Taste of Spain (1) – Guinness World Record Breaking Attempt of Sevillanas: 25th May 2008
It was a Spanish Festival celebrated in Regent Street, mainly featuring dancing events as well as stimulating people to go on a shopping spree by discounts offers at many famous shops around the street. The Sevillanas World Record Breaking Attempt was one of the biggest attractions during the festival. The aim was to dance Sevillanas together with as many people as possible, although I couldn’t imagine there would be so many flamenco students or artists in the UK alone. I supposed quite a few people from Spain would be persuaded to come and join as well.
I heard about this event in my flamenco class and our teacher was going to register us as a group, but it turned out that we had to register individually in prior to the event. Each of us was supposed to dress up with a Sevillanas costume borrowed from our teacher. We brushed up the choreography in the class and got prepared.
On the previous day, however, our teacher declared she wouldn’t come because of the wet weather. In fact, it had been raining from the previous night through the morning. I wasn’t sure if I should still have a go, as my teacher wouldn’t be happy if I put on her dress without her being there, especially when the street was still wet. I didn’t own a proper Sevillanas dress myself, and I was told before that wearing a practice skirt at such a sort of fiesta wouldn’t be appropriate. But in the last minute I decided to go there anyway, at least to see how it would go. On the official website they didn’t mention they would cancel or postpone it because of the weather. It meant they would still put the thing on in the rain! I also thought they wouldn’t be able to cancel it since they had invited some artists from Spain. Yeah, OK, here I come – but I didn’t take any flamenco gear as I didn’t imagine I would dance without my classmates or friends there.
Well, actually, I should have brought something, even a practice skirt. I spotted some of my classmates there in either Sevillanas costumes or their practice gear. Just like me, they decided to come in spite of our teacher’s absence. It’s a festival! What a waste staying at home! One of them persuaded me to become her partner, so I made up my mind, went to the registration area and got a red wrist band indicating I was going to be one of those people who would attempt to break the world record – if such a thing has ever existed in flamenco.
The event started off with a demonstration by Spanish guests. They sang and danced Sevillanas repeatedly. Many tourists and passers-by stopped to see the lively show on the street, and some of them spontaneously joined in the performance with party sprits.
It was almost a miracle that the weather stayed alright, at least it didn’t rain during the event. We were divided by two groups according to the colour of our wrist bands, without which nobody was allowed to enter the performing area. After a few rehearsals it finally went off – I suppose we danced 6 or 7 courses of Sevillanas including the warm-up session. Stamping on the hard pavement killed my knees but it was such fun.
It was announced that we succeeded in breaking the record by 456(?) participants. I’m not sure how accurate the information is, or if it was really true that it was the new world record, but we didn’t care – it was a festival! All participants were given a free flamenco hat (cheap, though), free paper fan and specially designed T-shirt to remark our ‘achievement’.
It was a Spanish Festival celebrated in Regent Street, mainly featuring dancing events as well as stimulating people to go on a shopping spree by discounts offers at many famous shops around the street. The Sevillanas World Record Breaking Attempt was one of the biggest attractions during the festival. The aim was to dance Sevillanas together with as many people as possible, although I couldn’t imagine there would be so many flamenco students or artists in the UK alone. I supposed quite a few people from Spain would be persuaded to come and join as well.
I heard about this event in my flamenco class and our teacher was going to register us as a group, but it turned out that we had to register individually in prior to the event. Each of us was supposed to dress up with a Sevillanas costume borrowed from our teacher. We brushed up the choreography in the class and got prepared.
On the previous day, however, our teacher declared she wouldn’t come because of the wet weather. In fact, it had been raining from the previous night through the morning. I wasn’t sure if I should still have a go, as my teacher wouldn’t be happy if I put on her dress without her being there, especially when the street was still wet. I didn’t own a proper Sevillanas dress myself, and I was told before that wearing a practice skirt at such a sort of fiesta wouldn’t be appropriate. But in the last minute I decided to go there anyway, at least to see how it would go. On the official website they didn’t mention they would cancel or postpone it because of the weather. It meant they would still put the thing on in the rain! I also thought they wouldn’t be able to cancel it since they had invited some artists from Spain. Yeah, OK, here I come – but I didn’t take any flamenco gear as I didn’t imagine I would dance without my classmates or friends there.
Well, actually, I should have brought something, even a practice skirt. I spotted some of my classmates there in either Sevillanas costumes or their practice gear. Just like me, they decided to come in spite of our teacher’s absence. It’s a festival! What a waste staying at home! One of them persuaded me to become her partner, so I made up my mind, went to the registration area and got a red wrist band indicating I was going to be one of those people who would attempt to break the world record – if such a thing has ever existed in flamenco.
The event started off with a demonstration by Spanish guests. They sang and danced Sevillanas repeatedly. Many tourists and passers-by stopped to see the lively show on the street, and some of them spontaneously joined in the performance with party sprits.
It was almost a miracle that the weather stayed alright, at least it didn’t rain during the event. We were divided by two groups according to the colour of our wrist bands, without which nobody was allowed to enter the performing area. After a few rehearsals it finally went off – I suppose we danced 6 or 7 courses of Sevillanas including the warm-up session. Stamping on the hard pavement killed my knees but it was such fun.
It was announced that we succeeded in breaking the record by 456(?) participants. I’m not sure how accurate the information is, or if it was really true that it was the new world record, but we didn’t care – it was a festival! All participants were given a free flamenco hat (cheap, though), free paper fan and specially designed T-shirt to remark our ‘achievement’.
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