Postcard from Roshanne — Flamenco Australia Magazine

EDITOR'S NOTE: My favourite aspect of running the Flamenco Australia Magazine is receiving postcards from Australian flamenco's visiting Spain. Well, I publish them under the banner of postcard... They usually come in the form of emails with photo's attached.

Spain is the other side of the world and for many it can seam unreachable! If you can't get there... The next best thing is someone willing to share their experience.

Reflecting the three original muses, the life of an artist consist of three aspects; Practise (doing), Memory (seeing, hearing, understanding, feeling), Expression (sharing).... The body, the mind and the heart!

So if your ever in Spain, lend me your heart for a few minutes!

Flamenco dancer, Roshanne Wijeyeratne, kindly did just that before returning to Australia last week. One of Australia's ever rising flamenco stars, Roshanne is Adelaide based and spends a great deal of time, each year, in Spain. I hope you enjoy these postcards as much as I do...

Hi Paul,You mentioned to me that you were interested in hearing what I am up to here in Spain, so I thought I would give you the run down...

Usually I travel to Sevilla every year for professional development and training in flamenco, but last year I undertook my first prolonged study period in Madrid and after participating in an intensive course organised by

La Truco

“II Ciclo Dedicado a la Formacion Completa del Baile Flamenco”, I was awarded the gold scholarship (Beca de Oro) to return in 2011 and complete the third cycle of the course.So, this year I had the opportunity to complete

“III Ciclo Dedicado a la Formacion Completa del Baile Flamenco” at Amor de Dios

which ran for all of August and ended with a final presentation at the end of the month. It was 8 hours a day of training in:

Abanico
Manton
Teatro
Palillos (Castanets) with Bata de Cola
Bata de Cola
Classical Ballet
Tecnica de cuerpo
Tecnica de pies y Baston.

The course is very comprehensive and is taught by La Truco, Marina Claudio, Nuria Truco, Pepa Molina, Maria Juncal, Dagmara Brown, Carmela Greco and Alfonso Losa. It was gruelling but I am proud to say that I completed my scholarship and that the scholarship has now been passed on to the next participant the teachers have chosen for 2012.Excitingly, I also made my debut performance in Madrid at a tablao called Artebar alongside fellow dancers Eleonora Manica and Anna Carolina Maier. I had been offered a job working there last year, but unfortunately was not able to perform because I had to head back to Australia, so it was nice to get the chance to perform this time. The show was a total success and an amazing experience. The place was packed!... They could not fit any more people in the room (granted it was a small venue)... There were people squeezed into gaps and sitting on the floor. Two of my teachers, La Truco and Pepa Molina, also came to see the performance, which was a real honour. Our friend from Cadiz, Pablo even came to the show!After all the training and the performance in Madrid, I decided to make my way back to Sevilla! Attending classes with Manuel Betanzos, who has been a regular teacher of mine since 2003, and in the evenings, training at Manuel’s studio with Andres Pena and Adela Campallo. There are so many other wonderful teachers in Sevilla who I have trained with, and also who I have yet to train with, but I feel like for now I am finding the right places for the things I want to work on...Funnily enough, Andres’ class was filmed one Friday for a live TV show called Pulsando España (Pushing Spain) and I was plucked out of the group to be interviewed about my flamenco life and why I dance flamenco haha... Although my Spanish is not perfect, I think I did ok... that was fun, and I was introduced as being from Australia, so I felt proud representing Australia live on Spanish TV!To sum up this trip to Spain... "I've just been working my butt off over here and as always, very much looking forward to returning to Australia, as I have learnt so much that I cannot wait to share with everyone.I return on October 12th to begin working on the State Opera's Carmen which will run for 4 nights in early November at the Adelaide Festival Theatre.I will also resume dance classes at Alma Flamenca, and workshops and performances throughout Australia! :) Roshxx--» To contact Roshanne, please visit http://www.almaflamenca.com.au