The Whirling World of a Flamenco Dancer

The moment Sara Jerez-Marlow saw the Spanish flamenco film "Carmen," she fell in love with the intricate dance. At the time, Jerez-Marlow was studying biology and pursuing a degree in medicine.

"But then flamenco opened my eyes to what it was to have passion," she says.

Born in Nicaragua, Jerez-Marlow grew up in Clifton before eventually heading to Madrid to study flamenco. The 31-year-old now lives in Fort Washington with her flamenco-guitarist husband, Richard "Ricardo" Marlow, and their 4-year-old son, John. She has danced flamenco professionally in the Washington area for eight years, including performances with the Washington National Opera.

Jerez-Marlow, accompanied by her husband, recently taught a beginner's flamenco class as part of the seventh annual Flamenco Festival at George Washington University's Lisner Auditorium. The festival continues through Saturday. We caught up with Jerez-Marlow to discuss her career and what it takes to become a flamenco dancer.

I can barely walk in tall high heels, and you are spinning and dancing in them. How do you do it?

The highest heel that I have is three inches. You can go anywhere from 1 1/2 to three inches. I'm 5-foot-5, and I feel like I like the height. . . . You just get used to it. It becomes part of the extension of yourself. It's actually good to have a little bit of heel, and it makes the whole line of flamenco more elegant and more beautiful.

Have you ever just completely wiped out during a performance? What's one of your most embarrassing moments?

Oh, my goodness. Well, there are two. There was one time when I was on stage and I kicked my shoe off. All the way across the stage. So I went over there, picked it up and put it in my skirt and just acted like it was part of my dance. People afterwards from the audience said to me: "That was the most amazing thing. How did you get your shoe to come off right at that moment?"

The other one was when we were on this stage that kind of jutted out, and the curtain closed in an awkward spot. I was a step ahead of the curtain, and the entire cast was behind the curtain, and when the curtain came down, it was just me and the audience. So I took an extra bow, waved and walked off. That was really embarrassing because there's nothing you can do to hide it.

It seems like the dance requires a lot of controlled spins and quick steps. And you make it look so easy. How difficult is it to stay on beat and keep a rhythm?

Well, you truly have to become a musician as a flamenco dancer because your feet are literally a percussion instrument. You really have to learn how to keep good rhythm and how to follow rhythm. . . . Flamenco has a special kind of rhythm called "compas." Each different dance form, or "palo," that I dance has its own characteristic compas.

So it's more than just a lot of stomping around; it's actually intricate footwork.