Flamenco Navideño Flashmob 2019!

Initiative organized by Flamencos por El Mundo (Flamenco School in Sevilla, Spain)

About two weeks ago I received a message from one of the managers of this Flamenco School in Sevilla called “Flamencos por el Mundo”. They were inviting us to participate in an initiative I thought was actually very FUN! They were organizing a Flamenco Navideño Flashmob and wanted other flamenco schools from the world to participate, and I thought…why not?! They shared a video and I started practicing on my kitchen with my 6 months old baby watching me and both of us started to feel really excited about this. I shared the video with my students asking if they would like to do it and they were so excited that I could not say no! I was hesitating first because there was a lot going on my plate and I honestly had no idea how to organize it but I just felt it was right to do it.

We started learning the choreography in class and it was a little bit challenging for a group of beginner students who were dancing this rhythm for the first time. There were also few absolute beginner students whose first flamenco choreography ever was this one. Although it was challenging and the group needed a bit more time to learn the steps, the energy was great and everybody started to feel really excited, so do I.  This is when I thought it would be really cool to do it with other flamenco friends from the community and so I invited them to join us hoping to have a moment to have fun together.

We continued practicing and more students were excited to learn it. Because of the holidays many students would not be in town to do the flashmob but they still wanted to learn it. We practiced it feeling the joy of the music and having a LOT of FUN!

Photo taken at the Dance Complex after our Beginner Flamenco Class on Sunday Dec 15th!

We started to wonder where to do it…Inside? Outside? Is it going to be too cold? Do we need permission to do it inside…? So many question and not many answer but after few suggestions we, as a group, decided to do it in Copley Square. Because the original time of the flashmob in Sevilla was at 7am in Boston we decided to “adapt it” and meet at 10:30am.

In our last rehearsal before the Flashmob we had a lot of fun. We laugh, sang, smiled and continued creating together a wonderful community. Some of our students from the Cape, Clara and John, came to participate and support the group. We only had few rehearsals but all our students and friends from the community practiced the choreo at home to get ready for it.

It was the morning of the Flashmob and it was actually reeeaaaallly cold, more than any of us probably thought. Carla was the first person to get there joining her Elaine, Marina and myself minutes later. Walking there I saw one of our little Flamencas, Olivia, who was very excited to be there.

Photo: Laura, Marina, Elaine, Carla waiting for the group to arrive. 

Is this going to be only the four of us??Some wonder..because if so, this is not a flashmob! Some students had to cancel last minute because “life happens” but few minutes later other flamencas and their families started to show up. Along with other friends from the community, this guy with a professional camera showed up asking about the Flamenco Flashmob. Apparently he had seen the event on Facebook and he wanted to take some pictures. His name is Brooks Payne and he seemed very enthusiastic about this! After the flashmob he shared the upcoming nice photos for us to remember this memorable holiday morning in Boston dancing flamenco.

           

Photos taken by Brooks Payne before the Flashmob. Figure 1: Kim, Lupita, Maria, Elaine, Clara, Carla, Laura, Yukako. Figure 2: Rimma, Kim  Figure 3: The group freezing on a cold winter morning in Boston.  

Lupita and Greg just arrived with an amazing Holiday Outfit and the music and speaker ready. We were missing Chari that arrived a little later with her family, who were visiting her from Spain (they might like our LS Flamenco family since they have been in Boston for many of our events this year including the End of Year Recital 🙂 !Gracias). Our little Flamencas Mandala, Lucía and their families were also there and, although they were a little too shy to dance, they supported us with all their hearts.

After few discussions about the best place to do it, we got ready! It was so cold that we needed some warm-up dances before we could feel “ready to dance”. The laughs and excitement just began.

  

Photo taken by Brooks Payne during our Warm up dance. Carla, Rimma, Yukako, Laura, Marina, Elaine. 

Despite the incredible freezing day our bodies and hearts started warming up and we finally went ahead and do the flashmob without our winter coats! We all brought either holiday or flamenco accessorizes to feel the spirit of this Flamenco Navideño event.

The music began and the fun just started. We shared the love and joy of dance with our friends, families and some brave visitors in the area and had lots of fan doing it.

Photo taken by Brooks Payne during our Flamenco Flashmob 2019: Dancers starting from the left: Yukako, Clara, Carla, Marina, Rimma, Laura, Chari, Kim, Elaine, Lupita. 

It was a morning full of joy, love, friends, family, life, celebration and lots of FUN. For me, dancing with this wonderful group of brave, passionate, strong and beautiful woman while sharing it with our loved ones was the perfect way to start the day and the holidays. I feel grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful group of people who inspires me and brings the best of me to every class, every event and every day of my life.

               

We were few because of the weather, the holidays and the short time and dedication we had to prepare this Flamenco Flashmob, but we were committed, excited, supported, loved and full of joy. We were brave to go out in this cold winter morning to give ourselves a moment for US.Because one more time we danced from us, for us and to us and brought joy to our lives sharing the love of dance with this wonderful community. My soul and heart are full of love, life and gratitude.

Gracias una vez más a todas y cada una de vosotras. Os quiero

We wish you a wonderful holidays and a happy 2020 full of flamenco, dance, joy and fun!

Photo taken by Brooks Payne during our Flamenco Flashmob 2019: Rimma, Lupita, Lucía, Laura, Marina, Mandala, Olivia, Carla, Clara, Elaine, Yukako, Ki. We are missing Chari in this photo!

Thanks to:

To @FlamencosPorElMundo for inviting us to participate in such a fun activity.

To my dear students who did an amazing job learning the choreography and performing it!

To Carla Mulet for joining us sharing your arte with us.

To all our students who could not make it but supported us anyway.

To our friends and family  for coming and staying in the cold to support our “flamencuras”

To our flamenco friends from the Boston Community who could not make it but shared ideas and supported the initiative.

To Flamenco, for making my (and probably many others..) lives better.

Hoping to repeat this, but probably during the summer to also enjoy the weather.

Happy 2020!

Laura Sánchez