Singing

I've taken a cold shower and am wearing short shorts even though I've gotten used to wearing jeans in heat that Vancouverites would never wear jeans in. Now that the internet connection is working I need to change into a lighter shirt. And tomar some more cold manzanilla.
I called Rocío Tuesday night and made an appointment to meet her at the train station in Puerto Real the next morning. I missed the train by about 1 minute, so took the next one straight to Cadiz, and signed into the hostel. Unfortunately I had to change my lesson to the evening so that cut out my beach possibilities.

She is an amazing singer, as far as I'm concerned, but I am indeed her first ever student. That didn't bother me, going into it, but I suppose it may not have been the best idea after all. I didn't tell her I could only afford an hour, so we took two. Anyways, she was really keen to teach me. There is a room set up for music at her parents' place, so we went there. I met her mom, her sister. Later her husband dropped off her daughter, and her dad came to play the guitar for me at the end of our lesson, so I could sing with it.
She was really surprised how well I can get the right "tone". That is only half of singing flamenco, though. And even the melodies are extremely complex. To be true to it, the intricate melodic lines should be improvised but I have to stick with copying, and perhaps even simplifying the melisma.
Being in a less professional atmosphere, meeting her family and having the whole gang minus dad walk me to the bus stop, is the kind of thing I wanted, but I'm feeling pretty intimidated about putting boundaries around how often I can come, how much money I can spend and what I do and don't need to go over during the lesson time. How to balance heart warming with boundary setting is the problem.

Rocío is only 25. Her daughter I think is 8. She doesn't need to work because her husband makes enough. Her expectations may be different from her peers in North America, I would guess. She makes a bit of money on the side with her singing - being paid to sing at functions, shows, penas. She is self-taught, or rather, family taught, you could say. She learned the way flamenco is supposed to be learned - by absorbing it at numerous family functions all your life. I didn't know that when I heard her sing, but I did feel that her singing was different from some others I heard in Sevilla. They may or may not have learned the same way, but Rocío's style seems more gitana, and she appears to be of that lineage, though those things can be deceiving. There is a postcard all over Sevilla of a little kid flamenco dancer. They have a large one on the wall. It is Rocio Fantova's cousin, Paloma Fantova, who dances with Farruquito and travels the world charging big bucks. You can watch her dancing at Casa Patas on youtube.