Not exactly the technique. A person can go to dance school for years, but if she doesn’t feel it; if she feels no passion come from within, she doesn’t deserve the title.
I always remember a quote, attributed to Antonia Mercé “La Argentina” — a flamenco dancer “known for her creation of the neoclassical style of Spanish dance as a theatrical art.” (I’ve seen some really good flamenco dancers and I can tell you, I’ve never seen so much passion poured out in one performance.) The quote goes:
There are no schools to create dancers, just as there are none to create poets…
The technique, invisible for the spectator, forgotten in these moments by the artist herself, runs beneath her art like a stream of water which renders the expression, the geometry of the dance, soft and succulent.
La Argentina has spoken! Beautifully said, too.
In my personal experience, I never went to a formal school of dance — I’m self-trained, and though I agree with this quote, that there are no schools to create dancers, I would’ve loved to be classically trained. I do think I posses the best tools a dancer can have, though: my two feet, universal rhythm, and a BURNING passion for the art. These qualities, my friend, make a dancer.
