C&T Workshops: Flamenco with Rina Orellana Rall
April 09th, 2010
I sat down for my lunch today, yellow writing pad and fresh pen in hand, with the intention of writing a review of all of the various awesomeness that went down at Cues & Tattoos from March 27th to March 29th in Seattle. But when I got to reviewing the workshops I took, I found, at least with this workshop, that I was writing enough for a blog post in and of itself. I decided to just roll with it and come back to a more comprehensive review a scosh later…
I first saw Rina Orellana Rall perform flamenco in Friday’s Instructor Showcase. She was incredible. Her movements were strong and her entire body was expressive. Overall, her stage presence was very intense and captivating (if you want an amazing example of truly filling a space with your presence and commanding the attention of everyone in the audience, look no further, friends). Thus, it came as a surprise when I went to the workshop only to find that, in spite of the way she appeared on stage, she is a very small person, smaller even, than SK (hey, SK, no offense, ya?) However, even with everyone else in the class towering over her physically, Rina filled the room just as she had the stage. I do believe the term “powerhouse” would be in appropriate use here.
In the first workshop, we learned some of the (very) basics of flamenco carriage, stepping, and arm movement. It was fun to be trying a new form of movement after so much bellydance immersion – and we learned a kick-ass barrel turn. The second workshop dealt with a faster tempo and style. However, I must confess that by the time it rolled around on Sunday afternoon, I was pretty much spent. This final workshop was a bit of a blur, but I’m relatively certain we learned an awesome choreography and some dynamic stepping patterns. 
I learned some amazing movements I can’t wait to incorporate into some choreography, but there were a couple more abstract concepts I came away with that are even more valuable to me.
The first relates back to what Rina termed intensity of movement and what I might call intention of movement. In Rina’s execution of her movements, there was no foot, hand, or torso used with anything other than absolute intention. This lent an intensity (ack! there’s that word again…maybe I should get meself to an online thesaurus) and complete-ness to her movements. Even when just one hand was moving, the rest of her was engaged and invested in the movement. The concept of keeping the rest of your body ultra engaged while one part is doing an isolation is perfect for bellydance, where, much of the time, isolation is the name of the game. For myself, this especially comes to play in my hands and elbows. Even when I’m able to keep energy in my hands and arms while doing hipwork and/or footwork, my arms are often not extended enough and my hands are floppy most of the time. If I step it up a notch or two and really try to keep awareness and intention in the rest of my body, especially in my arms and hands, I think I could get a handle on those issues and add a more completed look/dimension to my dancing…ah, something to work towards…
The other aspect of the workshops that I appreciated and found very applicable to fusion bellydance was what Rina said about integrating flamenco movements and styling into bellydance. She asked that if we do fuse flamenco movements and/or use flamenco music, that we honor the spirit of the dance in the execution of our own style and be mindful about the background of the movements and/or music. For the first part of this, Rina asked that we keep that intensity of movement and really engage the core as the initiator. The second part meant educating ourselves about where the dance came from, what type of flamenco music we might be dancing to, what the lyrics mean, and from what specific style of flamenco our own movements were drawing. As many of you are already aware, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the ethics of fusing. I certainly don’t have any conclusions myself, but I’ll definitely be adding Rina’s thoughts to my own understanding of the matter.
~lettylou
Honoring and being respectful of the origin of any dance style (or religious or spiritual movement for that matter) is important. And learning the meaning of lyrics is also important. As you well know, the lyrics are an integral part of my appreciation of a dance piece. As such, I would love a translation of opa cupa! Although, sometimes when I hear a translation of a lovely song from its Celtic origins, the lyrics are sometimes not as amazing once I know what they mean. (Another example of this is the translation of Carmina Burana, not at all what I expected!)
In any case, on another note about honoring the origins of the dance, I had an interesting experience with folk dance. I studied folk dance for many years and attended the University of the Pacific’s folk dance camp a couple of years. There we learned a few dances and origins of these dances deeply for a week. In fact, in a Serbian dance workshop in 1987 (or thereabouts) I learned of the five “dance regions” of Yugoslavia. Then, a decade or less later, I learned that these were not dance regions, per se, rather they were ethnic regions with simmering hatreds that ultimately erupted into some of the bloodiest civil wars of the last century. However, because of my dance exposure, at least I had some idea of what was going on in that part of the world when Yugoslavia disintegrated. Oops, that was all an aside to my main point.
My main point is that folk dancing is dancing of the folk, and the folk are not stagnant they grow and change, as do their dances. The flamenco dancing itself evolved from the migration of the Rom people from somewhere in Central Asia (one of the stans). These people, and their culture, took many forms as they moved across the continent. I first learned of this through the movie Lacho Drom, an excellent movie I deeply recommend (originally recommended to me by my incredible daughter!).
I have three pieces of evidence I would also like to offer in support of the evolution of dance. In the 70s and 80s, oops I mean 1970s and 1980s, when I studied folk dance we would learn particular dances, to particular music, done in a particular style. Each dance would have been brought to the US by a person studying dance or ethnography, and transcribed exactly as they learned it. Once, a person from one of the countries where a dance originated, saw a group in the US dancing such a dance, and his comment was “You dance that just like my grandparents.” The implication being that the person who brought the dance over to this country did so as they had learned it, probably in the 1950s, and that dance became frozen in time. People learning and teaching that dance in this country only learned the dance as it was frozen in time, while back in its country of origin it had continued to evolve as young people danced it and made it their own. The second example of this, stemmed from an Israeli folk dance class I took at the UOP camp. The music was modern Israeli music and the dances were modern Israeli dances, as done by people in Israel at the time I took the workshop. These dances were not exactly like the traditional Israeli dances I had always been taught, instead they were the evolved dances of the current folk. I loved them, but I heard grumbling among other folk dancers that these dances weren’t “real” because they were modern and evolved (my words, not theirs). Lastly, I want to mention contra dancing. This type of dancing had its origins centuries ago in New England, frankly its origins even precede that back to Europe, specifically England, Ireland, Scotland, and France. Back in the 1800s these dances were done all in “proper” formation with all the men on one side and all the women on the other side. Rarely do we do proper formation anymore. Sometime in the middle of the last century, I think, the Becket formation was introduced, now many dances are done in this formation. The point being, Contra Dancing is very American, and it is evolving all the time. People respect the old dances, but they don’t denigrate the new dances. People in the Contra Dance community not only respect the traditional dances, but they revel in the new dances.
So, I guess I am saying, it is okay to fuse dances, as long as you acknowledge that they are your own fusions and not meant to be true to the original dance forms. They are your dance evolution and fusion of multiple forms, they are not the multiple forms themselves. So lighten up. People take these things way too seriously, you are not trying to be a Flamenco dancer, you are fusing elements of Flamenco into fusion belly dance!
Let the dancing evolve!