Inesita, passion for Spanish Dance

Dancer

QUESTION: Why Flamenco?

ANSWER: When I began my studies, it was the Spanish Dance. This encompassed all of Spain and its provinces. I heard the word Flamenco only several years later. Basically, flamenco is accompanied by the unwritten music of the guitar. However, this style of dancing has been influenced over hundreds of years by many cultures. What attracted me were its elegance and the complexity of rhythm (compas) which contains sophistication much beyond other dance. 

The special movements and gestures have a richness and nuance I do not find in other forms of dance. Flamenco with its oriental quality seemed to suit my personality. In my view and that of others, the dance itself is the genius and in learning the craft, the power of the art is revealed.

Q: What emotion do you feel when dancing that you don’t get from anything else?

A: I love to dance. This is difficult to describe. The sensation of moving through time and space even without music is unique. Walking takes you somewhere; the dance takes you into the world of imagination. All art is expressive form. My emotion is a sense of exaltation. I feel taken out of myself. It is both a physical and mental experience which satisfies in a way I cannot achieve otherwise.

Q: What would you like your audience to feel when they watch you dance?

A:I would hope that the audience would be transported to another realm that is out of time and yet totally in the present instant. If I succeed then they should feel the power of significant form. If it touches others, then I have danced well.

Q: One memorable moment, show, time in your career that you will remember forever and that changed it all for you?

A: It is hard to pick that one moment after a lifetime spent in dance. What stands out most in my memory is the first time I saw a class in Spanish dance. The special elements I wrote of that drew me to these forms was like a revelation and I knew that this was what wanted to do. 

The other moment back in my first engagement was the performance I did for the great dancers, La Argentinita, her sister, Pilar Lopez, Antonio Triana, and her ensemble and their reaction to my work. Their participation at the close of my number with handclapping was so unexpected that it lives on in memory andis embedded in my psyche. This indeed changed everything!

To sum up. Flamenco is organic and the specific method that makes Flamenco possible, namely that the dancer leads the guitarist does not exist in any other form of dance and music. I think there is something of flamenco in all of us. It is an endless chain of rhythm. The true name of this art is Cante Jondo.