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01/22/2005: "Studying Lorca at George Washington University"

The Spring 2005 semester started this week at George Washington University. I attended the first session for a course titled "Federico Garcia Lorca: Poetry, Theater and Music" which is being taught by professor Ellen Echeverria. It's scheduled Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30am which is an early hour for a working musician like me, but it's flamenco-related so I'll get out of bed for this one.

Several times during the 75-minute class, I got to show off my knowledge whenever the topic of flamenco came up. Of course, as a performer, I'm well-versed (no pun intended) in the practice of flamenco but I need to expand my horizons. To keep up, I'm going to have to brush-up on terminology and concepts related to poetry and literature. Oh, did I mention that the class is conducted entirely in Spanish!

This will be the first time that I'll be closely studying the relationship between poetry and flamenco. It's going to be a challenge, but I'm enjoying myself so far. Next week, we're going to talk about Lorca's "Guitarra" and "Zorongo Gitano."