Dancing is More Than Just Steps for Goldin

Michele Goldin has always loved to dance. When she was four she saw a video on Spanish dance and spent the next year imitating the dancers until her parents signed her up for dance lessons.

Now 18 she has performed in some of the area’s top venues and is still looking for ways to grow and share her gifts with others.

Goldin started at age five studying Flamenco dance, which originated in the south of Spain and is performed traditionally by Gypsies. As her skills progressed she took on other forms, classical Spanish Dance, Spanish regional and folk dance, 18th century Spanish dance, and ballet.

At 13 Goldin started to teach other students and three years later at 16 years she started her own dance troupe, Danca Marina.

In fact, Goldin has always seemed to be in a rush. She left high school to attend George Mason University when she was 16. There, she has majored in Spanish and dance. After only three years of study she is going into her senior year and plans to graduate this spring.

For Michele, her haste has a purpose. “Dancers only have so long,” she said. She added that going to college earlier actually made her life easier. Being able to choose her class times left her more opportunities to perform with her troupe. “It freed up whole bunch of time in my day,” she said.

After college she plans to move to Spain where she will attend Marta de la Vega, a school affiliated with the Royal School of Dance in Madrid.

Sitting in her studio at her parent’s home near George Mason University, she talked nervously with the News-Press about the prospect of studying full-time in Spain. “It’s a little scary, but I want to do it.”

For Goldin it will be a chance to step up her level of training. Although modest, she admitted that there aren’t any Spanish dancers her age dancing at her level. For years she has studied with older dancers.

But in Spain, where many students like her have been dancing for years, Goldin will be given a new perspective on how well she stacks up.

When she goes to school in Madrid, it won’t be her first time in Spain. In fourth grade she spent six months there with her mother. She went to school there, learned Spanish, and of course, worked on dance. “I think that was when it sank in with my parents that I was really serious about it,” she said. Since then she has been back several times.

While her studies and performance loom large in her future, much of her recent dance experience has come from teaching others.

Since she started teaching when she was 13, Goldin has found a sense of fulfillment from introducing Flamenco to students of all ages. In her younger students she has seen how dance has had a strong impact on the direction of their lives. “They’ve really gotten into it and I’ve seen how it’s made some of them different kids,” she said. “Performing has given them a lot of self confidence.”

Rather than other forms of Spanish dance, she teaches Flamenco because of the greater popularity of the form and because it is easier for many to pick up.

When teaching Flamenco Goldin shares information about the culture of Spain as well as the dance steps. Throughout her studio are Spanish paintings, posters of Spanish performances and festivals, and as a departure from the theme, a large print of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Also present is a variety of flamingo decorations, a joke about the tendency for Americans to incorrectly pronounce the dance’s name.

While the actual meaning of the name is debated, most scholars believe Flamenco refers to a Flemish person, from the north region of Belgium. But the question remains why that name would refer to traditional Spanish dance.

Flamenco is made up of three basic elements; Cante (song), Baile (dance), and Guitarra, (guitar accompaniment).

While demonstrating the dance, Golding described two areas of focus for the movements, brazeo and zapateado. Brazeo refers to any motion of the arms and hands during the dance. The arms must always be held in a circular arc, no acute elbow bends or complete straightening, in order to heighten the grace of the dance.

Zapateado, on the other hand, refers to the movements of the legs and feet. While Flamenco does include impressive high kicks, it is by and large a grounded dance form. Compared to dance like ballet, which involves large leaps and spins, the majority of the leg movement in

Flamenco comes in the rhythmic stomping of the feet.

At high speeds, the stomping adds a constant accompaniment highlighting the intensity of the dance, even as the arms flow gracefully around the body. Goldin said that it took her years to develop the necessary speed and coordination.

She also corrected a common misconception about Flamenco. She said that what most people take to be a feature of Flamenco, the castanets, is not actually used in the dance. Rather they are used in the Sevillanas, a dance that combines Flamenco and classical Spanish dance. The most popular dance in Spain, Spaniards still follow the steps of Sevillanas at parties with friends.

While the technique of Flamenco is very precise, the performance is surprisingly free flowing.

Rather than being based around specific songs, Flamenco focuses on particular rhythms that dancers and accompanists follow and improvise from. The guitarist can trust that the rhythm will always be the same and can use the actions of the dancer and his own inspiration in order to create a unique performance.

Because of the common rhythm, dancers and guitarists can work in unison without ever speaking to each other. Goldin described it as another form of language.

The loose structure also allows the dancer a venue for personal expression. Founded by the Gypsies, a culture with a long history of oppression, Goldin said that the dance conveys both sorrow and defiance in the face of that sadness.

This freedom of expression has kept Goldin interested in the dance even after 13 years of study. She compared Spanish dance to ballet, her other major area of study. “In ballet you’re just showing off your technique, but in Spanish dance there’s a lot more room for expression, that’s why I love it,” she said.

Her favorite dance form is actually 18th century Spanish dance, which she described as a hybrid of ballet and classical Spanish dance. It allows her to use some of the rigorous technique that ballet requires while leaving room for more expression.

After seeing her perform Goldin said that many people have asked her what she is planning on doing with dance.

Presently her primary focus remains honing her skills, but already she has performed at some of the most well known venues in the area. At the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts, her dance troupe has performed for the past two years as part of the International Children’s Festival, a stage which she said, “gave me chills, I was so excited.”

At the National Theater in Washington D.C. she choreographed and performed in a full length production, The Flamenco World of Don Quixote. In the performance she directed the performance of 25 dancers, a production which she is planning to reprise in her senior year at GMU.

Goldin said, like most performers she also would love to have to opportunity to perform at the Lincoln Center in New York.

But she has also discovered another interest related to performance. While her troupe has performed at some large venues, it also schedules numerous smaller performances at everything from schools to hospitals. At a camp for terminally ill children she had a breakthrough watching the smiles on the faces of her audience. At that time she realized how dance can be a gift to others as well as a place for her own performance. “I am sharing a part of myself when I dance,” she said.

Since that realization she has considered working with ill and underprivileged children as another direction for her performance. While a smaller stage than Wolf Trap or the Met, she said that it would give her an opportunity to help those in ways she never thought dance could. Whether it’s inspiring a young girl to express herself in new ways, or just bringing a little happiness into someone’s life, dance is more than a series of steps. It is an expression of self, a culture, and a way to relate to the rest of the world.