Magdalena’s life journey with the beauty of flamenco
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The sounds of feet hitting the ground break the silence in the room. At first, it seems impulsive, but then it turns into a beating rhythm. The sound of hands hitting together soon fills the room. These improvised, yet swift movements, are performed by a graceful but fierce woman. She is Madeleine Perlman, a professional flamenco dancer, dance teacher and choreographer, known by her artistic name, Magdalena.
Joining the performance, a man picks the strings of his guitar, setting a new mood. He sings in unison with his instrument, creating a lovely complement to the dancers’ movements. This is flamenco.
Originally from New York City, Magdalena has been dancing for 25 years – many of them in Washington, D.C., but she has also lived in Spain for many years, where flamenco originated. She is an award-winning bailaora who has earned a reputation for deeply understanding and connecting with flamenco and its cultural roots.
Since moving to the District a decade ago, she’s opened Dance Flamenco DC and Flamenco 4 Kids!, where she teaches dance to adults and children. Magdalena has also won many recognitions as an individual performing artist.
In our interview with Magdalena, she discusses how dancing and teaching flamenco brings her joy and how her upbringing led her to find a life’s work that she loves.
How did you become a dancer, and what made you get into flamenco?
I grew up with music and dance. My parents put me in tap, jazz… all that fun stuff when I was a kid. I never set out to be a professional dancer. I was always interested in music and dance. That seed was planted long before I started flamenco.
I also spoke Spanish at an early age. My parents were very encouraging. I went to a very interesting, small liberal arts boarding school, where we got to go to Spain when I was 16. There, I fell in love with the culture.
I didn’t really start doing flamenco until much later, when I was in my early 20s. In Spain, I got the feeling of another world, something out there that I could be a part of, immerse myself in and communicate with everybody. Shortly after, when I was back in New York City at a job as a social worker that I did not really enjoy, I started taking flamenco classes. At first, it was one class a week, and then twice, and three and four times.
I already had teaching experience from tutoring and other early jobs, so I fell into teaching pretty early on. That’s what kind of tied it together. I was studying flamenco, and I was teaching it at the same time. I was speaking Spanish and traveling to Spain, and everything sort of gelled together.
I didn’t move to D.C. until about 10 years ago. I didn’t start teaching children until I moved here because I had a daughter who was about 10. Being with my daughter and teaching dance made me want to combine the two things. So now I have Dance Flamenco D.C., which is the grown-up program, and Flamenco 4 Kids!, which is for kids 4 to 12 years old.
Who inspires you most when it comes to traditional dancing?
Flamenco is an art form from the south of Spain, from gypsy culture that is said to have traveled through northern India. Since the term “gypsy” is considered derogatory, they’re now called Roma. So the Roma, who settled in the south of Spain, are the people who basically created and perpetuated what we now consider to be flamenco.
When I started studying in New York, my teacher said, “Go to Spain. Study with the Roma. Study with the people that this art belongs to.” I immersed myself in their culture, went there every day for private lessons, and just got really enmeshed. Those particular Roma master artists are usually big families. They’re considered dynasties of families. They could be three, four or five generations of artists.
That really inspires me because it’s so ingrained in them. Sometimes it’s even hard for them to answer questions about stuff because they grew up with the songs and the dance, the music and they had to become teachers to make money off of it. They were artists doing what they grew up with, without knowing that it was considered an art form. I think they are really the ones who still inspire me the most.
How does it feel to be able to teach young ones flamenco?
I love it. I can’t get enough of it. I’ve noticed each age group is really different. As I progress through my years teaching children, I’m gaining more and more experience with different age groups.
The easiest ones for me are four, five and six. Their worlds are just opening up in front of them. They’re so eager and open and there are very easy behavioral issues to deal with. They are able to relate to the imagery. If I do “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” — in Spanish “La Araña Pequeñita” — they get it right away because they don’t have as much inhibition. They start to move their hands in a certain way and sing, and it’s a lot easier to reach them. The older the student, the more inhibited they are.
I also really love toddlers, although it’s more about creative movement [with them]. Obviously, they’re not getting the technique of flamenco because they’re too young, but they’re getting it [visually], and parents really appreciate that. So I also work with parents in mommy and me classes.
It must feel very fulfilling to see how your students progress. How does it feel to teach adults flamenco, as opposed to children?
I love it in a different way. It’s usually more relaxing because I don’t have as much stress with classroom management. I also really get inspired by adults that come to me from all walks of life. They’re Hispanic, non-Hispanic, older, younger, they’ve done dance before, they’ve never done dance, they used to play music or don’t play music. I really enjoy the diversity of it.
It’s a different kind of rewarding experience because I can ask them questions. One of the things that I’ve been doing lately in my curriculum is pop quizzes. We do videos at the end of the class to make sure we document the material, but then they have to answer pop quizzes. I send them the video so they can practice. I can’t do things like that with kids. There’s more interaction that way on a more intellectual level.
To finish off, is there anything I didn’t ask you that you would like to share with us?
I think that what I’m trying to do with my work is bridge cultural gaps. Flamenco is from Spain, and as we know Spain colonized many countries. You don’t really come across many Spaniards in D.C. unless they’re visiting or from the embassy. So I find it tricky because this culture from the motherland seems very foreign to people – like something they wouldn’t relate to. Yet it is [relatable] because it’s a little of everything: it’s language, movement, music, art and performance.
What I love about my work and what I’m really proud of is that I can always reach somebody in some way. That’s how unique and random flamenco is for most people.
Magdalena offers dance classes to both adults and children on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays in Tenleytown, NW, D.C. To learn more, visit www.DanceFlamencoDC.com.
*This story has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.
– Story and interview by Cristela Bonilla
– Edited by Amelia Woolley-Larrea, Piper Russell, Michelle Benitez,
Rafaella Mufarech & Jordan Luz
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