I am often approached by people looking to hire my services for their special event, but not really knowing what they are looking for or what to expect. They are often surprised when they realize they are not just hiring me alone to dance.

When you want a live Flamenco dance performance at your event, at the very least you are hiring two performers: the dancer and a guitarist. This is the number one fact you must keep in mind when creating the budget for your event.

If the budget does not permit for two performers, a dancer with pre-recorded music can be found, but you must understand that this is no longer Flamenco. The beauty of Flamenco is the live conversation between musicians, partly choreographed, but partly improvised. No two performances are ever the same. This is the magic of our art form.

For a truly authentic Flamenco experience, you must also consider the importance of the singer, or Cantaór or Cantaora.  The cante, or song, comes first in Flamenco. The dancer interprets the letra, or lyrics, when she or he dances. For the discerning event planner who wants to create a truly genuine Flamenco show for their guests, the singer must also be accounted for in the budget. Sometimes you can find a guitarist who also sings, but this is not the norm. If you do find this guitarist, you should still expect to pay for his or her additional contribution.

Finally, for the legitimate cuadro, or group, you should consider at least one other dancer who not only adds to the dancing, but to the rhythmic dynamics of palmas, or percussive hand-clapping, and jaleos, shouts of encouragement. On top of this, for a truly rounded out performance, you can consider a cajonero or percussionist. 

The most important thing to note when allotting for these performers in your entertainment budget is that if they are professionals, they are experts in their art. They have years of schooling and training, including time lived in Spain. They spend several hours a week rehearsing by themselves and with each other. They spend time and money researching and studying the new and old of their craft. They also run themselves like businesses, spending hours upon hours writing and negotiating contracts, marketing their services, networking, and producing shows, music, videos, etc. They buy and maintain equipment like sound systems, portable dance floors, costumes, shoes, etc. Many are teachers as well, spending much of their time preparing and teaching classes, workshops, and demonstrations. All of these activities cost time, effort, and money.

So please consider the above when planning to hire Flamenco artists for your event. When you receive a quote, please consider that you are not just hiring a pretty girl or handsome man in a flashy costume to play a CD and dance around to it. You also are not just paying a dancer and a musician to simply play music and dance at your event. You are paying for their expertise, for those years of training, for their hours of work that goes unseen. Those hours of work directly benefit you in that they all come together to create the best possible performance at your event.

Because you are paying good money for a service, you also have every right to be discriminating. Please do your research and make sure you are hiring experts in their field and consummate professionals. Feel free to ask them about their training, their work history and ethic, their relationship to Flamenco. Expect them to be on time, friendly, and just as committed as you are to making sure you get a memorable performance at your special occasion. Just as dedicated artists deserve respect for their craft, you deserve the best your money can buy. Expect it.

In my next installment for this topic, I will explain the different styles of Flamenco shows you may be considering and what is best for your particular event.


If you liked this entry and found it useful, please share it. If you have any questions for me about planning your special event, please feel free to contact me.

"Don't dance around the perimeter of you want to be; dive in fully."--Gabrielle Bernstein

I encountered the quote above the other day while surfing around on You Tube.*  I immediately fell in love with it.  Gabrielle was talking about not being afraid to listen for your calling and then doing everything you can to pursue it.  I loved it because I always need a good kick in the butt reminder and I also loved that the quote uses dance as metaphor.  For a future blog entry, I'm going to apply the quote to dancing itself, but for now I'll stick to life purpose.

Lately I've been getting a lot of people who, upon finding out what I do for a living, comment on how great it is that I get to do what I love.  I agree.  I am absolutely in love with my life right now. 

The thing is, I also get the sense that some of the people congratulating me, don't think they could do the same for themselves. There is often this implication that I'm somehow braver, crazier, luckier, younger, older, fill-in-the-blank comparative.

None of that is true.

Everyone has a reason and a purpose in this life on this planet. Deep down most people have an inkling about what their purpose is, but many shy away from it, thinking it's too scary, risky, or impractical to do. Worse, they think it's selfish.

Anyone who has known me for a long time knows that I used to be terrified of the idea of dropping everything else and just doing my art for a living.  I was surrounded by people who were great examples, who were in love with their lives, and I too would say that they were somehow braver, crazier, luckier, younger, older, fill-in-the-blank comparative.

Comparisons are what keep us stuck.  What keeps us going and truly in tune with our life's purpose is to remember that we are all the same and we all deserve happiness and therefore we are all capable of pursuing and achieving that same happiness. We just need to remember that we each have our own path to get there and so we can't compare our path to someone else's.  If it seems it took us longer, who cares?  That was our path.  Who knows what the speedier person went through to get to their destination so quickly?  That was their path.

I didn't really become a Flamenco soloist until I was in my 30s, long after most other types of dancers have retired (one of the reasons I love Flamenco is that it actually values the life experience of the dancer). I finally got over the "too old" excuse because I realized everything else I was doing was taking energy from me, rather than feeding it to me.  I felt most nourished when I danced.  That nourished feeling is the feeling of being happily alive.

And as for being selfish, forget that. I have always been grateful for seeing a beautiful piece of art or having a teacher share their experience with me. It is more selfish to not answer a calling that would inspire others.

So what makes you feel happily alive? Is it being a writer or an artist, being a mom or a dad, being successful at business? Whatever it is that gives you energy, focus on that and "dive in fully".

A year ago this month, I quit my day job and embarked on this experiment of doing my art for a living.  First, I used the safety cushion of taking a dance job with a weekly paycheck.  The problem was, the timing wasn't right and my head wasn't in that particular game.  See the job was a sort of Flamenco-fusion dance variety show that was going to tour to Vegas in about a month and a half from my start date.  I had to learn a ton of choreography in two weeks as well as adopt a totally different attitude towards dance.  Out with "Flamenco Face".  In with "showgirl blissful smile".  Out with intense tension in every move.  In with flowing flowiness.  I'm not disparaging the show I was a part of.  I think the people that were in it were incredibly hard workers and I admired their dedication.  It just was not me and everything was trying to tell me I didn't fit there, including the black and white sequined off-the-shoulder and ruffle-train dress for my opening number, which not only tried to rip itself off of me several times, but even tripped me and sent me soaring across the stage and onto my chin and knee.  I ended up with a bruise shaped like a fishnet.  Oh yeah, and the dress ripped itself off of me when I landed.  No, no, this type of show was not for me.  So when the choreographer told me that there just wasn't enough time to get me ready for Vegas and that she couldn't take me, I breathed a sigh of relief.

And then I panicked.  No job and now only Flamenco to depend on.  What was I going to do?  My mind started racing that first day, but I thought to myself, "everything happens for a reason, right?  Your day job was too stressful and that last job was just not you".  I calmed down and when I calmed down, I got the answer.  Flamenco was the answer.  I soon started getting called for gig after gig.  I started dancing all around town and even out of town.  At weddings and even a bat mitzvah.  That flying leap I took not only slapped me in the face, it actually landed me into my lifetime goal--to live from my art.  Now it hasn't been easy.  The first six months, the money was pretty stable and recently...eh, not so much.  However, I don't regret it and neither does my husband.  Things may be tight right now, but we've been together long enough to know that these things go in cycles.  There were the days we joke, "when we were rich", but working so much and so hard, that we barely got to be together and we weren't very happy.  Then there were the days when we were in more debt than we are now and maybe wasting a little too much money partying a little too hard, but having a whole lotta fun.  We can probably both agree that some of our happiest years were when we lived in Spain, even though we were making even less money, but we made great friends, ate great food, and had great adventures.  The other day, we both agreed that even though money is tight, we feel positive about the future.  He told me he liked how happy I was these days, just focused on my dancing.  We both agreed we were feeling much healthier with our new Paleo lifestyle, which I'll be writing more about in the future as I think what you eat really makes a difference when you're a dancer.  Maybe we're now "old and boring" at 36 and 39, but we don't feel the need to wear ourselves and our wallets out partying like we used to and we really enjoy our time at home together.  And home is my inner little artist's dream come true with my own dance floor and piano and shelves and shelves of books and friends' art on the walls.

I feel very grateful and lucky that I get to do what I love for a living and I guess I want you to know that if you have a dream or a project that you've been hesitant to pursue, listen carefully to what your life is trying to tell you and take that leap.  And if life, or a sequined dress, takes the leap for you, even if you land on your face, you'll get right up and find that the fall was better than avoiding the fall.