Arte Latino Festival – Park City, Utah March 27, 2008

Something about Park City makes me feel like I’m on vacation — must be because it reminds me a lot of Whistler, a favorite vacation spot. An avid fan of Park City and flamenco, I jumped at the chance to see Bien Flamenco perform at the Kimball Art Center on March 8 for their Arte Latino Festival.
Bien Flamenco is the only live flamenco ensemble in the entire of state of Utah comprising of guitarist, Godo, Sariah (in the green), and two other dancers. Sariah does a masterful job of arranging numbers for three dancers, and their castanets work is remarkable.

Sevillanas with Castanets

My favorite photo of the night – Sariah’s Solea Solo with a fan.

We were in for a further treat since Mexican artist Joe Bravo, renown for his incredible art painted on tortillas, was in town from LA to kick off the exhibit at the Kimball Arts Center. Bravo said since tortilla was cheaper than canvas as a poor college student, this was how he expressed his art. And I thought tortillas were for eating…

flamenco – just for me March 6, 2008

Today I decided to do something I haven’t done in a long time – flamenco. It was invigorating to think I wasn’t doing this for Tim, Blue Bijou or Pre-Paid Legal, it was just for me. You gotta know when I’m standing at work with co-workers and have the urge to break out into Sevillanas mid-conversation, it’s time to dance again.

The Academy of Dance Design in Saratoga Springs (website to come) has an airy, spacious studio that I rent to practice old choreographies. During the summer of 2006, Kasandra of Mozaico Flamenco taught a Solea por Bulerias choreography which I really took to and even performed that October alongside Pirouz of www.flamenco.ca and Marek of La Triana. Thanks to a recording from dear Farnaz, my Solea is being polished once more.

Picture Credit: Jennifer Wood. Pictured – Sarah, Pirouz, Marek

This Saturday night, Bien Flamenco is performing at the Arte Latino festival in Park City, Utah at the Kimball Arts Center, 6pm. For more details, visit www.kimball-art.org. I look forward to being inspired by live flamenco and meeting Sariah, the genius behind Bien Flamenco. There is a growing caravan of us attending, so feel free to invite yourself and join us for this Saturday night getaway in Park City!

flamenco February 2, 2008

After a one year hiatus, I have officially returned to flamenco. Upon relocating to Utah, there were no studios to pick up where I left off and unfortunately my flamenco dancing dwindled. There is a new dance studio called Studio of Dance Design that opened up five minutes away from home by a gal in our neighborhood. I will rent the studio to dust off old choreographies and breathe some life into them again. Thankfully I have vidoes of old performances to go off of…

I was watching flamenco videos on YouTube this morning (many of which were somewhat painful to behold) and happened upon one of my favorites, Eva Yerbabuena. She came to Vancouver in February of 2004 and I had the pleasure of seeing her perform at the Orpheum theatre. It was astounding and inspiring. I happened upon this photo again today — one of my favorites in all flamenco.

After watching some pretty bad choreographies on YouTube, it made me appreciate even more Kasandra “La China” and Mozaico Flamenco in Vancouver. You just don’t get that kind of quality everywhere you go and I’m grateful for the time I have been able to spend under their tutelage. Hopefully it won’t be long before I will study with them again.

In the meantime, I have contacted a performing flamenco group in Utah called Bien Flamenco and will be attending a show of theirs in March. Sariah, the leader of the group, is apparently “the closest thing to the mother land [Spain] in Utah” so I look forward to pursuing private lessons with her.

Furthermore, what Utah is in serious need of is a pena like Kino Cafe where people can go to see raw, live flamenco in an intimate setting and enjoy drinks, tapas, good company and be inspired.

Viva flamenco!