{"id":7700,"date":"2026-11-01T17:26:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evaesquivel.com\/?p=7700"},"modified":"2026-11-01T17:26:30","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T17:26:30","slug":"empiezo-antropologia-bailaora-vuelve-a-las-aulas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evaesquivel.com\/en\/empiezo-antropologia-bailaora-vuelve-a-las-aulas\/","title":{"rendered":"Starting Anthropology: a flamenco dancer goes back to the classroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was eleven and had a 40-degree fever from tonsillitis. It was one of my first solo performances, for TVE, with a guitarist and a singer, and I had chosen the dances myself. I remember the heat of the lights and the uncomfortable car journey, my body heavy with fever and begging for bed. But at the same time, I remember a determination I'm still not sure where it came from. It went well. That day I learned something that has stayed with me ever since: when flamenco really matters to you, you find a way to rise to the occasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many years have passed since that little girl. I've danced in tablaos, theatres, dance schools and primary schools. I've created shows, I've directed, and I've spent more than twenty-five years teaching girls, young women and adults. I thought I knew the ground I stand on well. And yet, this year I've done something I didn't expect to do at this stage of my life: become a student again. I've started a degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology at UNED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to tell you why, and I want to do it here, in this notebook I'm opening today, because I'm convinced that what I'm going to learn will change the way I look at flamenco. And I'd like to share that path with anyone who wants to come along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Anthropology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For years I've been eager to understand the events that have written history and shaped the path of humanity, especially those related to art and culture. I've always wondered where things come from: why we dance the way we dance, why a gesture means what it means, why certain music and dances were born in certain places and not in others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time those questions stayed there, tucked away in a corner, while life carried on at the pace of rehearsals, classes and performances. Until along came ELLAS<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research I did to create the show was a turning point. It took me much further than I expected. I started looking for material for a piece and ended up reading about past societies: how they lived, what they celebrated, what rituals marked their lives, what place women held in them. Every answer brought three new questions. And there came a moment when I realised that what I was doing, without knowing it, had a name: Anthropology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So I went to look at what the degree covered. And I found exactly what I was looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I found in the curriculum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It wasn't one particular subject that caught my eye, but the whole. I discovered there were courses devoted to very specific topics, such as racism, gender perspective or migration. And others that directly intersect with the history of art, music and dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I read it, I immediately thought of flamenco. Because flamenco can't be understood without all of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can't be understood without the history of the peoples who made it possible, or without the inequalities and prejudices that affected many of them. It can't be understood without the women who sustained it, often from the shadows, in homes, courtyards and gatherings where no one saw them as artists. And it can't be understood without journeys: the cantes de ida y vuelta, such as the guajira, the colombiana or the milonga, are proof that flamenco has always been a music that travels, mixes and comes back transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I've sensed all of this for years from the stage and the classroom. Now I want to study it rigorously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added to that curiosity was my desire to keep learning, to keep training and to explore new areas that could enrich my work, the meaning of my profession and life itself. So I enrolled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What my teachers taught me<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I don't come to this out of nowhere. Nobody comes to flamenco out of nowhere. What we dance is, to a large extent, what others gave us. From my teachers I inherited much more than steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Mariquilla<\/strong> I learned discipline and affection in equal measure. She was demanding, but that demand always came with warmth, and that's something I've tried to pass on to my own students. There are gestures of hers I carry in my body like a seal, which I recognise every time I dance and which, sometimes, I also discover in the girls I teach. That's how flamenco is passed on: from body to body, from generation to generation, almost without words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Mario Maya<\/strong> left his mark on me with his cultured personality, ahead of his time. For him, flamenco wasn't just technique or just temperament: it was also thought. In fact, he championed an idea that, as he used to say, he learned from his own teacher, the great Pilar L\u00f3pez: to dance, you must take into account both the ethics and the aesthetics of flamenco<\/em>. It outraged him when an artist was uncultured, didn't study, wasn't interested in other subjects that could enrich their way of expressing themselves on stage. He told me so many times, and I never forgot it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, as I open my first syllabuses, I think of him a lot. I suppose that, in a way, this degree is also a way of proving him right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Becoming a student again<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The first days have been very exciting. And I've been nervous too, I won't deny it. Entering an unknown world is daunting. There's a new vocabulary, a new way of reading and thinking, and the feeling of starting from scratch at something, after so many years feeling confident on my own ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practical doubts also creep in: how I'm going to combine it with my personal life, with the classes I teach, with weekend performances. Anyone who makes a living from flamenco knows the hours aren't exactly orderly: there are especially long and intense days, and frequent trips that throw everything off even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the desire weighs much more. I have many questions I hadn't been able to answer until now, and at last I have somewhere to look for the answers. There's something very beautiful about sitting down to learn again: it forces you to listen, to doubt, to take nothing for granted. Exactly what I ask of my students every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying remotely also has something special. My notes travel with me to rehearsals, dressing rooms, on the road. Flamenco and the degree are already living side by side, and I have a feeling they're going to get along very well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why a field notebook<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In anthropology, the field notebook is where the researcher writes down what they observe while living among the people they study: gestures, words, customs, what is said and what is left unsaid. It's a very simple tool and, at the same time, the heart of the craft. What isn't written down is forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I learned this, I smiled. Because I've been doing fieldwork all my life without knowing it. In tablaos, watching how an ensemble understands each other without needing to speak. In pe\u00f1as, listening to aficionados who know more about cante than many books. In classes, seeing how a girl copies from her teacher not just an arm movement, but a way of looking. In dressing rooms and in the conversations after a performance. And in the gatherings where flamenco appears without anyone having planned it, which deep down are a way of sharing with fellow artists, relaxed and far from the stage, what we know, what we love, what we feel, the laughter and much more that I'll tell you about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference is that now I want to do it with method. To look more closely, ask better questions and, above all, write down what I see. This is my notebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you'll find here<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I'll share what I learn in the degree and how it intersects with what I live in flamenco. There will be posts about where the palos come from and what they told in their origins. About how dance is passed on, from teacher to student. About the role of women in flamenco, yesterday and today. About the places and rituals where flamenco lives: tablaos, pe\u00f1as, celebrations and families. And also about concepts from class that suddenly explain things I've been living for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don't write as an expert in anthropology, because I'm not one. I write as someone who knows flamenco from the inside and is learning to see it differently. I'll make mistakes, correct them and learn along the way. That's also part of fieldwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you're interested in flamenco beyond the stage, if you've ever wondered why it moves us the way it does, I invite you to come along. And if you have something to tell me, a story, a question or a memory, write to me<\/a>. A field notebook is also filled with what others share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See you on the next page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eva Esquivel<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Con once a\u00f1os bail\u00e9 para TVE con cuarenta de fiebre. Hoy, tras m\u00e1s de 25 a\u00f1os de escenario y aula, vuelvo a ser alumna: empiezo Antropolog\u00eda en la UNED.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tpgb_global_settings":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cuaderno-de-clase"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t