Flamenco Dance for Beginners

Maika Jiménez Blanco runs a flamenco dance class for beginners at Danceworks on Sunday 18 October, from 12:00 to 13:00. It's a weekly slot, so if you fancy it, you can keep coming back every Sunday at the same time. The class is held in Studio 4 at 16 Balderton St, London W1K 6TN, with Bond Street and Marble Arch as the nearest tube stations.

It's built for absolute beginners, so you don't need any prior experience to jump in. The session covers the fundamentals: body placement, rhythm perception, clapping, footwork, and the movements of the arms and head. From there, you'll work through choreography for Alegrías, Bulerías and Tangos — three distinct styles of flamenco, so you get a proper sense of the variety in the dance rather than just one pattern. You'll need dancing shoes and clothes to move in.

Maika herself is a flamenco and Spanish dance teacher from Madrid with over 20 years of experience teaching adults and children across Spain, the US, Mexico, Canada and the UK. She taught flamenco at Rey Juan Carlos University from 2013 to 2018. Born and raised in Madrid, she started ballet and Spanish dance at nine, trained at Karen Taft Dance Academy and Flamenco Centre 'Amor de Dios', and majored in Spanish Dance at the Conservatory of Dance in Madrid. In 2003 she earned a certificate in Teaching Methodology Applied to Spanish Dance. She also co-founded the company Spanish Flamenco Tour in Miami, and later took a First-Class Degree in a Master's in Leadership and Management of Cultural Projects at the Institute of Dance 'Alicia Alonso', Rey Juan Carlos University.

The class runs from 12:00 to 13:00 every Sunday at Danceworks, and it costs £13 per session.