I mentioned that I had this fantasy of dancing on rooftops before I went to Spain for the first time. Once I settled in Sevilla and found my apartment, I was overjoyed to discover that it had an azotea.
azotea - rooftop
I wanted to go up there with my character shoes. Yes, character shoes. I was so stubborn, so green that I didn't believe having actual flamenco shoes would make that much of a difference when dancing. Anyway, I wanted to go up to try to practice the little that I could remember from class.
Carolina, my roommate, told me to make sure that the door didn't close or I would be locked up there with no way of getting down. I think she may have thought I was nuts.
So one day I went up to dance on the roof
It was sunny and beautiful. Springtime and not too hot.
But it wasn't like my fantasy.
There was no music, not even really in my head. I couldn't remember the steps. And it wasn't really fun.
And then, it got worse.
An older woman came up to hang her clothes and saw me there. She didn't hesitate to give me the same warning. She was seriously concerned. More so than Carolina had been. She said if she hadn't noticed me she would have shut the door, and I would have been stuck up there. I'm pretty convinced that she too found me to be crazy.
My roof dancing days were short-lived
... at that apartment.
I soon moved to another place.
Another apartment, another azotea
I told my newest flamenco teacher that I had a great place to practice. I then informed her that the great place was on my roof.
She had a teeny tiny floor that she'd put down in her front entryway to practice on. Well, it wasn't really a front entryway. It was the little bit of space between the front door and the beginning of the stairs leading to the living area. So I figured she would be into non-conventional places to practice.
Not so.
She warned me against dancing on the roof just as Carolina and the lady had.
But for different reasons.
She was worried about the neighbors.
"But I won't wear my shoes," I told her. She said it wasn't the sound but the vibrations that they would complain of.
There would be no roof dancing at that apartment.
Though I still would go up there to write and hang out.
Some roof dancing in Jerez
People have been known to do a bit of roof dancing in Jerez on the Flamenco Tour. Not dancing dancing or stomping because it is too hard a surface for anything like that. But people like it up there. It's a big space. And it is beautiful, as you probably saw in the video. And because there are no neighbors below, just us!
Ever danced on a rooftop?
Where do you fantasize of dancing? What strange places have you practiced? Leave a comment below.