Basic Shawls for Flamenco Dancing

Series Summary

Flamenco dancing originated in the southern region of Spain in, what is believed to be, the early 1500's. Flamenco is a combination of singing, clapping, chanting, guitar playing and, of course, dancing. When the Gypsies arrived in Spain at this time they helped bring the intensity to the dance. The dancer performs with a fervent passion that is very expressive and at times can seem almost tortured while maintaining grace and dignity. It wasn't until the 1700's that flamenco came into it's own and by the end of the 1800's it achieved it's peak in popularity.

In this series of video clips you will learn tips and techniques on the footwork, attire and attitude needed to dance the Flamenco. The videos give detailed lessons on using shawls, fans and castanets. Close ups on equipment and feet will walk you through every nuance taught. These videos will show step by step details on the art of dancing the Flamenco and put you on the right path to self expression.

Video Transcript

"Hi, thank you for visiting expertvillage.com. My name is Yvette Parish, I’m a flamenco instructor and we’re going to be talking about mantons today, the different sizes and how to use them. There’s some few basic rules with mantons when you pick them out you can call them shawls or piano shawls, they come in all different sizes. This one is about an average size manton and as you’ve seen its cut in a triangular way with pretty fringe on the bottom. You can get them in any color, any kind of embroidery, some do not have embroidery, some have very long fringe or short but this is about a typical manton that you’ll see for about the average armed and size dancer. The longer you are and the longer arms you have and the longer the reach, the longer manton you’ll need. I am a petite dancer about 5 foot 2 and I prefer a little bit of a smaller manton but I want to show you some other sizes that you can get. This is a little bit of a longer if you can see how pretty that is it’s much longer and you see even on my arm length it’s even a little bit long for me. So if you’re 5’4, 5’7, 5’8, I’d go ahead and get a longer manton it’ll be easier for you to handle, the longer the arm the longer the manton so you can remember it that way and of course once you become an expert you can use any size. This is a full size manton this one came from Spain it’s a beautiful size. This one is cut in a square so you can see it’s just a beautiful, beautiful piece of work, a piece of art really. You can wear it as part of your costume, you can hang it up behind you as far as a decorative piece but a lot of dancers use this during the routine. You’d fold it to make it a triangle and you’d use it the same way you would the other manton and of course you can wear it as well. So it really depends what size, what budget you have, this runs about an average of about $300 for a full size and then you can get them as economical of $20. So it really depends how you’re going to use it, how long your arms are and how much you want to invest in them. "