As of: February 19, 2024, 6:55 p.m
By: Elena Royer
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The participants dance with great concentration the sequence of steps that Wiltrud Krieg showed them.
Later, when the feet are doing everything right, the hands come along.
© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss
The retired director of studies Wiltrud Krieg teaches the dance of the Spanish Gitanos in Geretsried: flamenco.
We attended a dance class.
Geretsried – Quiet guitar sounds can be heard.
Six women in long skirts move gracefully through the gymnasium at the school center in Geretsried.
They repeat certain sequences of steps over and over again.
Their posture reflects pride, their upper bodies are erect.
The heels of her black high-heeled shoes clatter on the gym floor.
Then the music stops.
Wiltrud Krieg claps his hands energetically and shows a sequence of steps that will be practiced next.
Flamenco course in Geretsried: Oldest participant (84) “wants to dance at least until a hundred”
The six women dance flamenco.
Wiltrud Krieg is her teacher.
The women practice together every Monday.
Krieg came to flamenco through her Spanish relatives.
“I became aware of flamenco in the early 1970s through my sister-in-law from Andalusia,” she says.
“After a night of dancing in a bar in Córdoba, I caught the flamenco fever.” So Krieg began to delve into this music and dance culture.
After years of further training and further education, she got closer to flamenco.
The retired director of studies taught sports and flamenco lessons at the Geretsried high school for 24 years and won numerous prizes with her dance groups.
War didn't stop dancing with retirement.
Quite the opposite: Instead, she continues to teach this special dance style at the Caminata cultural association.
Nowadays flamenco is known far beyond Spain.
But how did he become so popular?
To do this you first have to know the history of this dance.
“It is assumed that there were various waves of immigration from northern India to Europe,” explains Krieg, “with the Gitanos (Gypsies) coming via North Africa mainly to southern Spain and moving around like nomads in the Andalusian mountains.” The locals became aware of them through their music and dance culture Flamenco was able to spread from Spain across Europe in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries,” says Wiltrud Krieg in the changing room after the flamenco lesson.
You can read the latest news from Geretsried here.
And he made it to Geretsried.
Manuela Poignée-Heger from Bad Tölz, among others, attended Krieg's course there.
“I saw flamenco for the first time in Spain and really like the music and the variability,” she says.
For Poignée-Heger, the hours mean relaxation.
“It’s a respectful dance,” she says.
And she complains: “Dancing flamenco here in the Oberland is not easy.
That’s why it’s even nicer that this group has formed here.”
Flamenco keeps you fit: Wiltrud Krieg (left) together with the oldest course participant Uta Schimanko (84).
© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss
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The oldest participant (84) discovered flamenco on television: “I wanted to be able to do that too”
The oldest participant in the course in Geretsried is 84 years old.
Uta Schimanko started dancing at the age of 50.
“I want to dance until at least a hundred,” she says and laughs.
Schimanko started flamenco as a way to compensate for his work.
“I just wanted to move,” says the 84-year-old.
She saw flamenco on television, “I wanted to be able to do that too.”
“For the Andalusian Gitanos, flamenco is still their expression of life today,” reports Krieg.
“And it means lifelong learning.” Quick experiences of success – none.
Arms, wrists, step combinations and footwork often have to be coordinated in a very complex manner.
And that with music that doesn't necessarily correspond to our Central European musical sensibilities.
“Flamenco is not suitable for quick consumption,” summarizes Krieg.
“You have to dedicate yourself to it with commitment, then you get a little idea of the Gitanos' attitude to life.” It is also an advantage to understand the lyrics of the songs that people dance to.
Her Spanish relatives helped her translate the foreign language texts.
But Krieg prefers to use instrumental pieces of music.
She designed all of the choreographies that she teaches in her courses herself.
Info
: You can join the ongoing flamenco course at any time.
It takes place on Mondays at 5:30 p.m. in the old gymnasium at the school center, Adalbert-Stifter-Straße 14.
To register, call 0 81 71/1 05 86. Skirts and shoes can be borrowed.
By the way: Everything from the region is also available in our regular Wolfratshausen-Geretsried newsletter.