Dancing flamenco
(Sent by Ana Belén Moreno Salcedo, a student from Madrid, Spain)

Since I was a small child, I loved dancing flamenco. My mother tells me that when I listened to flamenco music I always danced and I said to her 'I want to dance'. I started flamenco dancing when I was 3, and my mother joined me for 1 to 2 years I seem to remember.

I recall so little about those years, only some memories dancing on stage and my first flamenco dress. It was green with black polka dots and I still have it. My first teacher was from Andalusia, south of Spain where flamenco was born. Then after 2 years dancing with her, she left due to because she became pregnant.

I wanted to continue dancing so I looked for another teacher until I found her in my home town (really my mother found her, since I was too small). At the beginning we were only a few girls, but before long the classes were full. In fact, this dance teacher is extremely popular, increasing the number of people in her classes every year.

I had classes two days a week. I loved dancing and really I enjoyed it. Also I met a lot of people and spent time with them after class. In my case, I was dancing for 12 to 13 years where I learned about different styles of flamenco like: "alegrías, bulerías, seguidillas, etc". In addition, I made good friends and we still keep in touch regularly.

However, when I was studying my degree I had little free time and didn't dance for 7 years, although I knew I would dance again.

In October last year, I started dancing in the academy. I was nervous in on my first day, because I had not danced for a long time. At present, I like the teacher and dance partners and the most important thing is that I am learning so much and for this reason I'm very happy.

This year we will dance twice in public and we are training very hard. I think I will always dance in the future if I can do it. I love flamenco and I consider dancing is a good form of exercise. I would like to recommend dancing to anyone who enjoys it. The world of flamenco is very interesting, even though in my opinion the art of flamenco is in the blood.