Adult Flamenco Classes
Ages 15 & Up
Class Schedules & Studio Locations
Fall Session
September 18, 2023 - February 11, 2024
About Our Adult Flamenco Dance Classes
Our Adult Flamenco Classes are a great introduction to the art of flamenco. All the fundamentals are taught in the technique class including posture, technique, compás (rhythm), footwork, and palmas (clapping).
The Flamenco Repertoire class is a place for dancers to use the fundamentals of technique within traditional forms of flamenco choreography, and students should take both the Technique and Repertoire classes simultaneously.
Flamenco I Technique: Beginning level: This class is for students who have 0-3 months of flamenco experience. Students will be introduced to proper body posture, basic hand and arm movements, basic sounds of the feet, introduction to hand-clapping, and will learn a short choreography with the focus on the palo of Tangos.
Flamenco I.5 Technique: This class is for students who have at least 6 months or more of flamenco experience. Students are continuing to work on proper body posture, basic hand and arm movements, basic sounds of the feet with heelwork combinations, introduction to hand-clapping and rhythmic listening skills, and are currently working on the flamenco palo, Tangos, as well as the first copla of Sevillanas.
Flamenco III Technique Advanced beginner: This class is for students who have at least 2 years or more of flamenco experience. Our goal for this session is to improve our skills with floreo and braceo technique in various positions, build confidence in flamenco turns and build speed and accuracy in our heelwork combinations. We will also continue to work with castanet technique.
Flamenco IV Technique: This class is for students who have at least 3 years or more of flamenco experience. This level will explore how to develop more accuracy and speed in taconeo combinations, including latiguillo, as well as braceo with taconeo combinations and mastering advanced level vueltas (turns.) We will also continue to work with castanet technique.
Flamenco IV Repertoire Intermediate level: This class is for students who have at least 3 years or more of flamenco experience. This class will study the flamenco palo*, (To Be Announced in September), working with the meaning of the letras and polishing the choreography as well as improving our skills with using the upper body and core in flamenco expression. *Please note the many different musical forms of flamenco are referred to as a palo.
Flamenco Dance Dress Code
Ladies: Wear leotard or shirt, full skirt, and flamenco shoes
Men: Wear dance pants, shirt, and flamenco shoes.
Attire is available at:
Helpful Information
Teacher's recommendations:
- Flamenco West (located in Los Angeles, CA)
Castanet History
Castanets, also known as clackers or palillos, are a percussion instrument used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish,Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. Castanets are a member of a very old family of musical instruments that has been found on every civilized continent, with some examples dating back 10,000 years.
The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string. They are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or a ripping or rattling sound consisting of a rapid series of clicks. They are traditionally made of hardwood (chestnut; Spanish: castaño), although fibreglass is becoming increasingly popular.
Etymology
The Spanish word for castanets is castañuelas, derived from castaña, meaning "chestnut" or "hazel" -- castanets were traditionally carved from these woods. The Andalusian word for castanets is "palillos."
So What are Castanets, Exactly?
The modern castanet comprises a pair of shell-shaped flattened wooden clackers which are held together with a single loop of string or thin leather. The leather is doubled and the thumb is placed through it, and the pair of castanets then hangs freely from the thumb and is manipulated by the fingers and the palms. Accomplished castanet players can make a variety of noises with the castanets, from a flat "click" to a warm roll. Castanets are always played in pairs, and each pair is tuned differently. The higher-pitched pair (known as "hembra," or "female") is traditionally held in the right hand and the lower-pitched pair (known as "macho," or "male") is traditionally held in the left hand.
Castanets in Folkloric Dancing
Though many people associate the castanets with flamenco, they are not a traditional element of flamenco music or dance; rather, the castanets are an integral part of folkloric Spanish dances, primarily Sevillanas and Escuela Bolera dance.
La Argentina and the Modern Castanet Style
Antonia Mercé y Luque (1890-1936), known as La Argentina, was a classically-trained ballet dancer who decided to leave ballet and explore Spanish traditional dance instead. Essentially reinventing the entire genre, she brought Spanish folkloric dancing to the stage and rebirthed it as a fine art. She was, by all accounts, an astonishing castanet player, and her style of playing became the definitive one. It's no stretch to say that every modern castanet player is basing their style (however many generations removed) on that of La Argentina.
Castanets in Composed Music
Various baroque and classical composers have used castanets in their scores, though in modern orchestras, castanets that are mounted on a stick are generally used to perform these pieces. Jean-Baptiste Lully used them in many baroque dance pieces, usually to evoke a Spanish or Arabic feel, and they've been used similarly in many other composed works: Georges Bizet's “Carmen,” Strauss's “Salome,” Ravel's “Rhapsodie Espagnole,” Chabrier's “España,” and Massenet's “Le Cid.”
Source: Megan Romer and Mickey De La Serna
Look here: https://flamencokc.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/castanets/
Meet Your Adult Flamenco Dance Teacher
Michaelene De La Serna
Flamenco Dance
Michaelene De La Serna studied flamenco dance intensively for many years with Flamenco Chicago Artistic Director Ms. Rosetta Magdalen. She has also studied with flamenco greats Carmela Greco and Marija Temo. In addition to teaching adults, Michaelene was the Director of the Flamenco Kids Program at Flamenco Chicago.
Michaelene De La Serna studied flamenco dance intensively for many years with Flamenco Chicago Artistic Director Ms. Rosetta Magdalen. She has also studied with flamenco greats Carmela Greco and Marija Temo. In addition to teaching adults, Michaelene was the Director of the Flamenco Kids Program at Flamenco Chicago and worked as an Artist-in Residence/Flamenco Teacher for Ensemble Español Center for Spanish Dance and Music’s “Bailamos” Arts Education Residency Programs.
Ms. De La Serna is also extensively trained in Ballet, graduating from Boitsov Classical Ballet School in Chicago as both a professional dancer and teacher of the Vaganova Ballet syllabus. She has danced solo roles in Le Spectre de La Rose, Fountain of Bakhchiserai, Les Sylphides, as well as many variations from Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Raymonda and Sleeping Beauty.
Michaelene served as Associate Artistic Director of Boitsov Classical Ballet School & Company in Chicago for three years before relocating to Seattle. She joined American Dance Institute’s staff in 2017.
What Are Adult Flamenco Classes Like at American Dance Institute?
May 2018 Greenwood-Phinney ArtWalk Adult Flamenco Dance Performances in Seattle's Greenwood American Dance Institute studio.
American Dance Institute's Adult Flamenco class Winter ArtWalk Performances 2022
"Andalucia" Castanet Technique Class Instructor/Choreographer Michaelene De La Serna,
American Dance Institute's Adult Flamenco class Winter ArtWalk Performances 2022
"Fandangos with Mantón de Manila and Cape" Flamenco Dance Classes Level IV Instructor/Choreographer Michaelene De La Serna
Where Are There American Dance Institute Studios Near Me?
Greenwood
Magnolia
Wedgwood
Shoreline
Flamenco dance students performing at the May 2018 Phinneywood Art Walk event in Seattle.
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