Flamenco Festival 2006

Every June here in Albuquerque, Flamenco dancers from around the workd converge here, along with singers, musicians and students studying these categories. The Festival takes place over two weeks and consist of day long classes and workshops for all ages and abilities. In the evenings throughout most of the two weeks are performances. This year marked the 20th anniversary for this; all started single-handedly by a woman who is about my age with incredible vision and conviction. Her name is Eva Encinias. For more on the institute that she has founded, go to: http://www.nationalinstituteofflamenco.org/ It is simply amazing what she has accomplished. We went to a performance last night; the second to the last for the Festival. 3 hours of intense performances presented by 5 companies; one local and the rest seem to be from Spain (I haven't finished studying the program yet). Three of the performances presented only one dancer (there are musicians that comprise of singers, guitar players and percussionists). I think what really struck me with the soloists is their ability to maintian the level of energy that they did; they were able to "eat up" their audience, no problema. Whteher they were engaging in rapid fire, electric footwork, or simply doing a slow, sustained walk around the stage, the energy level was HIGH. It's something that is difficult for me to articulate; I think you have to just witness to understand. Understand too, that these live performances by these companies are usually interpretive and much of it is improvised. No two performances are alike. The relationship between the dancer and the musician is intricate. In fact, the relationship itself is a dance unto its own. The calibre and talent that we got to witness last night was far beyond the mortal experience. It was electrifying! Before I got involved in my Art Studio degree (only two more art history classes to go), I took flamenco at UNM for a couple of semesters from Eva. I loved those classes. I had to stop taking them because I couldn't juggle those classes along with the ones I needed to take for my degree program AND work AND maintian family life AND keep up with my studies. So, I had to put it aside. I promised myself that as soon as I finished this degree, I will return to taking flamenco classes. I can hardly wait. I will never be able to dance like those I witnessed last night, but I will enjoy the journey nonetheless! BTW, UNM is the only university that I know of here in this country where you can get a bachelor's degree in Flamenco. The images I've posted here are things that most people don't see. They are of my flamenco shoes (yes, they are from Spain). Did some tweaking in Photoshop (how can I resist?). The other image which my husband and son says look like rocks, are of the bottom of the heel of the flamenco shoe. Look closely. What you see are many nails that are driven into the shoe. They are on the heel and the toe tip of the shoe. They help to make the sharp sounds that you hear in the footwork. The shank is incredibly strong on these shoes; they have to be as you are delivering those blows to the floor with a lot of force. Without that shank, your shins get very fatiuged and problably suseptible to injury. If you live here in New Mexico and have never been to one of these performances (there are many others that take place througout the year), by all means DO get out to see one! We are so fortunate to have access to this kind of performance and to have the talent that we do locally. Support your local artists! Today's car tunes: soundtrack from the movie (which I never saw), "Havanna Nights".