It's time to flamenco: From a local group to 90 world-renowned performers, ambitious, fun festival begins

At Flamenco Works, flamenco isn’t just a form of dance. It’s an art, a language and an intense, lifelong dedication.

Founded in 2018, Flamenco Works teaches and performs flamenco around the city. Dancers at the school collaborate to create unique performances in the hopes of inspiring people to learn more about their art.

Sponsored by the National Institute of Flamenco, the 37th annual Festival Flamenco Albuquerque is a nine-day event that showcases all the flamenco the city has to offer, provides that opportunity. From Friday through June 29, the festival will have over 20 performances from more than 90 world-renowned and local flamenco performers throughout the city. Outside of Spain, the event is the largest flamenco celebration in the Northern Hemisphere.

“It’s a really exciting month,” said Amalyah Muñoz, programs director and soloist at Flamenco Works. “We spend the whole month creating work. We have this kind of a residency where we work together, we create and now we’re at the kind of finale where we are putting all these pieces together and we’re building out a concert.”

The group consists of eight performers — three dancers, the others musicians and singers.

Though the group comes together to plan out a piece, individuals often come up with ideas to bring to the table.

“It’s kind of like a braid. We all work together and bounce ideas off of each other,” said Jesus Muñoz, executive director and instructor of Flamenco Works. “It’s a lot of going between mediums. Some crazy things have come out of it.”

Jeanne J’Arc Simone Casas Panouze, another dancer at Flamenco Works, says the whole process takes a lot of creativity and connection.

“We started making up ideas out of the continuity of being together, making coffee, talking about life,” she said. “Sometimes the ideas come from there, sometimes the ideas come from the studio.”

The blend of cultures and ideas has led to Flamenco Works performing not only traditional flamenco dance and music, but other forms. The bands may throw in some Latin American, New Mexican or Mexican music to represent Albuquerque, and the group says it is often inspired by jazz too.

“Flamenco is all about working together with all the other art forms that exists within Albuquerque,” Muñoz said.

Though the entire company is incredibly happy to perform and teach flamenco, they say it requires sacrifice and dedication.

“I started studying flamenco and realized I had to leave and then I didn’t come back for 10 years,” said Briseyda Zárate, singer and dancer for Flamenco Works. “You have to really immerse yourself, and I also realized I couldn’t live without it. It wasn’t an option at one point, it was a choice I made, but after I made the choice, it was not something that I could let go of, or that would ever let go of me ever again.”.

Amalyah says the goal of Flamenco Works is to spread the love of flamenco and give people an opportunity to experience it, whether as participants or viewers.

“It’s amazing as an artist when you have all these people coming in who have maybe never seen a flamenco show or never heard the music and don’t have it in their lives and they’re really curious and excited. It’s really unique,” Amalyah said.

If you go

Flamenco Works will hold three shows during the week of the Flamenco Festival.

When: Friday through June 29

Where and how much: Locations and prices vary

More information: Visit www.flamencoworks.org