dances with fans

Having learned to dance (so far) with castanets, manton, and small rocks (clapped together for percussion in lieu of castanets--dramatic and earthy but hurts like hell when a finger gets in the way), I took a new step on Saturday.

We started dancing alegrias with fans.

Huh.

All I'm going to say is that it's a lot harder than it looks. Since I'm left-handed, having to manipulate the fan with my off hand makes it all the worse. I already know I will throw myself into mastery of the fan, at which point I will possess yet another highly-developed skill that is of no general application to my life (like my ability to discuss opera and ballet in fluent Russian).

Update 6-14-2006

For the record the score is now Goddess 1, Fans 0, since I managed to break the handle on my first fan by snapping it open just a touch too briskly last Saturday. I need me a supply of cheap fans. Ah, the complex life of a twenty-first century goddess.