BG Akabane Candies Wins FARRUCA’s First Event

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We took part in the event organized by FARRUCA… and won!

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  Historical poster for the flamenco schools festival of March 20, 2024

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  Programme showing the winning notice and the opportunity to appear in Farruca

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  Festival programme featuring a photograph of BG Akabane Candies

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  Three BG Akabane Candies dancers perform before the audience

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  BG Akabane Candies dancing with singing and guitar accompaniment

“Beni! JunJun has something she wants to tell you. She says she’s going to perform at FARRUCA’s event in March!” Our classmate M suddenly announced this to Beni at the Saturday seguiriyas class’s year-end party the previous year. At that moment, I never dreamed we would end up winning.

At the end of the previous year, Beni suggested having a year-end party. I hadn’t joined a gathering of this class, famous for its drinking buddies, in quite a while, haha! M happened to be sitting next to me and invited me to take part in the event. Beni readily gave us his blessing, so I decided to join in. I thought, “If we’re going to perform, it has to be that fantastic soleá por bulerías choreography from the Tuesday class!” So I invited Yoko (洋子) and Chika (千香), two classmates who were a perfect fit for our team name, BG Akabane Candies, haha!

We were all busy, and I think it was early February before we actually managed to start rehearsing. We met every Sunday for an hour and a half. At our first rehearsal, Yoko suggested the overall structure and formations, so we had a clear direction right from the start. Brilliant! After that, each of us practiced on our own before the next session. During rehearsals, we watched the video from the previous session and shared ideas, saying things like, “This part would work better like this.”

Although we had little time to prepare, all three of us have been Beni’s students for many years. We drew on everything we had learned over those years and the individual strengths each of us had developed. By our final rehearsal, our soleá por bulerías had come together in a way that left us quite pleased. Yes, we’re praising ourselves, haha!

On the day, we did one full rehearsal run, and then it was time to perform. The tempo was already quite fast at the salida, so I got a little flustered, but as we danced, I felt how much fun it was to be up there together, the three of us. We rode the wonderful guitar melodies of Tokunaga (徳永健太郎), who is really shining these days, and Arita’s (有田) powerful singing and jaleo. Then came Kurosu’s (黒須) palmas and jaleo on top of that! Our soleá por bulerías was full steam ahead, with our enjoyment turned all the way up. It was over in a flash!

Winning the first edition of the event organized by FARRUCA, the free flamenco magazine, was thanks to all of you. To our classmate M, who brought us this wonderfully fun opportunity; to Beni, who readily supported our participation in an outside event; to the brilliant Yoko and Chika, who happily agreed to join the team; and to all our friends and fellow students from the studio who came to cheer us on. I’m filled with gratitude. Thank you so much!