the base for many "cantes" (verdiales, jaberas, malagueñas, rondeñas, tarantas...) For our class Ana chose a rondeña that goes:
Yo vi un bicho corredor salio de la cueva el loro yo vi un bicho corredor le empuje mi perra galga clemencia le pido a Dios no le de la muerte amarga | I saw a running beast came out of the parrot's cave I saw a running beast I pushed my greyhound bitch clemency I ask God don't give it a bitter death |
Here you can hear Rafael Romero singing it although he does over the fandango rhythm instead of abandolao:
Well, that's all! I hope you like it, let me know.
Salut!
Con todo mi cariño,
Adrian
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