Thursday, June 7, 2012

Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque

Every year the University of New Mexico's College of Fine Arts comes together with the National Institute of Flamenco to present an amazing display of Spain's flamenco dancing culture. Four of the most celebrated flamenco companies in Spain come to Albuquerque to bring the best of their world to ours.

From June 8th to June 16th Festival Flamenco will host dance and music workshops for interested participants and also present 9 performances of their own to the community. These performances will be held at the National Hispanic Cultural Center as well as the Rodey Theater at UNM.

Check out the workshop schedule and the performance schedule.


Courtesy of Lieven SOETE

Flamenco dancing can be traced back to the Spanish gypsies, beginning in the 18th Century and evolving as an art form continuously until today. The art of flamenco consists of three basic parts: Cant (song), Baile (dance) and Guitarra (guitar). Very rarely will any of these three parts be missing from a flamenco performance.

The expression of the dancer, or bailaores, develops as she feels the progression and emotion in the music. The bailaores might incorporate hand clapping, foot stomping and arm motions as she moves into the beat and begins the passionate dance. Every dancer will portray their emotion differently through intense facial expressions and various body movements. It is truly an individual artistic expression of each dancer performing flamenco.

To peruse a list of flamenco-related items in the library catalog, you can do a keyword or subject search using the word "flamenco".

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