The Southwest hosts the second largest flamenco festival in the world. Its organizers say it’s more of a revolution than a festival.
If your idea of flamencois confine to shortsighted waistcoat and copious frilly skirts , Flamenco Fandanguero : Primos de la Raza Cósmica , a show recently performed by theNational Institute of Flamenco ’s repertory caller Yjastros , may have surprised you . Sure , thedancemoves were familiar — establish in the same folkloric Romani - Spanish saltation , physical structure twisted in rhythmic chroma — but the costume were simplified , dampen . And the story is very deeplyNew Mexican .
The show , which ran over two nights inAlbuquerquethis fountain , explore the connection between theHispanic citizenry of New Mexico — home to one of the most saturated Hispanic societies in the rural area — and Veracruz , a Mexican port urban center with a large autochthonous universe . The show ’s euphony was Veracruz ’s son jarocho , a first cousin ( primo ) of the euphony of flamenco , while its plot line drew a path connecting Mexico geographically to the southwest state . Marisol Encinias , the executive managing director of the Institute , squall New Mexico the “ northmost frontier of Latin America ” and the show seek to make historical associations which Encinias believes have gone largely overlooked .
“ Our interpretation of flamenco is in connection to our identity operator as native New Mexicans , as citizenry of colour with assorted bloodline , with Indigenous and Latino influence , ” says Encinias . “ We divvy up this graphics class and history in a transparent way in a way that hopefully endow the residential area and allows them to experience gallant of their personal identity . ”
Photo by Adria Malcolm for Thrillist
Though the Andalucian radical of flamenco is the same around the earth , the Institute ’s performance are an model of how the dance is so frozen in place that no two country will tell the same story . Flamenco in Granada will look and experience different from flamenco in Mexico , which in turn will be different from gypsy dancing in Serbia , or , surprisingly , Japan .
But this phenomenon does n’t fully explicate how the dancing has train on a form that is unambiguously its own in New Mexico .
Albuquerque is so entrenched in flamenco that it has been dubbed the flamenco Washington of the US . The University of New Mexico is the only one in the man to have an accredited dance program that offer an undergraduate major and an MFA dance level with concentrations in flamenco .
Marisol Encinias|Photo by Adria Malcolm for Thrillist
And on June 21–29 , the37th looping of Flamenco Festival Alburquerque(not a typo ; the traditional Spanish spelling ) will take over three venues across the city as the biggest and honest-to-goodness gypsy dancing festival in the humans outside of Spain itself . The massive inverted comma on its website read “ What happens in Albuquerque is not just a fete , it ’s aRevolution . ”
So how did this New Mexican city ofBreaking Bad , Route 66 , and blistering air balloon festival fame become a hot spot for a terpsichore rotation ? Well that would be thanks to Encinias herself , and specifically to her rhythmically - pitch lineage .
How flamenco came to New Mexico
It ’s not really clear how Clarita Garcia de Aranda , born in 1921 , learned flamenco . It ’s not clear to her family , anyway . What her descendantsdoknow is that she ’d been tattle and dancing since she was a child , taught by her female parent who immigrate from Mexico . In the early twentieth century , local fete in New Mexico had already begun to fete its Spanish inheritance ; flamenco was a touchpoint . The dance was in the air .
After traveling the US performing flamenco , de Arenda ( now , after marriage , de Arenda Allison ) opened the one - way Clarita ’s School of Dance in Albuquerque in 1950 with her sidekick Antonio . They taught pat , dance palace , and traditional folk dances from Mexico . But flamenco was the signature tune offering .
“ When you take off dance as a child you ’re studying it , but it ’s also kind of a form of playing period ”
A show at Tablao Flamenco Albuquerque|Photo by Adria Malcolm for Thrillist
The school became a family affair : both Clarita ’s girl Eva Encinias - Sandoval , and her daughter Marisol attended the terpsichore school from a young years . “ When you set out dancing as a tiddler you ’re studying it , but it ’s also kind of a mannequin of play , ” excuse Encinias .
In 1979 Encinias - Sandoval enrol in the University of New Mexico to retain her dance education . But thanks to her flamenco talent she straight off stood out . At the time the university lacked expertise in flamenco , so she was asked to teach a few classes . A growing interest , including student traveling from other states to teach flamenco at the schoolhouse , imply those few form before long morph into a full - on undergraduate major , and an MFA with a gypsy dancing concentration .
In 1982 Encinias - Sandoval went on to find theNational Institute of Flamenco , of which her girl Marisol Encinias is now the executive director . Its mission is to preserve the dancing and to enable learning through arts education , be it with its repertory company , with its charter school or programmatically with the University of New Mexico . The Institute hosts weekly show at both theTablao Flamenco Albuquerqueat Hotel Albuquerque andEl Farol Flamenco Dinner Showin Santa Fe . But , above all , in 1987 the powers that be launch the Flamenco Festival .
From flamenco festival to flamenco city
It was the festival that really convey attention to Albuquerque ’s rapidly growing flamenco scene . terpsichorean and musicians from all around the world descended with the desire to check and collaborate . “ I think that in a lot of ways that the Flamenco Festival was kind of a catalyst for really persist in to lease the community around flamenco here in Albuquerque , ” suppose Encinias . “ It ’s a advanced art manikin that continues to germinate . ” Through the festival ’s steady increment and the spot that nurtured it , Albuquerque became a bona fide flamenco city .
This yr the Flamenco Festival will feature 15 company correspond over 126 dancer and musicians , the majority from Spain . You ’ll see both observational and avant garde work as well as traditional and data-based pieces . The festival will include guitar and dance concerts , US premieres , like awarding - winning Granada social dancer and choreographer Manuel Liñán ’s futuristic “ Muerta de Amor ” and “ The Disappearing Act ” by Yinka Esi Graves , a London - based terpsichorean acquit to Ghanaian and Jamaican parents . “ She does a carrying out that kind of speaks about her identity as an African fair sex doing flamenco , ” says Encinias .
If you want to learn technique yourself , there are workshops for all levels of saltation and musicianship . Or , you may just watch . peradventure you ’ll even experience something .
“ I believe that one of the things that makes flamenco so especial is that it ’s a connected physique that ’s very beautiful but it ’s really acute . It ’s wide-ranging , so it ’s exciting . It ’s energetic . It ’s powerful , ” says Encinias . “ It ’s complex , but you’re able to enjoy it without understanding what ’s pass off . It ’s tied to just being human . ”
