JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Flamenco is a music and dance form strongly associated with Spain, but here in the United States it’s also linked with one state in particular – New Mexico. And as John Burnett reports, the epicenter of flamenco in New Mexico is Albuquerque.
(SOUNDBITE OF TINO VAN DER SMAN’S “LA MANO DEL LABRIEGO (BULERIAS)”)
JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE: Later this month, Albuquerque is hosting a world-famous flamenco festival. The University of New Mexico offers the only dance degrees with an emphasis in flamenco, and the National Institute of Flamenco is home to a conservatory and a world-class repertory dance company.
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Uno, dos, tres, you heel. Da-da, da-da-da, da-da-da, da-da-da, da-da.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLAPPING)
UNIDENTIFIED INSTRUCTOR: Da-da, da-da-da, da-da-da, da-da-da, da-da.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLAPPING)
BURNETT: An instructor is showing a studio full of kids the classic percussive footwork. The popularity of flamenco has exploded in the last four decades. You can find it from Tokyo to Israel to Toronto, throughout Latin America, in Miami, New York and San Francisco. What’s different about flamenco in Nuevo Mexico is that it’s homegrown, which makes sense. New Mexico traces its Hispanic identity to the arrival of Spanish settlers 400-plus years ago.
VICENTE GRIEGO: There’s other people who want to do and replicate flamenco exactly the way it’s been done in Spain. Here in New Mexico, it’s got to sound like us.
BURNETT: Vicente Griego is a celebrated flamenco singer from northern New Mexico.
GRIEGO: But what makes us really special here and what keeps us honest is that we have our own history. We’ve had our own celebration and liberation.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GRIEGO: (Singing in Spanish).
BURNETT: That’s Griego singing the deep song of flamenco with Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company. It’s part of the National Institute of Flamenco, founded 43 years ago by Eva Encinias, the grande dame of flamenco in Albuquerque.
EVA ENCINIAS: Even though we present all of this very, very high-end flamenco, the rationale behind that is to inspire and cultivate young people.
BURNETT: Outreach is a huge part of their mission. Between Eva and her children, Joaquin and Marisol, they’ve taught thousands of flamenco students at the institute and at UNM.
ENCINIAS: We all started as children, and we know the impact that flamenco had on us as young people.
BURNETT: To that end, the institute sends teachers into New Mexico public schools.
SARAH WARD: And so we’re going to clap along to the music. The music is in 4/4 time, which means that we count one, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
BURNETT: Sarah Ward, a Canadian who became enthralled with flamenco and now teaches it, is leading a class of fourth graders at the Taos Integrated School of the Arts. Fifteen kids stomp their sneakers to the count.
(SOUNDBITE OF STOMPING)
WARD: And then we had another rhythm. Two and three, four. Two and three, four. Yeah.
BURNETT: Ward says New Mexico is the best place to learn flamenco outside of Spain.
WARD: It has such a rich cultural heritage here. We have grown it in the earth here, as well, and so it’s very much part of the New Mexican experience.
BURNETT: One of the bright-eyed students is Cypress Musialowski, 10 years old. The interviewer is journalist Monica Ortiz Uribe.
CYPRESS MUSIALOWSKI: I feel an opportunity to let out anger. I really like stomping my feet, but I also feel like I can just flow and be me.
MONICA ORTIZ URIBE: Yeah. What does it feel like when you’re dancing and you release that anger?
CYPRESS: It feels great. I love it ’cause in class, I can’t just stomp my feet around ’cause I’ll get in trouble.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLAPPING)
BURNETT: Flamenco has been called performed aggression – the pounding wooden heels, the feral singing, the baroque guitar work. The Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca defined duende, the spirit of flamenco, as tragedy-inspired ecstasy.
EVELYN MENDOZA: I think what really distinguishes flamenco is the grittiness of it.
BURNETT: Evelyn Mendoza is the 27-year-old education manager at the flamenco institute. While she has a degree in contemporary dance from UNM, it was flamenco that captured her soul.
MENDOZA: I mean, you sweat your heart, soul, tears, blood and everything into any dance form that you do. But flamenco is so different because it’s fierce.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Vocalizing).
BURNETT: The fierceness, poetry and passion of flamenco will be celebrated at Festival Flamenco Albuquerque, June 20 to 28. This year, 14 of the world’s best flamenco companies will perform in Albuquerque at what’s called the most celebrated flamenco festival outside of Spain. Naturally, it’s in New Mexico.
For NPR News, I’m John Burnett in Albuquerque.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Vocalizing). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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