Exploring the "Pueblo Espanyol" and learning Flamenco

Week three flew by!

So many hands-on activities and new experiences happened that it's hard to believe that the students are nearly into their last week here in beautiful Barcelona.

This week the students had the opportunity to venture into a place locally called "Poble Espanyol." Poble Espanyol in Barcelona is an open-air architectural museum built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. It features 117 full-scale buildings replicating Spain's diverse architectural styles. Everyone had the opportunity to go and explore the "pueblo" or little town freely before beginning the activity, which was to paint a copper pendant. With paintbrushes at the ready, the painting began. After thinking about and creating their design, the students placed their pendants into a 1,500-degree oven they glazed over into wonderful necklace pieces. After the necklaces were assembled, the students were taught about the importance of artisanal products and how they helped build Barcelona up in the past and even today. Afterward, we were allowed to go and check out the opening artisan workshops and enjoy watching a video explaining various cultural events, such as concerts and flamenco shows, which are held in each region across Spain.

Later in the week, we took a metro ride to a Flamenco studio to learn about the importance of this intricate and upbeat dance. Flamenco is a passionate and highly expressive dance form that originated in southern Spain. This dance style combines singing, guitar playing, and dance to create a powerful performance. It showcases intricate footwork, hand clapping, and percussive finger snapping, all of which were taught by the incredible dancer, Elena. Elena took everyone through different motions, ensuring that we needn't to worry about being perfect but instead had a good time and brought dancing passion into the studio. After an hour, everyone was able to show their moves off and become more comfortable in the dancing world.