Esther Ponce Magazine

Esther Ponce Magazine

XANA

XANA, a true story…

…But XANA was different from her 3 sisters, since the day she was born in the Nalón estuary while her mother washed, she was already blessed to foresee the future throughout her life and save lives…

“XANA helps her granddaughter, winner of a national award, to remove the cast from her leg so she can dance in front of two thousand people. Elvira almost had a heart attack when she saw her on stage…”

Elvira, to calm and distract her princess of Kapurthala, reminded her of what had happened only a few months ago, and thus she would understand that her grandmother XANA preceded the future and that she should always pay attention to her. 
… Angel and Elvira used to go every Sunday with their family to eat at the house of ribs, El Descanso restaurant, frequented by US personnel from the Torrejón de Ardoz air base.

It was Friday, April 12, 1985 and the next day, XANA left with the General back to Valencia, to prepare one more year for the arrival of her 5 children and 16 grandchildren at the beach house. Elvira had reserved a table for the whole family to go to dinner at El Descanso.
When XANA approached the sewing machine and saw the Virgen del Socorro that suddenly lit up, she knew that something would happen that night and convinced everyone to order the ribs to take home and have a mini party on the terrace. XANA, would cook her obligatory and famous Asturian rice pudding.
El Descanso had a home delivery person from Friday to Sunday, who went to the neighborhoods closest to the US base, which was where the restaurant was located.
It was 10:30 p.m. when the food arrived at the house. The one that saved everyone's life and also that of the delivery man.
At that precise moment, Spanish television announced live the enormous explosion of the restaurant with capacity for 200 people and that being Friday was overflowing, El Descanso. 18 people died and 70 wounded. It was the first Islamist attack, apparently by the terrorist group Jihad. The Holy War had begun; —Death to America, the letter said…

Elvira spent the whole summer pampering Esther, not only she had fallen in love with the surfer. His father and hid older brother were her platonic loves and also the reason for so many visits to their house, which was a five-minute walk away. Ultimately, she was realizing that she liked all three of them. The super tall father had blue eyes like Caribbean water and dark hair. His older brother, blond with green eyes, who worked as a model for El Corteingles, and with a scandalous smile. They had moved together with their mother and sister to Lima for a year. So Esther was suffering from the distance of the three.
 It was the first love that Esther experienced. Every night she waited for the call from Peru on the doorman's phone. The doorman lived with his wife and his three daughters and they ran the mail and the small bar where the landline phone was. The doorman, who couldn't leave the bar alone, witnessed every night the love scene that Esther had with Luis Miguel, the surfer.
Every night Elvira left Esther crying, taking a bath looking at the sea and waiting anxiously for the doorman with the news of ;- Young lady, a call from Peru!... Luismi was the strongest of the three. And with longer hair. He had a beautiful smile and played drums with a music group in the caves that the church had. He was very good, romantic and the girls went crazy for him. But Esther, with her overwhelming personality, had stolen his heart. What Esther liked the most was that he was called Luis Miguel like the singer, with whom she was super in love since she was little.

XANA, for the first time in the background, was aware of Esther's suffering for love... but that would be nothing compared to what the future had in store for her. And she had to warn Elvira that in two years, the time would come when her grandmother's prediction would come true; —The girl shines so much that she will suffer a lot of envy, she will fall in love with a gypsy and she will suffer a lot!
Esther suffered a lot of envy at school from a very young age and she was used to handle more or less well. When she started her dance career, the envy was more painful because the competition was the protagonist. Many of her classmates copied her in the way she dressed. When Esther bought a leotard to rehearse in a certain color, the next day many of them had bought the same one. The problem came when not all of them looked as good as her. Esther had a perfect body. She ate everything and never got fat. That also caused the envy of some who were always on a diet. Although she had classmates who admired her... the worst was yet to come. 

The aureole of the Virgen del Socorro, which Esther could already see, began to form coinciding with XANA's arrival in Madrid.
Elvira had changed Paris for London. The clothes were very different but the combination of styles was perfect for the clients. That summer Elvira realized that her daughter needed her more than ever and she transferred the boutique.

When the Family arrived in Madrid, the ghosts of the past appeared and Esther, had to return to Corpus Christi, the nuns' school of her childhood. Continuing in a mixed school after everything that happened with the pilot's son would not let Esther get over the trance she had gone through before the summer. Her friends were still there and she adapted right away. They were at the turkey age and just wanted to go to Pacha's afternoon disco. Where Esther was the wardrobe, because the next day she had to rehearse for 5 hours and she couldn't have as much fun as her friends. She preferred to be sitting surrounded by coats and bags or at the door... With her facet as a journalist, she found out all the news about the Panda del Moco, which was the poshest gang in Madrid, where Arturo was the ringleader who was always at the door . Esther was already beginning to use her woman's weapons and she became a close friend of his. They entered for free, they had reserved tables and in return she told him all the plans that the Panda was hatching. Afterwards they went to eat pancakes with caramel and cream at Vips de Velazquez, saying the fashionable posh phrases; — I swear to you that the roofs of the Vips will fall and I swear to you by Snoopy.

Every night Angel made a tour of the entire house with Esther. There would be cabinets, drawers, they looked under the beds... so that she would be calm that no one was there. Still the situation became untenable.
Her parents decided to move to an independent house two streets up. The house had three floors and the route was much longer, but it had no memories and that would help Esther a lot. Before going to sleep every night, they checked the 7 rooms with wardrobes and beds included, the 6 bathrooms, a huge kitchen with a terrace and a very large soundproof studio in the garage, and what Esther would prepare to teach flamenco lessons to her mother’s friend. Her brother Ismael, who was already 16 years old, was finishing his last course before traveling to study in the United States and he her bodyguard.
The next-door neighbor gave parties that lasted until dawn and she was close friends with the famous futurist Raphel and the actress Miriam Diaz Aroca, who didn't miss a single one.

Esther already went alone every afternoon to the dance academy that was on Cartagena street. She was preparing for a national contest and there would be candidates from all the schools in Spain and only three could win.
 The bus that left the Avenida de America towards Piovera left Esther on the other side of the highway and she had to cross the field without electricity to get home. The ghost of Paquito chasing her forced Elvira to take Esther to a psychologist, who with a single session made her understand that Paquito was thousands of kilometers abroad and in a center where he could not leave.
Even so, Angel bought her a moped, a pink Vespino that Esther decorated with Snoopy stickers and as co-pilot she carried a giant bag with the three-meter-long bata de cola, the flamenco skirt, the bolera skirt, the flamenco shoes, castanets, ballet slippers and stockings, jota espadrilles, wool leg warmers, plastic wraps for sweating, a liter of water, a banana, apple, nuts and her favorite sugar donuts.

Elvira started to work in a permanent position, in the morning hours at the hospital of the Princess of Diego de León while everyone was at school. She was very fast typing on the computer and such a nice person that everyone wanted to be with her. She helped everyone achieve what even doctors couldn't. Elvira had the power to heal with her hands, so she healed her father, General Ponce, as a child and continued to do so. Xana said that it was a blessing that her twin brother left her.
One day on her way home, she found a spectacular long-haired Alsatian German Shepherd puppy on the highway. He was very scared and about to die run over. Elvira took a risk, stopped the car on the shoulder, opened the door for him and the puppy got in as if everything had already been written.
Angel didn't want any more dogs, Nina was enough, after losing Choco they had a really bad time, but everyone knew that XANA had attracted him and that he would be the protector of the new house. The third Choco would become the best companion of little Daniel. He was like a person and had his own room in the garage. With his bed, his radio and his pantry of sweets and bones. When he was left alone to take care of the house, himself would turn on his radio with his paw and he liked to listen to Iron Maiden and ACDC.

Wednesday, September 26, 1984, the famous bullfighter Francisco Ribera, Paquirri, died of a tragic death. Esther was in class and the screams of the neighbors could be heard from the street. 
Esther fell in love very easily with everything that made her feel good and would always be part of her and she would defend them forever… She was in love with her history teacher, her English teacher, even the music teacher who was also the priest of the church. , in love with the leading actor of the series Curro Jiménez and of course , with Paquirrri. She never shared it with anyone. Paquirri was her source of inspiration, when she saw him fight, her soul choreographed the moment and then used it in her flamenco classes. His blue eyes like the sea with jet black hair, got into her dreams and thinking about him, made her understand flamenco better. She spent a whole month crying, it affected her a lot and everyone discovered his secret.

Whenever XANA was in Madrid, Elvira took advantage of Saturday to go to eat at the house of her sister-in-law Mary Luz, married to Isidoro, Angel's brother. She always took Esther to visit her three first cousins. They were totally different. But they liked having Esther at home because they laughed a lot with her. Esther was a very good imitator and she always did a little show in the 80-square-meter room, with three balconies that overlooked the Royal Palace of Madrid. The eldest was fascinated by the career of a dancer. She had the conservatory right next door where she studied piano.
 Aunt Mary Luz wore a hairdresser's hairdo with so much hairspray that she didn't move a hair. Her cousins ​​were very tall, the little one, six feet tall, was the shortest. They got A's at school, they laughed quietly, quite the opposite of the scandal that Esther organized. They wore gray or black cashmere jackets and were always playing the piano. Esther didn't want to learn to play because she knew she would get hooked and it would take up a lot of her time dancing and she had to win that national dance contest.
 The mother-in-law, Doña Emilia, was already very old, she had blue eyes like her husband and her two children. Granny Emilia was a cook by profession and she always prepared the best Madrid stew and she was always proud to have her two children happily married and her 6 grandchildren.

XANA would stay in Madrid until the end of the contest to help especially with the costumes. 
The halo of the virgin was already completely closed. But nobody could even imagine what was about to happen. Esther waited impatiently for her grandmother's voice, which in her dreams would show her the path to follow.
All the academies in Spain were signed up for the contest that would last a week.
Each academy presented the most outstanding students who had finished the Spanish dance degree.
The candidates and the organization would live in a beautiful farm, in the mountains of Madrid, where every day they would do an elimination test of a different modality, in the dance facilities that were next door.
In each room 5 dancers slept and there were more and more free rooms.
It was the last night before the flamenco test. Esther dreamed of Curro Jiménez on horseback rescuing her and stealing her ring, to drive her crazy after him… the bullfighter's inspiration had left her and she was nervous. She was missing something. When she suddenly leaned out to the balcony of the room, she looked next to her and there was her new inspiration. A dancer from Cordoba, with long black hair just the way Esther liked it, olive-green eyes, and cinnamon-colored skin. It was so nice that they didn't stop laughing until the lights were turned off... but they both knew they wanted to continue knowing each other and they went out to the balcony again. Only with the light of the full moon, the dancer had already become her prince and they stayed talking about flamenco from Andalusia, which is very different from flamenco from Madrid. But if you really feel it, it doesn't matter where you're from. Esther was already fully inspired for the grand finale. 

There were only three winning positions, each winner would interpret a modality in Escuela Bolera, Clásico Español and Flamenco. In a Madrid theater I front of two thousand people. And the winner would receive a prize of half a million pesetas to invest in the five or six daily classes from Monday to Friday, which she would need to go to another level in the five disciplines. In addition to taking other classes in modern, contemporary, dramatic art, singing, going to dance castings and advertising. Esther Barco, during her career, had appeared on several occasions in television commercials, such as the one for Maria Fontaneda cookies. She steps off the bus from the convent school, wearing her navy blue and dark green checkered uniform skirt. With two golden braids like the cookie she was eating and a nose full of freckles..
The film director who offered her a leading role in his movie when she was four years old, was still taking her daughter to Corpus Christy and did not miss the opportunity to hire Esther for the ad…So the dance bag was getting bigger and bigger!
The members of the jury were very important international directors of Spanish dance companies. If they saw someone with a lot of potential, they would hire them for the company.

That is the way forward that XANA planned for and with Esther, and pursue the dream of winning. And they won! .
Esther asked the organization to use the musicians of her prince from Córdoba and she danced soleá more flamenco than ever. She had a very good preparation and along with her fantasy and personality, winning and immediately integrating as a soloist and prima ballerina in the best dance companies, was the best beginning that could happen to a 15-year-old dancer.
The awards ceremony and the performance of the winners, was held in a few days.
Esther was chosen to dance the Escuela Bolera solo, “Castilla” by the composer Isaac Albéniz. And she would wear the same dress that the Director of the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, Marienma, wore in the National Ballet of Spain.
—From that height, my dear, never in your life allow anything or anyone to bring you down, XANA and Elvira told the pretty girl in unison.

To mention at home Valencia, was to mention the Route of the beach road that goes from Valencia to Cullera. The unexpected avant-garde movement that for a year, was the gap of being in the Valencian scene from Friday to Sunday. In the nine mythical clubs without sleeping and consuming all kinds of drugs to endure. It was becoming the biggest clubbing movement in the country. Later it would be called Ruta Destroy or Ruta del Bakalao. The Spanish legislation in everything related to nightlife was immature, suffering from the legacy of Francoism and there was very little information about drugs . Traffic problems and accidents were already beginning to leave lampposts with bouquets of flowers. Esther's first cousin had arrived from Valencia a few days before her final to be with her. Out of sixteen of her first cousins, she was the one she dated the most. They were nail and meat. Very dark, and super pretty. Father from the north of Spain and mother from south, Cordoba. At the age of 10, she was already physically a woman. At fourteen, she looked like she was eighteen . The route It was just down the road from the beach house, so she was hanging out all summer, while Esther was crying, with girls and boys older than her. And for her position living closely the scene; "Tell me who you hang out with and I'll tell you who you are," Elvira told her several times. But she didn't listen to her how it's normal at the age of the turkey and she accepted a sheet of absorbent paper with 4 super cool graphic motifs and where each square was a dose of LSD. A hallucinogenic fungus that grows on rye, called Tripi. And that she kept in the desk of the convent school she went to, so that no one would find it in her house.

It was going to be a surprise to share and celebrate the triumph of her cousin. She was very naive and it had been sold to her as something fun, different and new to discover. But never knowing the danger that it really had. 
Esther invited a friend so the three of them could go together to the “Oh Madrid” nightclub on the Coruña highway. She was quite far from Parque Conde de Orgaz, which was where her friend and they stayed to sleep there that night. The friend had the brilliant idea of ​​proposing to go to the disco at three o'clock on the motorcycle, without a helmet and driving along it on the shoulder of 25km of motorway and all this hidden from the parents... it could not end well.
As soon as they entered the club they went to the pool area, Esther's cousin put three quarters of tripi, each one in a candy. She hadn't said anything to Esther or her friend.
Esther ate the candy, and just when her cousin and her friend were going to take it, a group of girls, fooling around, pushed them into the pool, losing the candy and the effect of the acid. Esther started calling the manager to help them get out, dry off and go home. She hadn't liked the joke and she had cut them off. But within fifteen minutes Esther was a different person. She had run off with a towering Italian and she began to hallucinate. She stayed up on her toes inside the cowboy boots she wore for hours. They had to call Angel and Elvira to pick them up and leave the motorcycle. The way back was harrowing for everyone. Esther saw fluorescent dwarfs on the road and she didn't want to run over them. Her cousin was forbidden to go out with that gang, and to travel to Madrid for the rest of the course.

The next day Esther couldn't even put her foot down. She had strained the ligaments in her foot and knee so much that she also affected the fibula. Although Esther would go on stage to receive the award. The organization of the contest had chosen another dancer to interpret the solo . But Esther couldn't bear the thought of not going out to demonstrate her well-deserved award. She alone would have accepted only if she had been injured dancing...
XANA and Esther had disappeared from their seats. They went to the bathroom on the break but didn't come back. Elvira found it strange that XANA invited a nurse of the hospital to the theater. XANA had already talked to the manager, telling him that Esther Barco would come out to perform her solo, but that it would be a surprise. The nurse, who was in league, left XANA with the necessary utensils to cut the plaster and re-plaster. A huge basin with ice to put her leg in as soon as she came back and reduce the swelling, it would be waiting for her in the dressing room.
XANA arrived at her seat just in time to see her granddaughter perform and told Elvira that Esther would stay to watch the performance between boxes. When they announced the name of the winner Esther Barco, Elvira almost had a heart attack to see her princess on a corner of the stage of the Cultural Center of Colon in front of two thousand people. Facing the most important moment of her life. Demonstrating not to be afraid, her enormous courage, and her infinite passion for dance… Elvira took the winning and delicate leg of her pretty girl and with the power of her hands and her faith, she cured her.

Don't miss the next chapter! Chap.10

“The future predicted by XANA begins to come true… The legendary opera singer Alfredo Kraus chooses Esther at the Barcelona Liceo for the role of girlfriend. Meanwhile, General Ponce is appointed by the Government of the Superior Court of Justice, Justice of the Peace…”

Prieto Nespereira inspired by Esther 

Unleash Your Inner Flamenca is dedicated to all the women of the world and it does not mean that you have to be flamenco or dedicate yourself to the world of dance. It is an expression, it is a way of facing the setbacks that life gives us and because flamenco has that attitude of: Here I am!

Unleashing my inner Flamenca has helped me in many very extreme situations in my life and, not only technically speaking as a flamenco professional, but in those times that I didn't have to be dancing, or teaching, or competing, or performing on stage. I’m talking about everyday life.

That is why you too can bring out your inner Flamenca. 

A flamenca woman is confident, a flamenca woman is sure of herself, has gravitas, has bearing, has wisdom and knows how to be in command. 

In other words, unleash your inner Flamenca and join me in this adventure in which we are going to have a great time! We know how it starts and we don't know how it ends, but it is sure to be one of the most unforgettable experiences of your life.

I didn't need to be famous to sleep in Hemingway's Presidential suite at the Gritti Palace in Venice for all my birthdays. 

Have a Bellini while I wait for the gondola that will take me to the private Film Festival party on the yacht of my colleague, who was a Versace collaborator, or dine on the famous terrace of the Hotel Danieli. 

It is also true that if I had slept with all my stalkers, I would now be more famous than Sara Baras. BUT! no matter how much I took a shower, the smell of vomit would not go away from my body and the phrase of: “how did I get it” would be the soundtrack of my life, which would turn my insides with each applause. 

Nor did I need to be famous to have a bodyguard escort me to the door of the plane, in the direction of the American Embassy in Beirut or go in a Limousine and drink the best champagne. 

“Todo lo he conseguido con pasión, seguridad en mi misma , esfuerzo y dedicación”. 

Proving first to myself and then to the whole world that I don't need to sell myself to a man to succeed in my career. And that I bring out the inner Flamenca every time they cross my path. 

Do not allow any man to command you or demand what you have to do. 

Lucha por lo que quieras, viste como quieras, maquíllate como quieras , estudia lo que quieras y júntate con quien quieras.

The first time a man lays his hand on you, it will be his fault, but the second time it will be your fault for putting up with the first time. 

And if you feel trapped and you are afraid to stand up to your reality, look for a way as if it were the last day of your life to give a signal at the pharmacy, at the market, to a neighbor you come across, to anyone who can hear this number: 016! and it will be the first step to your salvation, to your new life, surely filled with all the good things you long for and where no one will let you back down. You will immediately be protected by the society that will protect and help you without conditions. And I, Esther Ponce, am already thinking of you. 

UNLEASH YOUR INNER FLAMENCA #SACALAFLAMENCA

I have suffered more than 10 workplace harassments from very famous people in the world of show business, and knowing what I now know, I would have denounced it. 

A I’m going to tell you how I brought out the flamenco that I have in extreme situations and that I hope and serve to help some woman to do the same as me.

For now I'm only going to use nicknames.

“If I had slept with all my stalkers, I would now be more famous than Sara Baras. "

 

With my testimony and my own experience, living in different countries of the world and interacting with all kinds of social classes, race, culture and religion, I want to turn around the drama that women experience in the world.
Ayudarlas a salir de ese callejón oscuro, animarlas y convencerlas de que nunca tiren la toalla , de que existe un mundo maravilloso esperándoles para sacar lo mejor de ellas. Su fuerza, su belleza interior y sus ganas de salir adelante. Que no dejen de luchar por los derechos de la mujer y la igualdad de género. Que griten a los cuatro vientos  y que no se callen nunca, que sonrían y que se llenen de paz con la belleza que nos brinda Lanzarote y su naturaleza.
That they are not alone... that they unleash their inner flamenca A strong and self-confident woman, the director of their own life. That she clings to the ground with temperance and ready to scratch at any moment if necessary and fight life with the best smile... 

I have experiences and anecdotes to tell all women; the neighborhood ones, the rich ones , the conflictive ones, the addicted ones, etc. And always with my motto that to run away from any situation, the best thing is to practice athletics! … My uncle used to called me Dance Athlete, he said; As long as you have strong legs and a strong heart, you can fly! . 

Esther Ponce's experimental Flamenco is ready for the Valencian Director of Tourism to meet

It is very gratifying to have an idea like the experimental Flamenco in Valencia, carry it out and have managed to attract more than 20 foreign clients to Valencia in a short time and without marketing, who have passed through the Flamenco Art Center, and who have not only They learned a lot if not they have returned to their country with a better concept of Valencia.

His experience and approach to flamenco led by Esther Ponce will make you return without hesitation to the city of Turia.

Esther Ponce not only surrounds them with her passion and charisma from the first moment, her professionalism and a very long journey through different countries of the world where she has lived for long periods, she makes them fall in love.

You just have to read the dedications of all the foreigners who write in their precious notebook created for them and that are already adding more and more.

«They also buy semi-professional shoes and a skirt to study with me.» That’s already the best! –
~ Esther Ponce

 The foreigner is used to teaching flamenco very quickly and without discipline, anything goes, any shoe, any skirt, hanging out even parodying and even ridiculing flamenco.

With me if they want to study two private hours which is the minimum, they are given the option of buying or renting the shoes and none of them have thought twice about it to this day.
 
«Being a polyglot, doors just open up to me» –
~ Esther Ponce
 
Definitely the Experimental Flamenco of Esther Ponce has an Angel!

From England, without a doubt the most special Experimental Flamenco we have had at the Flamenco Art Center in these two and a half years.

The Esther Ponce Stylized Flamenco Art Center has been open for two and a half years. El Ángel Every August 28, for Esther’s birthday, a new foreign student gives her a gift and the flamenco toast intensifies.

«The students do not want to miss the opportunity to study with me. When they start to study my technique they are hooked at the first second. Those who play sports and take care of themselves immediately identify with my stretching and feel safer for the rest of the class and those who don’t appreciate it and will surely start practicing it and taking care of themselves forever »
~ Esther Ponce

This year Esther thought that her Angel would be very busy due to the current pandemic situation and also that it would be a coincidence that another year happened.

But to Esther’s surprise it was like that and without doubt the most special flamenco toast for England.

«Discipline is my hallmark and not even the Covid has stopped us» «I have never doubted it and I will only teach classes with a mask»
~ Esther Ponce

After the experience of teaching classes with a mask? A private flamenco class for two hours without stopping, does Esther remember that when she and the student went out into the street they breathed for two seconds as if there were no tomorrow?According to Esther’s recent experience, with the mask you cannot see the total expression of the student, but the eyes also speak and flamenco is also expressed with the body.

With all the safety measures, the student disinfected her shoes, put hydroalcoholic gel on her hands, a temperature control was performed with a non-contact forehead thermometer and the student did not remove her mask during the two hours, only in the changing room that she only used to drink water. 

“Now I can present my Experimental Flamenco to the director of Tourism of Valencia and let him roll with the little ham :)”
 
~ Esther Ponce