By Sara Boyd
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, February 11, 2007; M02
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.
Yes, a flamenco dance is comprised of a variation of basic elements. Those elements include footwork as well as arm and body movements. Fancy, complicated footwork is really only fast combinations of five or six basic steps: for example, "planta," "tacon," "golpe" and "talon." Most importantly, beyond executing the footwork cleanly, is staying in rhythm, or compas.
I'm sure you listen to a lot of flamenco music. What do you listen to when you need a break?
[Laughs.] Well, being married to a flamenco guitarist, the moment you're not in his general vicinity, you try to listen to something else. I typically like to listen to anything from Ella Fitzgerald to Etta James to Frank Sinatra to Sarah McLachlan to Norah Jones to U2. In general, though, I listen to so much flamenco at home with Richard. . . . I'm kind of a jack-of-all-trades, but my husband is a master of one thing, and that is flamenco guitar playing. He's really special.
You bring up being a jack-of-all-trades, and you truly are. You have experience in firefighting, being an emergency medical technician, playing field hockey. What's the story behind all of those activities?
I just wanted to try a lot of different things. When I was about 16, I met someone who was a medical technician, and she told me if you become a volunteer firefighter you can ride the ambulance and be a firefighter at 16. So that's why I became a firefighter: not because I wanted to go into burning buildings, but because it was a requirement for me to be able to ride in the ambulances.
So, now that you've been dancing flamenco for the past 12 years, how much of your closet is devoted to flamenco dresses and shoes?
[Laughs.] Oh, my goodness, a lot. I have at least six to 10 dresses in one piece or another and at least 10 pairs of shoes. And you go through them very quickly.
The dance at times seems very serious and dramatic. What's going through your head while you dance?
I don't know if I'm thinking anything other than, "Oh, my goodness, what's the next step going to be?" [Laughs.] But sometimes, you listen to what the cante [song] is doing; you get into the words or the music that surrounds you. I get a lot of energy from the people in the audience, and it really sends me to a different place, whether it's a happy dance or a sad dance.
I personally have two left feet and no rhythm. What do you suggest for people who don't have any dance experience and don't want to look completely stupid?
It's all about having fun and knowing your strengths. So if you're not very good at the footwork, just concentrate on the arm movements and the attitude. The great thing about flamenco is that you can get started at any age and any shape. It doesn't matter. Flamenco is about living and life translating into a dance form.
Catch regular performances by Sara Jerez-Marlow at these area bars and restaurants:
Mondays at 8 and 9 p.m. at Cafe Citron (1343 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-530-8844).·
Wednesdays between 8 and 10 p.m. at Las Tapas (710 King St., Alexandria, 703-836-4000).·
Fridays between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. at La Tasca (607 King St., Alexandria, 703-299-9810).
For more information about local flamenco dancing, visithttp://www.dcflamenco.com.
