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DANZ QUARTERLY Issue No 11
April, May, June 2008
In The Heartland of Flamenco
Francesca Horsley talks to Francine Sweet as she prepares for her home-coming tour
When I phoned Francine Sweet in Seville, Spain – she laughed, saying she could not be further away from home; in fact if she dug through her apartment floor for long enough she would come out in New Zealand. And it is not just a huge physical distance she would have to travel; it would be the psychological as well – because Francine was immersed in the world of gypsy flamenco - baile gitano.
Travelling to and studying in Andalusia, the heartland of flamenco, is constant for Francine who has been following a passion for the dance for 11 years. This time, she was restudying, retraining and picking up some new influences, because Seville is the biggest centre for flamenco dance, the most avant garde.
Francine was also in Seville to complete arrangements for her up and coming tour of regional festivals in New Zealand in spring this year. She is bringing a group to perform in Dunedin, Nelson and Hastings, possibly Auckland and Wellington, and was busy securing dancers and guitarists before they commit to other projects in the busy flamenco year.
Last year Francine made an impact when she performed in a brief but dramatic section of The Southern Opera’s premier season of Carmen. “It was the beginning of Act Two, literally four minutes of dancing on centre stage. We performed on a small piece of wood because there was a canvass mat put down to represent the sandy ground of Seville and we couldn’t work on that because our heels would have got caught.” Francine brought a male dancer, a friend who was conveniently in Melbourne at the time, to dance with her.
“It was a great experience, the first time I have performed with an orchestra. – I have only worked in traditional venues in Spain, with very traditional singers, guitarists, and percussionists.”
Francine’s journey in flamenco began when she took lessons with Auckland’s Jane Luscombe. She had studied ballet from childhood, and contemporary, but thought it was too late to become a dancer. While at university she saw advertisements for flamenco and decided to try it out. From there, she says, there were a series of coincidences which took her deeper and deeper into the dance.
She studied with Spaniard, Louis Ramon, also in Auckland; she found his passion for flamenco inspirational and began studying in earnest. Her commitment was sealed when, after attending a workshop in Christchurch, she eloped to Vancouver with the group’s guitarist.
“Garry was a real influence on me because he had been in Spain since the early 70s, basically living, eating and breathing flamenco. That first six months I was in Canada, all I did was flamenco, flamenco, flamenco. Garry had a group, so after six months I started to perform a bit. That was a luxury because in the group there was a Spanish singer, and he played guitar, and there were other girls dancing; a whole different animal from dancing to a canned CD in a box.”
After the relationship broke up three years later, Francine took herself to Spain, entering yet another level. “In Canada I could mount my dances; premeditate everything or work it out with Garry. It was fairly safe performing in front of people who didn’t really know flamenco. When I got to Spain it was very different. The first night I danced here I had to just get up – there was no rehearsal, nothing – I didn’t know the musicians - you never really know if you have the common language or not. I did it – it was hard, very hard. I cried myself to sleep for quite a few nights. I overcame, I learnt a lot – it’s all about learning and still learning, still learning. “
After six months of classes, Francine was recommended to a gypsy family who ran the establishment El Laga de Tio Parrilla in Jerez de la Frontera, one of the birthplaces of flamenco. This was the last link in the chain, as her style became shaped by the vibrancy and authenticity of Jerez flamenco.
“Jerez is the home of the song, and that is where my heart is for the overall feeling of the flamenco sound. Flamenco isn’t just dance; it’s also made up of the song, and the rhythm cycle, and the guitar. A lot of people come in through the dance and then get interested in song – that’s how it was for me.” Francine went on to join Spanish quadros, performing in Cadiz, Seville, and Germany.
She says with her dark hair she can pass, just, for a northern Spaniard, Andalusian women are bigger and darker. “It’s tough being a foreigner, coming in rather than being born here and raised in it. You have to find your way in, there is no prescribed path, no school, it’s not like ballet, contemporary dance, you can’t just go to an audition, grab a CV. It’s about coming here and meeting people, doing time, good luck. I have been lucky, I have had two really good mentors – one is foreign and the other from here - who have guided me. There are so many people teaching flamenco - where do you go, where do you start, what do you like, who is going to rip you off, who isn’t? And you have the language and cultural barrier.”
Flamenco is not Spanish, it is very much a gypsy art form, Francine says, and lies within a series of subsets - Andalusia, in southern Spain and very different from the north; the flamenco world, and within that the gypsy world.
Making a living from flamenco is very hard and Francine has managed to scrape by with a combination of performing and teaching. In 2001, through contacts, she began teaching in Taiwan, subsequently opening a studio which she ran for two years. After six years abroad, Francine returned to home to New Zealand in 2002 and has since returned regularly to teach, inspire and connect with local dancers and groups.
“New Zealand is my home now, I have spent the last 15 months there and I am reconnecting in quite a serious way; I am very interested in finding my own voice as a New Zealander, but it’s going to take a while for that to evolve. What I plan to do this year with the tour is really just express and share with people what lit my fire through the last ten years, what I have been up to. It’s going to be a traditional show but hopefully with an element of freshness in the dancing.”
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