Flamenco dance (baile) is a highly-expressive Spanish dance form. The flamenco is a solo dance characterized by hand clapping, percussive footwork, and intricate hand, arm, and body movements.
Flamenco Technique
With roots in Indian, Arabic, and Spanish cultures, flamenco dance is known for its sweeping arm movements and rhythmic feet stomping. Flamenco dancers spend a great deal of time practicing and perfecting the often difficult dance. Although there is no sigle flamenco dance, dancers must follow astrict framework of rhythmic patterns. The steps a dancer performs are dependent on the traditions of the song being played. Perhaps the greatest joy of flamenco dancing is watching the personal expressions and emotions of the dancer, which change many times during a single performance.
The Flamenco Dancer
Flamenco dancers, known as bailaores and bailaoras, are serious and passionate. Typical of flamenco dance, a dancer will often stand motionless and free of expression for the first few moments of a song. As he or she begins to feel the music, the dancer might begin a steady beat of loud hand clapping. Then, as emotion builds, the dancer will begin a passionate dance. The dancing often involves fierce stomping, sometimes made louder with percussion attachments on the shoes, and graceful arm movements. castanets are sometimes held in the hands for clicking, and folding fans are ocassionally used for visual impact.
The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times. It is used to treat everything-from headaches to depression, in China for at least 4,000 years.
Here are some of a few medical conditions to which drinking green tea is reputed to be helpful; Cancer, Rheumatoid Arthritis, High Colesterol levels, Cardio-Vascular Disease, Infection and Impared Immune Function.
Green tea is rich in catechin polyphenols, particularly epigallocatechin gallate (ECCG) which is a powerful anti-oxidant. Besides inhibiting the growth of cancer cells, ECCG kills cancer cells without harming healthy tissue. It has also been effective in lowering LDL cholesterol levels, and inhibiting the abnormal formation of blood clots. The latter takes on added importance when you consider that thrombosis (the formation of abnormal blood clots) is the leading cause of heart attacks and stroke. What sets green tea apart is the way it is processed. Green tea leaves are steamed, which prevents the EGCG compound from being oxidized. On the other hand, black and oolong tea leaves are made from fermented leaves, which results in the EGCG being converted into other compounds that are not nearly as effective in preventing and fighting various diseases.
To date, the only negative side effect reported from drinking green tea is insomnia due to the fact that it contains caffeine. However, green tea contains less caffeine than coffee, approximately 30 to 60 milligrams og caffeine in six to eight ounces of tea, compared to over100 milligrams in eight ounces of coffee.