The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival Returns for 2024
The 2024 Festival will feature live performances, with both ticketed and FREE events.
By: A.A. Cristi Aug. 01, 2024
The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival's 34th edition has announced its 2024 lineup featuring some of the finest Canadian and International Flamenco artists from September 12-22.
The 2024 Festival will feature live performances, with both ticketed and FREE events. VIFF promises to deliver exceptional and dynamic programs and we celebrate our local, national and international connections and performers from Spain, Taiwan, Cuba, Mexico, India and Canada. This year's highlights include the Canadian premiere presentation of Spain's COMPAÑÍA MARCO FLORES with Rayuela at the Vancouver Playhouse. The musicians from the company, Jose Tomás Jiménez (guitar) Jose Valencia (voice) will also give an exclusive music concert at St James Hall. We celebrate flamenco with accordion-robots (Ebe), a vibrant CD release (Lara Wong/ Melón Jiménez) and a moving personal journey (Flamencolía Dance Company).
Special presentation: The inaugural winner of the Victor Kolstee Music Award is Iminah Kani and at the opening night of the festival on the Playhouse stage, Rosario will present Iminah with a commemorative award.
Vancouver Playhouse
Compañía Marco Flores (Spain) September 13 & 14 @ 8pm (Canadian Premiere)
Title: RAYUELA (Hopscotch)
Navigating from earthly realms to the distant skies of Uranus while sidestepping Pluto's infernal depths, one learns the power of a Word: it connects us to childhood innocence, ancestral roots, and the relentless pursuit of artistic perfection. Inspired by Julio Cortázar's "Hopscotch" (Rayuela), where Oliveira seeks elusive answers, it mirrors life's journey through creativity and self-discovery. In this cosmic dance, the Word guides us through the labyrinth of human imagination and the quest for understanding.
In the words of Director, Francisco López:
It all started with a heartbeat, the primal pulse of a life that turned into rhythm: Marco. Later, wings grew from his feet and a thousand flowers bloomed in his soul. Adversity and laughter plowed his skin and they opened trails to emotion, grief and celebration. Flamenco is where his vital and artistic impulse are free of boundaries, where they make the most sense. Now the time has come to tell what he has gone through since he started twenty years ago. He travels back in time observing with honesty the events that he has traversed. He encounters the essential truths of flamenco and experiences them in their entirety. He lives them with their kaleidoscopic of emotion, from his intangible dance, a clean heart that belongs to an artist of the XXI century: Marco Flores.
Compañía MARCO FLORES is a Company in Residence at Teatros del Canal in Madrid. They have been the recipient of awards such as The Specialized Critics Award in Festival de Jerez and reached international acclaim. The company has performed in Dusseldorf Tanzhaus, Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona, London Sadler's Wells, Teatro Lope De Vega in Seville, Festival de Albuquerque (USA), Gothenburg Theatre, Kuopio Dance Festival (Finland), Festival de Jerez, Festival Flamenco Madrid, Bienal de Sevilla and Suzanne Dellal in Tel Aviv.
In 2019 Marco Flores presented “Origen” with the award-winning harpsichordist Ignacio Prego. “Origen” premiered at the Aranjuez Early Music Festival, taking audiences into a fantasy world where early music and flamenco dance go hand in hand. It was also presented in Teatros del Canal, during the Festival Internacional Madrid En Danza 2020.
Flores won the Max Award for Best Male Dancer 2020 (National Performing Arts Awards in Spain) for this project. “Rayuela” had its world premiere in Festival de Jerez 2020. Marco Flores tours around Spain and abroad with his productions. He also choreographs for many artists and companies. He recently choreographed for Olga Pericet´s dance company as well as for Ballet Nacional de España in “Alento y Zaguán. We are thrilled to welcome Compañía Marco Flores to Vancouver and to present the company's Canadian debut.
St James Community Square -Mel Lehan Hall
Title: La Música del Flamenco (Spain) September 15 | 8pm
Running Time: 90 minutes (plus a 15-minute intermission)
Our acclaimed musical guests José Tomás Jiménez (guitar) José Valencia (voice) after their performances with Compañía Marco Flores (Spain) play a traditional flamenco music concert in an intimate setting.
The Waterfront Theatre
La Sporee/ Sara Bronsard (Montreal) September 18 |8pm
Title: EBE
Running Time: 70 mins (no intermission)
Created in 2018, Èbe (which signifies the outgoing tide) is the result of an artistic collaboration with Patrick Saint-Denis (robotic and audio art). An extended version was created in 2021, with a new team of collaborators including Olivier Arseneault as performer and co-creator. The piece unfolds around a choir of five accordion-robots with choreography anchored in flamenco to explore the communicational dimension of breath. The unconscious adaptation of the breath to the accordions, like the hypnotic effect of the sea, reveals the power of the unknown, situating us somewhere beyond our own personal questioning. It is from this cyclic and vital phenomenon that Èbe came to be. The poetic anchors that sustain the work are the cyclic movement of waves, the breath, and the remnants on a beach when the waters have retreated. From this metaphor of what remains after the tides, we dig below the surface beyond what is commonly heard from an accordion and flamenco, as we seek to find what connects us in the interstices. Èbe offers a contemplative and sensorial experience shared through different rhythms that live in us and around us.
Sarah Bronsard has a multi-disciplinary background in visual arts (painting, glass work, electronic arts) infusing with her choreographic practice.
Flamencolía Dance Company (Toronto) September 19|8pm
Title: LA FORESTERA (The Outsider)
Running Time: 95 minutes (plus intermission)
La Forastera (The Outsider) is a new multidisciplinary flamenco dance production by award-winning flamenco choreographer and dancer Lia Grainger and Flamencolia Dance Company. Through narration, documentary footage shot in Spain, projections, soundscapes, and live music and dance, “La Forastera” (The Outsider) tells a love story, about the love between a woman and an art form that is not hers. It is about learning an art versus being born into it, about the things that cannot be taught but can only be gathered through lived experience, and the realization that every story has value.
https://www.flamencolia.com/laforastera
Lara Wong (Spain) September 20| 8pm
Title: Confluencias
Running Time 80 minutes (no intermission)
Guitarist Melon Jimenez and flutist and bansurist Lara Wong come together in this project to form a flamenco repertoire in which they create a wide range of sounds with diverse influences and roots. Discovering new sounds in the world of electronica with their new project CONFLUENCIAS, they are expanding their development at new musical frontiers with the corresponding release of their new album 2024. Dazzling flamenco guitar riffs, sophisticated electronic sound passages, mystical bansuri melodies and colorful flute improvisations come together with flamenco dance in this passionate encounter to celebrate CONFLUENCIAS.
Masterclasses
Marco Flores Sep 15 | 11am 3pm
Basic Intermediate Advanced
Registration | General $50 -$75 / Members $45-$67.50 (+GST)
Flamenco dancers, don't miss this unique opportunity to learn from and dance with Marco Flores.
Basic, Intermediate and advanced levels.
Rosario Ancer (Flamenco Rosario) Sep 16 |6pm-7:30pm
Introduction to Flamenco
Registration| Free
Let us introduce you to the Art of Flamenco . For people with no or little flamenco training. No shoes needed, wear comfortable clothing. An overall view of flamenco techniques: Compás (flamenco rhythm), Zapateado (basic footwork) Palmas (hand clapping), Braceo (arm and hand work) and a short dance sequence that puts it all together.
Carlos Lobo (Spain) Sep 17| 6:30pm-8:30pm
Cante (Voice)
Registration | General $80/Members $72 (+GST)
Open class
Codes and Resources for Tablao and Juerga
In the course, we will work with different communication resources for a traditional flamenco show ('por derecho'), paying attention to the various codes, structural variants, and dynamics of singing to accompany the dance.
Deborah Dawson Sep 21 | 11am-12:30pm
Indian Sevillanas workshop
Registration | General $45.00 / Members $40.50 (+GST)
Open class - suitable for curious, contemporary, classical Indian, and flamenco dancers.
Picnic Pavilion
FREE event Sept. 21 | 2pm to 5:30pm & Sept. 22 | 1pm to 5:30pm
A showcase of some of BC 's rich tapestry of Flamenco artists including Flamenco Rosario.
We are pleased to present the work of local and national Flamenco dance and music artists including Deborah Dawson, Flamenco Rosario, Iminah Kani, Karen Flamenco's performance for children on the Picnic Pavilion stage at Granville Island, 267 Old Bridge Walk, Vancouver.
Schedule:
Sat, Sept. 21
2pm to 5:30pm - Performances occur on the hour
Sun, Sept. 22
11am-11:30am Class especially for children (times subject to change)
11:45pm 12:30pm Basic introduction to flamenco for adults (times subject to change)
2pm-5:30pm - Performances occur on the hour
About the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival (VIFF)
Since its beginnings in 1990, VIFF has nurtured the form's hybridized roots in Sephardic, Persian, Gypsy and Indian cultures and grown a mature and deeply rich understanding of flamenco to reach across Vancouver's multicultural audiences. As one of a few celebrated festivals devoted to Flamenco Art in North America, we continue to invest in, reflect, and connect its diverse sociocultural identity through varied artistic narratives, underlining flamenco's universal message of humanistic tolerance. An annual event, the festival lends its visibility throughout multiple venues and locales in metro Vancouver including the Waterfront Theatre, Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse, Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver Public Library, Fox Cabaret and St James Hall. Driven and artistically curated by the internationally renowned Flamenco Rosario, the festival is a flamenco hub in the city inviting and presenting emerging voices alongside established International Artists. With over three decades of flamenco presence, we continue to build upon both steadfast and new relationships across the nation, helping to forge a more integrated and worldly Canadian identity of flamenco.
The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival was founded by Flamenco Rosario in 1990. Flamenco Rosario holds a mandate to develop dance and music works and dance artists and musicians, in both the authentically traditional and contemporary innovative styles of Flamenco. The company shares its passion for flamenco's raw, emotional power and disciplined musicality through performances, workshops and professional training across Vancouver. Under the direction of Artistic Director Rosario Ancer and Musical Director Victor Kolstee, the company was founded in 1989. Flamenco Rosario registered as a non-profit society in BC in August 1997 under the legal name Rosario Ancer Flamenco Arts Society, achieving registered charity status in 1999. As an interpreter of flamenco dance, Artistic Director Rosario Ancer is interested in the continuing growth and evolution of the art form, rather than simply reiterating its past. The company explores the possibilities of flamenco by crossing boundaries of history and culture, incorporating dancers from other dance traditions, international dance artists, musicians and vocalists into the development of new work. Ongoing activities for Flamenco Rosario include the popular In-Studio series featuring traditional dance styles, the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival showcasing local, national and international guest artists, ongoing classes and residencies, mentorships, and mainstage performances supporting artistic experimentation. The company continues to honour the rich flamenco tradition and to produce presentations which stretch the boundaries and evolution of the art form. In 2024 Rosario Ancer is the Artistic/ Executive Director of Rosario Ancer Flamenco Arts Society, continuing to pursue the shared dream of cultivating a flamenco legacy in memory of the late Victor Kolstee.
Please visit the festival website for more info: http://www.vancouverflamencofestival.org/.
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