Flamenco fever

My interest in flamenco started in 1988 when my friends and I joined an evening tour in Madrid. Included in the tour was a flamenco dinner show in one of Madrid’s more popular flamenco caverns. It was the first time I watched flamenco and I was totally mesmerized. I remember that the first part of the show was light and happy, with the dancers dancing and smiling like they were in a fiesta. I soon found out that they were dancing the Sevillanas, which is a joyous dance with four individual dances, independent of each other. One can just learn one part or copla, as they call it, and enjoy it. The youth in Spain even dance them in discos and have different versions of the dance. The second part of the show was the more serious one and consisted of bulerias, soleas, and tangos. I can still feel the passion and pathos that these dances aroused in me and when the show ended I could not have enough of it. Luckily, my travel companions also enjoyed the show and went with me night after night to watch more flamenco shows. By the time I left Madrid, every fiber of my being craved to be a flamenco dancer.

When I returned to Manila, I heard that our neighbor Clarissa Romulo’s mom, Chloe, taught Spanish dance. I quickly enrolled and she taught me the Sevillanas. That started my romance with flamenco. I quickly realized though that flamenco dancers are born, not made. The discipline, the desire for excellence, the passion for the dance, are all inborn, inbred, and in the genes. Soon enough, when I could not perfect the vuelta quebrada, which is a kind of turn that is fast and graceful and with the body almost twisted like a pretzel, I realized my limitations. I hid my flamenco shoes in the closet for many years, until one day, the fever struck me again. A friend invited me to their flamenco recital with Señor Gomez and his daughter Marien and I really liked it. I decided on the spot to study flamenco again. I told myself I will never be the kind of dancer that will end up as a soloist in a flamenco tablado, but I could enjoy it as a form of exercise. The years went by and I took up flamenco, every now and then, when the whim to dance would hit me. Last year, with the group of Emma Estrada, who founded Fundacion Centro Flamenco, I mastered enough guts to dance on stage the Alegrias and the Sevillanas in a recital. A bunch of us amateur students tried to entertain our audience, made up of relatives (of course, who else would watch us but them!) and close friends who could not say no to our prodding. But what made us so confident that our recital was worth watching was the presence of an excellent flamenco dancer from Madrid by the name of Clara Ramona. A class all by herself, she showed us flamenco wannabes what true flamenco is all about. Our audience that night went home happy with the treat our recital gave them.

Clara Ramona Bautista Batchelder was born in Quezon City and raised in Davao. At the age of five, her Filipino mother sent her to the ballet school of Carmen Locsin and that started her love for dance. At the age of 12, her American father brought the entire family to Boston, USA, where Clara enrolled at the Boston Conservatory of Music. Her passion for dance made her pursue different dance classes in ballet, jazz, and flamenco. Her teacher in flamenco, Ramon de los Reyes, eventually became her husband. Their dance partnership garnered them a lot of honors and dance performances all over the USA. Not even the birth of their two sons, Isaac and Niño, hindered Ramona from dancing. "My sons had no choice but to be dancers. Up until the last few days of my pregnancy, I was dancing flamenco. Three days after childbirth, I was back on my feet dancing!"

I asked the boys if they had other choices in life. Both said none in unison. Flamenco was in their blood, having been exposed to it from conception. I presume they heard flamenco music while they were still in their mother’s womb and were already doing intricate zapateados (foot work) instead of kicking like most fetuses do.

In 1992, Clara decided to go to Madrid and improve her technique under the tutelage of the top flamenco masters there. She perfected her art and put up her own dance company, Ballet Español de Clara Ramona. She became a well-known flamenco dancer and was also doing choreography of her own. She shocked the purists with her fusion of jazz in flamenco but drew the admiration of well-known dancers like Joaquin Cortes, who also brought flamenco fusion into the mainstream.

Clara also choreographed a recital with her husband and two sons. It was an interesting blend of flamenco in three styles. Her husband Ramon, being much older than she, dances traditional flamenco. Clara, much more daring and younger, infused ballet and jazz into her art. The two sons, Isaac and Niño, having trained with the masters in Escuela Amor de Dios have their own style, which is a blend of the classic and the new fusion flamenco. It was, indeed, another triumph for Clara and her talented family. Clara and her talented sons have performed all over Europe and the USA. They have also performed in China, Singapore, Tokyo, and now, the Philippines. On March 5 and 6, Niño and Isaac will give workshops at the Fundacion Centro Flamenco. One need not be an expert to join this workshop. A little knowledge of flamenco is enough. For inquiries, call 751-2243. On these same dates, Ramona will dance in a performance in Hong Kong and give a workshop there after her performances.

Madrid’s loss is Manila’s gain. For the flamenco enthusiasts’ information, Clara has decided to come back to the land of her birth and share her talent and expertise of her art with us who are willing to learn. She has been toying with the idea of setting up shop here, but the opportunity never presented itself. Until last year when Emma Estrada gave her an offer that was hard to resist. Soon, she was packing her bags and saying adios to Madrid. " I like the lifestyle here. I don’t want to give up teaching my art. But I also want to relax a little bit now and what could be a better place for that but Manila," she says with a smile. "Besides, I see so much dance talent among the Filipinos. My vision is to elevate the standard of flamenco here. I want to impart to my students my technique and imbue in them a certain discipline so they can reach the heights I achieved. Meaning, getting known internationally."
Isaac and Niño de los Reyes also have their own ambitions as dancers. They have been here barely two weeks and they love every minute of their stay. They plan to come every now and then and help their mother with her dance workshops. They will fill in the teaching slot when she has to travel abroad for dance performances and workshops.

"I worked so hard to get these contracts and connections. I cannot just give them up now. I have to stay on top of my art and the only way is to be internationally known," she quips. "My sons will take my place when I am fulfilling my obligations abroad."

The two boys nod in agreement and one of them said that they, too, plan to have their own dance company. Isaac, 24, and Niño, only 19, have a lifetime of performances ahead of them. They have to go back to Madrid before the end of the month for some performances that have been booked before they came over here. I am taking advantage of their presence here by enrolling in their workshops. Clara tells me I am not a hopeless case if only I would give it more time and effort. That’s what I like about Clara. She is always very encouraging and never puts down her students. Now, I am even trying to learn the vuelta quebrada without getting twisted like a pretzel. With her encouragement and her technique, I know one day I will get it! What an excellent teacher our centro has! My flamenco fever is on the rise!