Early in her career, Sarah Bird wrote a clutch of romance novels as Tory Cates – a pseudonym that might be translated as "conservative delicacies," which almost sums up the damsels-and-rakes genre in a phrase. But genre fiction is too limiting for a writer as irrepressibly clever as Bird, whose novels under her own name have earned her critical praise and a small, enthusiastic following. The best of them is probably "The Yokota Officers Club," a coming-of-age tale about the rebellious daughter of an American military family stationed in Okinawa.In her latest, "The Flamenco Academy," Bird has given us another coming-of-age story, but her central plot is one that Tory Cates might have dreamed up: A shy virgin meets a dark, handsome, mysterious man who awakens in her the possibilities of passion, but when he disappears from her life as suddenly as he entered it, she becomes obsessed with finding and winning him. Her quest will take her into the heart of the exotic culture from which he emerged.There are passages of the ripest romance in "The Flamenco Academy," but they blend into Bird's funny, touching portrait of two misfit girls, Cyndi Rae Hrncir and Didi Steinberg. They meet as high school seniors in an Albuquerque hospital, where their terminally ill fathers are being treated. Didi is flamboyant, interested only in "bands, astrology, and weirdo diets." Rae is a nerdy math whiz. But they strike up a friendship born of their alienation from other high school students and are soon breezing about the city in Didi's red Mustang. When their fathers die, they're pretty much on their own: Didi's mother is a lush and Rae's joins a religious cult. The girls move in together and get jobs at the Pup y Taco, a hot dog and Mexican food take-out joint.Didi has a hunger for stardom that she feeds by playing groupie to touring bands. One night, Rae follows her to a post-concert party at a motel, and meets a flamenco guitarist who has hitched a ride with the band. Rae is captivated by his music – and by him, especially after he helps her escape when the party is raided by the police. The two of them spend the evening wandering the city, but when he discovers she's a virgin he abruptly backs off, flags down a ride and disappears from her life.Through an Internet search, Rae identifies the mystery man as Tomás Montenegro, a rising star in the world of flamenco. When she learns from a newspaper article that the University of New Mexico has "the only university-level flamenco program in the world," she enrolls in it. Moreover, the teacher of the beginning class turns out to be Doña Carlota Anaya de Montenegro – not only a superstar of flamenco, but the one who adopted and raised Tomás.Didi follows Rae to the first flamenco class and gets caught up in the dance. Soon the two are star pupils, but with very different styles. Doña Carlota dubs Didi "La Tempesta" because of her fiery but undisciplined style. Rae has a better understanding of compás, the complex rhythms of flamenco, because she can translate them into mathematical patterns. Doña Carlota calls her "La Metrónoma," for her technically perfect, metronomic mastery of compás. She tells Rae and Didi, "'The head and the heart. Together you are the perfect dancer. Apart?' She gave an Old World shrug that dismissed both our chances."What chance could these two misfits have at excelling in flamenco, an art whose greatest practitioners are Gitano por cuatro costaos – "Gypsy on all four sides"? Didi (née Rachel) Steinberg, "the little girl who wanted AC/DC to play at her bat mitzvah," was born to a Filipina mother and a Jewish father. And Rae has to acknowledge that she's "the exact reverse of all things flamenco, … my broad, pale Czech face … evidence that, not terribly far back in my genetic lineup, there were generations of dozy, strawberry blond milkmaids, all pale as steam."But Didi reinvents herself. She becomes a star, the diva Ofelia, by studying "Doña Carlota in the same omnivorous way she watched Madonna and Cher, the same way she read Sylvia Plath and listened to Joni Mitchell and studied Frida Kahlo's painting." To succeed, Rae will have to follow the advice given her by Doña Carlota and move out from under Didi/Ofelia's shadow: "You will never have enough light because you will never have enough courage to grow past her and reach the sun." The complementarity of Didi and Rae turns to rivalry, not only as dancers but eventually for Tomás himself."The Flamenco Academy" is not only the saga of Rae and Didi. It also gives us Doña Carlota's tales of Gypsy childhood in 1930s Spain, shadowed by the civil war, as well as the reasons for Tomás' own enigmatic behavior. This makes for a heady brew of a novel, lushly romantic at one turn, wryly and wittily observant at the next. If it seems to shrivel into anticlimax at the ending, that's because so much high passion has gone before. And when it comes to characterization, especially compared to Rae and Didi, Tomás never quite turns from Tormented Artist into convincing human being. At times, he's little more than a hero-hunk sent over from central casting at Harlequin Books.But good conflict makes good fiction, and that's what gives "The Flamenco Academy" such irresistible energy and narrative drive. And what really makes the novel more than just an exceptional summer read is Bird's wonderful ability to create a milieu, from the Albuquerque prowled by teenage girls to the Spanish caves inhabited by Gypsies. Best of all, she gives us the complex lore and intricacies of flamenco, which Didi – always one to get the last word -- describes as "obsessive-compulsive disorder set to a great beat."
Two young women are caught up in the revival of the Flamenco dance in this funny and sad tale set in Albuquerque. Using the backdrop of the author's experiences at Highland High School (where I knew the author, she being in my graduating class) and the University of New Mexico.The central imperative of the Flamenco dance is purportedly "give me the truth." And this skillfully written novel gives us the bitter truth of youthful life and love. Dangerous passion drives this powerful story of yearning, loss, and redemption woven around the heat of the Flamenco dance!With many local references to Albuquerque and the UNM campus, this book was a special treat for me, having lived in the Albuquerque area for almost 50 years. Central Avenue, Rodey Theater, Lobo Theater, Kimo Theater, Nob Hill, Aztec Motel, Journal Pavilion, and Nine Mile Hill. And don't forget he "Pueblo Heights High School", whose mascot is a giant fighting hornet. Yes, Sarah and I were Albuquerque students known as the mighty Highland High Hornets!The book even has a little ode to Route 66, known as Central Avenue as the Mother Road runs through Albuquerque, right by UNM and only two blocks from HHS:"We started singing about getting our kicks on Route 66. We loved our stretch of Route 66, stretching out toward all the infinite possibilities our lives held. Though we pretended to believe that Central Avenue embodied everything that was most tacky about our hometown, we loved to drive it at the exact moment right after the sunset finished its warm-up act when the Sandias were fading from pink to granite and the neon started to vibrate against a darkening desert sky."Now that is some beautiful writing--and very nostalgic for me!
What do You think about The Flamenco Academy (2006)?
This was really good. At parts it was almost torturous to read, because I could anticipate what was going to happen and started bleeding for the protagonist before it did. (view spoiler)[Like the narrator, I hated Didi by the end so much... I just was wishing something bad would happen to her, something that wasn't on her terms. She drove me crazy. And I was torn by the ending. It was very ambiguous... were we sad that she didn't end up with Tomas or were we glad she escaped? Which was better? I was frustrated that she never figured out how to hold her own against Didi, that she kinda caved by moving away. But at the same time, she recognized that she couldn't hold her own and therefore she moved away. It all depends on how you look at it. (hide spoiler)]
—Michelle
Deeply sensual, The Flamenco Academy is a forceful and unique narrative about the struggle to come into oneself and to be en compás with one's life. Cyndi's battle to enter the world of flamenco is a beautiful echo of the battle she endures in order to enter a world beyond her crippling dependance on Didi and Tomás; to find her Yo Soy.Brutally honest, Sarah Bird takes her own characters' advice to dame la verdad as she bravely depicts life as it truly is. Her ability to express Cyndi's mental illness without sacrificing the validity of her thoughts and emotions is a true testament to the skill of Bird's writing. Strongly emotional yet unsentimental, Bird infuses her characters with a painful vitality which drives the plot and pierces even the most distant of readers. Powerful, emotional, and brimming with irrepressible passion, I give The Flamenco Academy my highest recommendation and to the author I give my highest commendation and thanks.
—Hannah
Frenemy. It’s a conundrum endemic to socializing the American teen girl: at one time, your best friend – the girl who knows *all* your secrets, crushes, and weaknesses – will also at one time be your worst rival. It’s a new category of conflict onto its own: next to “Man versus God” and “Nature versus Man”, “Woman versus Frenemy” should be given its own rung on the ladder in the drama nomenclature.Cindi Rae in “The Flamenco Academy” signed on with a doozy of a frenemy, Didi “Dirty Deeds” Steinberg, a “fame at all costs and no holds barred” kind of chameleon who barters blow jobs for backstage passes. Author Sarah Bird, who understands the wallowing teen girl better than most authors, paired up the shy, smart Cindi with this whirling dervish of a counterpoint to tell two stories: the enticing, spicy history of Flamenco and the rite of emotional passage that many women endure through their frenemies.For the story of Flamenco, we’re told it demands of its devotee only one thing: Give me the truth. The irony is that most “true” Flamenco dancers claim a pure bloodline of Gypsy heritage (“Gypsy on all four sides.”), but even Gypsies are unsure of their ancestry. Do they descend from the pharaohs of Egypt? Or were they Jews fleeing persecution from India? The truth is a shadowy entity, its edges rubbed soft by exaggeration and lies told over generations to perpetuate a myth.Cindi and Didi’s story begins as two girls in Albuquerque whose common ground is based on their respective fathers’ terminal cancers, but it truly takes off as the girls escape in their own ways the grief of losing their fathers. Didi is hellbent on being the next Cher, Madonna, or other single-named celebrity. Cindi’s job is to enable Didi – Cindi does the homework, Cindi does the job, Cindi keeps things glued together despite teetering on the edge of falling apart herself. Didi takes risks, pushes the limits, and shows no fear. Didi pushes, and Cindi keeps her reined in, barely.One night Didi drags Cindi out to one of her “groupie” events, and during a police raid, Cindi has her moment: She meets a Flamenco Mystery Man who completely captivates her with his exotic looks and passionate guitar playing. This encounter begins her obsessive quest to learn all things Flamenco so that when Mystery Man reappears, she will be able to in turn captivate him. For once, Cindi is leading the charge, and Didi tags along on Cindi’s need to learn all-things Flamenco, dipping her toes in the passion and virile excitement of the dance to better inform her own rise to stardom.As expected, Cindi is the technically proficient dancer, but it's Didi who "transcends" the rules to bend Flamenco to her own needs, using it to fuel her performances in other genres.And then, the Mystery Man reappears. Obviously betrayal occurs in some measure (hence the frenemy issues) -- what keeps you reading is finding out how each character learns from her mistakes, including with friendships, men, and trusting her instincts. "The Flamenco Academy" is just as much as the school of life and love as it is of dance.
—Belinda
