Flamenco Shoes by PDXFirefly

I started taking dance lessons when I was 4 years old and I have continued off and on all my life.  I have taken tap, many years of ballet (3rd place in the HS talent show!), modern, jazz, square dancing, danced in NY, and danced with several groups.  I love performing and I love costumes.   My latest dance love is Flamenco!  Yes, that artful discipline from Spain.   The beautiful, lithe dancers with the mesmerizing hands and the incredible footwork.  Two lessons a week if possible, learning a little Spanish to keep up with the teacher and trying to make my hands, arms, feet, and head all do the right thing at the right time!!!

Flamenco shoes do not have taps on the bottom of them, they actually have hundreds of tiny little nails (nailed in very close together-overlapping) on the bottom of them.  The bottom of the heels are completely covered with nails.  The front part of about one-third of the bottom of the toe of the shoe is also covered in overlapping nails.   After dancing for a long while the nail-heads start to thin slightly and they start to look like one big tap, but they never quite get that far.  I just use it as a word illustration for you, the reader.  Sometimes a dancer will have nails fall out — they don’t have a very long shank because your foot is on the other side of a thin piece of leather.   And to make the characteristic sounds that you hear in Flamenco, there is a lot of stomping.  If too many nails fall out, then you have to get your shoes re-nailed, something easily done in Spain,  but more difficult to find an artisan here to do it. 

I now have three pairs of flamenco shoes.  My black suede ones; the suede looks really elegant and the heels are lower which is good for classes.  Then there are the red suede shoes that I ordered from Portland while I was living in Kansas.  I just had to have a pair of red shoes!  Those shoes are now dancing (on my feet) at the place where they started in the US!  But, my best shoes are my Gallardos from Spain.  They are beautiful black leather shoes with very high heels.  Very characteristic in design, many dancers can tell immediately that they are Gallardos, even from a distance!  When I put my flamenco shoes on my feet, my mind enters another world…the world of clapping rhythms, the world of passionate guitars, the world of footwork combinations that entrance -even the performer as well as the observer. 

My beginning instructor taught that Flamenco is “all about attitude!”.  Well, let me tell you, at that time I had no trouble creating an “attititude”!  My Mother had just passed away and I was going through a devastating divorce that I did not want… so “attitude” was easy to come by then.  Now, I have to dig deeper to come up with it, but that is helping me find my dance persona.  I have been able to find my new flamenco attitude, and surprisingly for me, I like it much better than the grief/disappointment attitude of old.  I feel that my new flamenco attitude is more pure — not just more pure for me, but more pure for the dance as well.  Now, if it will only make me a better dancer!!!!  Remember, I said that I “take lessons”;  I didn’t say how good I am!!!  If you are interested in more information on flamenco lessons here in Portland, please go to www.flamencodance.com.   I highly recommend Mitsue as an excellent teacher of Flamenco at the Solo Flamenco School of Dance.  These classes also have a live guitar player, which is really important in learning Flamenco.  Mitsue not only teaches dance, but also sings while she dances in front of the class and for me, it is the highlight of each class — the class dancing, the guitar playing, Mitsue singing….