“A look into Diversity”, is the title for this year’s 21st New York Flamenco festival 2023, which will be celebrated in the big apple from the 18th-26th of March 2023. Artists such as Sara Baras, Rafael Riqueni, Antonio Rey o El Mati will present their art on stage. Furthermore, the festival is a part of the Flamenco Festival USA, that will host 19 shows -from seven distinct companies- in several north American cities that extend from New York all the way to Washington and Miami. 

 

The New York festival will serve as a gateway for the fusion of traditional Flamenco with other genres, such as jazz, funk and electronic music. New York will hold ten shows and another nine will be hosted between Washington and Miami.  

 

Furthermore, among the artists already mentioned,  Irene Lozano, Emilio Solla, Antonio Liza Quartet y Diego Villegas complete the programme. “All the artists performing hold the key to expanding the horizons of Flamenco and breaking down its artistic borders, its limits and succeed in transcending tradition, orthodoxy and stereotypes” Cites the organisation on their webpage. 

 

Flamenco Festival USA 2023 Programme 

The programme is running from Friday the 16th of March 2023 with the show “Las mujeres que habitan en mí”, from Irene Lozano La Chiqui, an artist that received the first Desplante award in 2022 from the Festival of the Union. The site is in the PFS Arsht Centre in Miami. 

 

“(The show) focuses on the people whose lives I have not had the ability to live and whose lives I have had to live. Due to the circumstances of the life and profession that I have dedicated myself to from the age of 4, there were many moments in my adolescence where I could not live, these experiences made me grow up very quickly. There are many women that have made me the woman I am today and have influenced how I dance. All the women that I was not and all that have influenced me ” expressed the same artist.

 

Only one day later – 17th of March- and also in Miami, in the other headquarters of the Adrienne Arsht Center, premieres Sara Baras, where she will present her work titled “Alma”. A performance which fuses Flamenco with Bolero. The Cadiz born artists will have two other showings on the 18th and 19th of March. On the 23rd to the 26th of March she will be in the New York Centre of New York with her show and will close her tour in the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC on the 29th and 30th of March 2023. 

 

 

“The New York festival will serve as a gateway for the fusion of traditional Flamenco with other genres, such as jazz, funk and electronic music. New York will host ten shows and another nine between Washington and Miami” 

 

 

Another at the head of the ensemble is Rafael Riqueni. The Flamenco guitar master will stop in five locations on his United States tour. The native of Triana will perform at the Roulette in New York on Saturday the 18th of March and Sunday the 19th, while also being scheduled to visit the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. What’s more, before the festival, the guitarist will be hosting shows. He’s set to perform in California the first four days of March in Berkleys Peña Cultural Center and on the 4th he can be seen at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

 

For another year running, the World Flamenco Congress of the Cervantes Institute is a fundamental sponsor for the festival. Not only does it support the show, it will also act as the base for Diego Villegas’s shows on the 22nd of March. Presenting his new project titled “Cinco”. In the same venue, on the 24th of March, Antonio Rey, winner of the Latino Grammy for Best Flamenco Album 2020 will also perform. 

 

Staying inside New York, Joe’s Pub, which is a part of the Public Theatre, will also be an important venue. There, during the day on the 25th of March Emilio Solla and Antonio Lizana, will perform, showcasing their new album “El Siempre Mar”. Finally the huge cast will also add the talent of Matias Lopez El Mati, who will perform on Sunday the 26th of March in the Drom Space, in East Village. 

 

Tickets for all the shows above can be found on the website.

 

About the Flamenco Festival 

Flamenco Festival, is considered one of the biggest Spanish art displays outside of Spain’s own borders. Currently it has held more than 1300 performances and presented more than 160 companies, in 101 cities and 160 venues spanning the whole globe,providing a platform for some of the biggest names of Flamenco in the last 20 years. 

 

Famous artists such as Sara Baras, Miguel Poveda, Eva Yerbabuena, Estrella Morente, Carmen Linares, Manuel Liñán, María Terremoto, Tomatito, María Pagés, Manuela Carrasco, Israel Galván, Carmen Cortés, Rocío Molina, Olga Pericet, Rocío Márquez, Rosalía, Mercedes Ruiz, Eduardo Guerrero o Rafaela Carrasco,  have performed at the festival, alongside many more, alongside geniuses that are no longer with us, such as Paco de Lucía and Enrique Morente.

 

Translation: Eoin McLoughlin 

Top image: Sara Baras, Flamenco Festival New York 2019. Photo: Alejandro Mallado