Alicia – A Swiss Dancer in New York

Aug 19, 2017 | Dancers, Dancers

Alicia – A Swiss Dancer in New York
Alicia Lafranchi is a Afro Latin Dancer from Bern, Switzerland. She is involved in different Performance Art, Music Videos, Photo Shoots and teaching projects in Switzerland and in New York (where she lives since 2013).

She studies with Frankie Martinez since 4 years and is part of his projects. Below she gladly shares some impressions :

‘What would happen if something without a technical structure for training or development was suddenly given wings?’ Frankie Martinez the innovator of Afro Latin Funk, asks and answers this question. For me it was clear when I got into the studio in New York early 2013 ‘when the student is ready the teacher will appear’… and I was ready… Embarrassed to have thought that I was a good dancer before, I suddenly realized that I do know ‘nothing’. The hunger for knowledge, the desire to learn, kept me in New York.  I could have never imagined the potential of Afro Latin Dance.

When you walk into Frankie Martinez’s studio, you will not find a typical dance studio atmosphere. There is a studio etiquette. No heels are allowed. The music is on, no one is allowed to talk. The senior students, are the only ones in the front line. Respect is of great importance. During class Frankie is the only one talking but he is also a clown, makes us laugh so that we forget to worry about the patterns we learn…

The ability to be such a respected (and by some feared) character and to be a comedian at the same time is only one of the things that amaze me in his teaching. Everything he does has a very specific reason. When he lays down the patterns he creates rhythms. Music is always first. Musicality is much more important than physicality. But both have to be taken care of. There is always pulling, never pushing. Flow is of great importance.

The Zen Philosophy he brought from his years of training Karate into dance, is highly present in his teaching. This is what makes it so unique but also very hard to understand in our world. Because it makes you submit, and usually we associate this as something negative, but this is what Bruce Lee’s ‘be water, my friend’ really means. To flow with the river of life… to submit to life…

But exactly those ingredients make it possible for Afro Latin Dance to compete now in the arts (as Latin Dance is not really well recognized in the arts, it is never given the same value as Ballet or Contemporary). Frankie Martinez applies a structural training method to Afro Latin Dance, that most importantly serves the personal development.

There is so much I do not understand and every year, practice seems more intense and harder like when you learn a language first you barely know how to have a normal conversation in the street but when you get into writing a book things get more complex… but the challenge is what makes you grow and what you gain is ineffable…