African Dance Class

 This is from about a month ago…

        Today I had my second “danza africana” class. Amazing. Of the wide variety of interesting classes that were offered as extra-curricular activities (painting, bookbinding, subterranean routes through Granada) danza africana piqued my interest the most, so I decided to take a plunge into this sphere of dance that is completely new to me and see what it was like. In the first class, we had a Spanish woman as our instructor, but this time our teachers were two African men who brought a variety of knee-high drums that they played to provide the music. They are brothers and both of them wear their hair in thick dreadlocks that fall past their shoulders. One of them only played the drums, while the other (Dali is his name..you can check out http://www.myspace.com/dalidanza if you want to see a couple pics) spent the majority of the time teaching us new choreography, although he occasionally played the drums along with his brother. The principal drum player had the most incredible smile; if you could capture in an expression all the joy that music and dance can inspire it would be his smile.  Absolutely “brillante”. The choreography was fast-paced and so much fun. I wish you could see my instructor dancing; it’s simply incredible how his body and spirit move with the beats of the drum, creating an irresistible, radiant energy. It makes me want to go to Africa.