FLAMENCO-WORLD.COM INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
ÁNGEL MUÑOZ FLAMENCO DANCE COURSES (MADRID, MARCH 2003)

Dance to the sound of your dreams

Carmen Jiménez. Madrid, March 2003
Translation: Gary Cook
Photos: Leandro Betancor

They just had one of the most intense weeks of their lives. Their passion for flamenco has led them to squeeze all the enjoyment they can out of these six days spent under the watchful eye of Ángel Muñoz, on the course organized by the Flamenco-world.com International School, held at El Horno studios in Madrid. The students traveled from far corners of the globe with a common belief that flamenco deserves to be firmly placed on the cultural map, and with a common goal to seek out a possible future career as professional bailaores.

Ángel Muñoz teaching

"Short but intense," was the first reaction offered by the group of students at El Horno Leisure Center, in Madrid's Lavapiés district. This was the venue for the course, organized by Flamenco-world.com International School, and taught by Ángel Muñoz. They came from far and wide - Argentina, England, the U.S. and Mexico, as well as from Spain - with different backgrounds and expectations, but with one aim: to broaden their knowledge of flamenco and improve their technique. They spoke with the same conviction about their instructor, Ángel Muñoz from Córdoba, currently principal bailaor of the María Pagés dance company. All agreed that "you couldn't have found us a better teacher, Ángel's made everyone feel right at home, even though we started out with different levels and different training backgrounds."

Mónica Rojas, from Madrid, highlights Ángel's "charisma, patience and know-how when it comes to teaching methods." For her the course is a tool to brush up her skills on the road to becoming a professional flamenco artist. A similar case is that of another Madrileño: José Luis Pérez, who also sees baile as his future career. The third local in the group, Laura Ruiz, comments that at first she "saw flamenco as a hobby, but I couldn't rule out a future career as a professional artist." Mercedes is another young Spanish flamenco-lover who lives in Boston, and who's just over for the course. She's got high hopes for the future, though she says that "right now my aim in taking this course is to discipline my body and learn the technique I need to dance and give form to all my feelings."

Gabriela Albabi flew in specially from Argentina for the occasion. She comments that in Argentina high standards of teaching and a good level of expertise in flamenco "are hard to come by, which is why I chose to come to Spain." And here she's been able to strengthen and improve her knowledge, "and learn the means by which to channel the feelings flamenco causes in me."

These days left a similar taste in the mouths of two other aspiring young artists - Joe, from London (who faced the extra challenge of dealing with a foreign language) and Cristina Rivera, from Mexico. The course has helped the Mexican student not only in improving her knowledge and technique, but also by awakening "a burning desire to take this much further." She pleads for a broader range of offerings: "To help those of us who come from other countries and who come to Spain to learn all we can about flamenco." She adds that "it would be great if, besides Madrid, we were taken on a tour to key cities in the world of flamenco such as Seville."

Ángel Muñoz's pupils

Ángel Muñoz with his pupils

Starting from scratch

Ángel Muñoz's aim with this course is to establish the discipline and technique "necessary for students to go on to learn steps with ease." Ángel, who is also principal bailaor in the Paco Peña dance company, tries to instill in his students a sense that any dancer "needs to have a solid grounding and start from scratch, then build up speed until the footwork starts to take shape, until you start to make music with your feet." So he chose to make use of alegrías on this course, "where I combine easy and difficult steps and the students don't have much trouble taking it all on board."

These teaching methods stem from his conviction that this art form "can help you to find yourself." Even though every student is different, he assures us that "when you're teaching you can see what each person's like; you can help them to improve on their good strengths and get rid of their bad habits." As for his overall approach to the course and to the group of students, he started out at an intermediate level, "but they changed a lot from the first day - at the start they were more nervous about the steps, the whole thing was a little clinical, but now they just go with the flow and you can tell they're enjoying themselves."

Give flamenco a chance

This multicultural group of young students took the opportunity to express to us their feelings on the current state of flamenco. In general, they all agreed that "these aren't the best of times for flamenco" and that maybe flamenco artists command more respect abroad than they do at home in Spain. Mónica Rojas's opinion is that "any step to spread the word is positive and necessary for flamenco," because, she assures us, "a culture which many of us would like to form a part of is slowly slipping away." She complains that "A lot of people out there think they can do in a short space of time what other artists have built up to throughout their whole career." In response to the comment, Ángel Muñoz adds that the problem is "there's no investment in flamenco" and that "outside of Spain, in countries like Japan and the U.S., things are a little easier."

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