It's all about the ball....

I think I know why I suck at flamenco now and it occured to me maybe about 30 minutes into tonight's class. The key is in how I step down - when walking, I take steps with my heel down first - just like anyone else would walk. But in flamenco, it's all about the ball of the foot. Often times, it's more like a tap - you step forward and place the ball of your foot on the ground, but the heel remains in the air...and as I'm thinking consciously about the feet, I have no room left in the brain to worry about the arms and which is going up and coming down. As for the flamenco hands? I can do them well enough in isolation, but if you asked me to move my feet too? Forget it. I'm an unco-ordinated mess.

I did have a moment though today with the footwork...there was one combination she taught us tonight that I got, only because it reminded me of the kick-ball-change combination I learned in jazz dance as a kid...the only difference was that the kick was more like a tap-the-ball-of-the-foot down. For a moment there, I was feeling pretty damn pleased with myself...and then she asked us to put it together with the arms...and I promptly lost it again.