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Flamenco can enhance life, festival founder says
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If you go
Here's the performance lineup for the 21st annual Festival Flamenco Internacional de Albuquerque:
What: Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company, featuring Joaquin Encinias, Marisol Encinias, Chuscales, José Fernandez and Alfonso "El Veneno"
When: 8 tonight
Where: National Hispanic Cultural Center
Cost: Free
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What: Compañía Juana Amaya, "Moron, A Tiempo y Compas," with Nazaret Reyes, Jairo Barrull, Agustón el Bola, Enrique el Extremeño, Miguel Pérez and Vicente Peña
When: Saturday, 8 p.m.
Where: Rodey Theater, on the University of New Mexico campus
Cost: $40, $50 and $60
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What: Vero La India y Sus Gitanos de Sacromonte, with Iván Vargas, Vero la India and José Fernandez
When: Sunday, 8 p.m.
Where: Rodey Theater
Cost: $30, $40 and $50
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What: Noche Flamenca, with Solead Barrio, Alfonso Losa, Alejandro Granados, Miguel Perez, Jose Anillo and Manuel Gago
When: Monday, 8 p.m.
Where: Rodey Theater
Cost: $30, $40 and $50
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What: Compañ¡a Javier Barón, "Notas al Pie," with Isabel Bayón
When: Tuesday, 8 p.m.
Where: Rodey Theater
Cost: $30, $40 and $50
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What: Fiesta Flamenca - Santa Fe, featuring Juana Amaya, Javier Barón, Vero "La India", Iván Vargas and Yjastros
When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
Where: Lensic Theater, Santa Fe.
Cost: $40, $50, $60 and $75
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What: Charla with Teodoro Morca
When: Wednesday, 8 p.m.
Where: Carlisle Gym, UNM campus.
Cost: Free
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What: Fiesta Flamenca - Albuquerque, featuring Juana Amaya, Javier Barón, Isabel Bayón, Vero "La India," Iván Vargas and Yjastros
When: June 15 and 16, 8 p.m.
Where: National Hispanic Cultural Center
Cost: $40, $50, $60 and $75
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Try it out
Here are some flamenco moves to try at home. The festival offers courses for beginners, kids through seniors, and more advanced dancers. A schedule of workshops is online at National Institute of Flamenco.
Marking pattern
1. Stand with feet together, arms high above the head.
2. Take right foot out to mark in front of you; weight remains on back leg. At the same time, circle the opposite arm (left) down so that the arm reaches the bottom of the arc at the same time that the right toe marks front.
3. Twist your back to counter the right leg, so that the left side of the back is in front and the right side of the back is behind.
4. Look out over left shoulder with a clear, direct facial expression.
5. Bring foot and arm back to step one, circling the arm around and up the opposite side of the body.
6. Repeat on the opposite side: Left foot marks front, right arm arcs down the right side of the body, right side of back comes front, look over the right shoulder.
Footwork: toe-heel-jab pattern
1. Strike right toe into the floor (bringing leg up from behind)
2. Lower right heel to floor with force transferring weight onto right side.
3. Bring left leg up from behind and strike heel of the left shoe to the floor (called a jab).
4. Bring left leg up again from behind to strike the left toe into the floor to initiate the pattern on the left.
5. Follow by bringing down the left heel, transferring the weight to the left leg.
6. Continue the pattern by bringing the right leg from behind to strike the heel (jab).
Stance for footwork: legs close together, back engaged, arms holding skirt, eyes clear, focus out.
Llamada por tangos:
1. Strike entire right foot onto floor twice. Transfer your weight to the right on the second sound.
2. Strike entire left foot onto floor twice. Transfer your weight to the left on the second sound.
3. Walk right, left, right, bringing the arms up above your head.
Source: National Institute of Flamenco
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Why the serious faces?
Flamenco is the art form of gypsies who migrated to Spain. They were persecuted, and the lyrics in a flamenco song, called a cante, are heavy and dark. The dance reflects the song, with the dancer feeling and interpreting the story in the cante, hence the intense facial expression.
To Eva Encinias-Sandoval, flamenco is so much more than a dancer stamping his or her feet to the strains of a guitar.
"Many people have a stereotyped view," she says. "But flamenco has the ability to enhance and stimulate lives."
Watch closely, she says, and you'll see that each artist has a unique approach to the music and dance, each moves differently, giving flamenco a vast scope founded on improvisation.
"The wonderful thing is the immediacy of it," she says. "There is a continuous dialog between the musicians and the dancers; everyone is at full attention; they respond instantly to each other.
"It's compelling. You're sitting on the edge of your seat feeling the collaborative energy between the artists and how they rely on each other."
It's that kind of passion for the art form that led Encinias-Sandoval, who grew up in Albuquerque in a family of dancers, to build a flamenco program at the University of New Mexico and establish the National Institute of Flamenco on Gold Avenue Downtown.
She also founded the Festival Flamenco Internacional de Albuquerque, which offers its 21st annual lineup of workshops and performances tonight through June 16.
The international stars teaching and performing in this year's event include Javier Barón, Isabel Bay¢n, Juana Amaya and Adela Campallo, all of Spain.
"We have access to these incredible artists," Encinias-Sandoval says. "We've seen the level of awareness and practice of flamenco catapult in Albuquerque over the past 20 years. There's been a healthy cultivation of the art form."
The festival was launched in 1987 when the University of New Mexico department of fine arts, where Encinias-Sandoval has taught dance since 1976, asked her to organize a flamenco performance to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
It became an annual program, at first designed to expose UNM's flamenco students to outside dancers and musicians, evolving into a major public event.
"I wanted the public to be exposed to world-class flamenco," Encinias-Sandoval says.
It's grown from three workshops and two shows featuring U.S. performers to 30-plus workshops and eight performances, culminating in two nights of galas featuring some of the world's best flamenco artists. The festival has been recognized in Spain as being outstanding.
"Performances of this caliber are rarely seen anywhere in the world," Encinias-Sandoval says.
At UNM, she heads the country's only university undergraduate and graduate flamenco emphasis program.
The flamenco institute is internationally known, offering a full conservatory, youth programs, and a touring company called Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company, which is directed by Encinias-Sandoval's son Joaquin Encinias. Her daughter Marisol Encinias is a dancer in the company.
"Myself and my children are all into education," Encinias-Sandoval says.
And a new generation is stepping up: Encinias-Sandoval's 15-year-old grandson, Nevarez Encinias, is making his debut in the upcoming festival dancing with Yjastros.
Encinias-Sandoval says it's a challenge each year to fund the festival, which has a budget of $430,000. Ticket sales don't begin to cover the costs, she says.
The city this year contributed money for the first time, $50,000, and Encinias-Sandoval says she's working to get funding from the state and private sources.
"When I know it will be sustainable, and be here in another 10 years, I'll sleep better," she says.
She says the purpose of the festival is to get people into a theater and educate them about flamenco.
"When you watch flamenco, over time you deepen your appreciation of it. You notice the details and the nuances," she says. "That's how an art form survives."
