Contents
- Train your body to the rhythm of flamenco: these are the steps that will help you get started
- Training and exercise charts
- Guillermina de Bedoya, professional dancer and director of her dance school, reveals the benefits of training by dancing flamenco that are not only physical, but also allow expressing feelings in each session
Train your body to the rhythm of flamenco: these are the steps that will help you get started
Training and exercise charts
Guillermina de Bedoya, professional dancer and director of her dance school, reveals the benefits of training by dancing flamenco that are not only physical, but also allow expressing feelings in each session
PM5:31Camarón said that flamenco it has only one school: to transmit and not to transmit. And that is what defines both flamenco singing and dancing, its ability to connect with emotions. This added value is precisely what the dancer and dance teacher, Guillermina de Bedoya, wanted to take advantage of to create ‘Flamenco Training’, a program that combines physical activity with the expression of feelings and is divided into four sessions: ‘ Flamenco Cardio ‘,’ Flamenco Tonic ‘,’ Flamenco Coreo ‘and’ Flamenco Estira ‘.
Your proposal includes specific exercises based on the steps of flamenco dance that, according to De Bedoya explains, help to strengthen and define the muscles of the legs, ankles, abdominal girdle, arms and hands «so that the posture of our body transmits the strength, art and power of the flamenco”.
But although the base of the training is the steps of flamenco, it is not necessary to have previous knowledge of dance to start in this activity. In fact, the dance teacher points out that, as with any training, the possibility of training from scratch is perfect “because the simplest guidelines are those that lead us to exercise correctly in difficulty.” The key to connecting with this discipline is repeat and repeat until the movement is mechanized, because once we have it mechanized we can correct or polish the faults. “Coordinating the body is complicated and thinking about several things at the same time is often difficult, so what I recommend is patience. The work is progressive and strength, coordination, art and rhythm are trained, ”he says. In fact, in the video that accompanies this information proposes a simple exercise to know the basic steps of this training. Of course, there are two things that De Bedoya considers essential to take advantage of the practice. One is the need to have the experience of a professional who helps to understand the exercises well and the other is perseverance, because only thanks to it will the evolution be appreciated.
The benefits of training with dance
Practicing this type of training helps to activate and improve cardiovascular and respiratory capacity, improves muscle and joint capacity and increases resistance, reaction speed, flexibility, coordination and strength. But also the improvisation inherent in this practice, so connected with the emotions, allows to increase the creativity and the sensitivity.
The imitation of the movements during the learning of the steps favors the atención and the concentration, reinforces visual, gestural and auditory memory and improves cognitive functions, since new knowledge generates new neural networks.
On a psychological level, it improves mood, Self esteem and social skills. And from a hormonal point of view, this type of activity stimulates the production of endorphins.
Equipment, costumes and music
Choose a good footwear (high-heeled flamenco shoes, acquired in professional establishments) is important to carry out this activity correctly, according to Guillermina de Bedoya. They must be made of leather, with nails or without nails (that is optional), although there is also another alternative, which is that of character shoes, made of canvas, with a small heel.
With regards to music the important thing is to choose songs with a very marked rhythm that allow us to adjust to the compass Well, as the expert reveals, a foot strike outside of music sounds “out of tune.” The happy flamenco songs will make us enjoy the modalities of ‘Flamenco Cardio’ and ‘Flamenco Tonic’. An example can be ‘Between two waters’, by Paco de Lucía. The most intense, most heartfelt songs, with a clear guitar sound and with much feeling They will make us vibrate, dance and express our feelings in the ‘Flamenco Coreo’ mode. And for the ‘Flamenco Estira’, in which we will carry out stretching and relaxation sessions, we will have to choose calmer music such as some songs by Vicente Amigo or even by Carlos Núñez, which help to feel the body and gradually relax it.