Abrepaso Flamenco & Alice Blumenfeld: Vacío/Void

8 pm Saturday,
2 pm Saturday & Sunday

Abrepaso seeks to create honest flamenco dance that provokes the audience to think, feel, question, and remember our shared humanity. The name Abrepaso comes from the Spanish phrase “abrir paso,” which can signify making or paving the way and breaking open space. The company aims to establish a contemporary approach to flamenco in the United States, breaking down boundaries and stereotypes through professional, quality performances and education. This flamenco performance explores the voids that thwart us from seeing our own interconnectedness to others and nature. Using environmentalist Rachel Carson’s work as a starting point, the flamenco movements and new music develop a dynamic approach to the figurative and literal voids we experience in our lives. Featuring Alice Blumenfeld, composer Lauren Valerie Coons, guitarist Misael Barraza, and singer Meagan Chandler.
$28, $34 w/ a $2 discount for NHCC members

Thank you to our Performing Arts Season Sponsors Heritage Hotels and Resorts, the Albuquerque Journal and Southwest Airlines!

Festival Flamenco Internacional: New Mexico True Closing Celebration

4 pm to 7 pm

Join us for the New Mexico True Closing Celebration for Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque 2017. The closing celebration for the festival’s 30th year, sponsored by the National Institute of Flamenco, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, and the New Mexico Tourism Department, will feature an exciting and diverse showcase of national and international flamenco student groups. Festivities including live performances, a beer garden, food trucks, and activities for the kids will begin at 4 pm on the NHCC’s Plaza Mayor. Come celebrate with us!

*Dress your flamenco best! If you have flamenco attire or costumes, please come dressed to impress!

For updates, join our Facebook event HERE:
Free public event

Sponsored by:
New Mexico Tourism Department
New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
National Institute of Flamenco
National Hispanic Cultural Center

Festival Flamenco Internacional: The After Party

10 pm to 1 am

Join us for Festival Flamenco: The After Party to close out Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque’s 30th year! After our final show, we will be having a party on the National Hispanic Cultural Center’s Plaza Mayor, featuring the band Son Como Son. Food trucks and a beer garden will be on-site, so come dance the night away with us!

For updates, join our Facebook event HERE:
Free public event

Festival Flamenco Internacional: Fiesta Flamenca 2017

8 pm

Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque presents Fiesta Flamenca, a star-studded evening of music and dance illustrating the range of dynamic styles presented in Festival Flamenco. Elegance, sophistication, and physical brilliance challenge the audience to experience flamenco in all of its forms. Juxtaposing heritage and innovation, this vibrant display of artistry highlights the distinctive characteristics of flamenco. In a spectacular showcase of today’s most powerful and energetic flamenco, headlining artists of Festival Flamenco 30 share the stage for an evening of unforgettable music and dance.

Fiesta Flamenca features Marco Flores, María Moreno, Adrián Santana, Pepe Torres, Rosario Toledo, Jesús Carmona, Alejandro Granados, Carmela Greco, and Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company.
$50, $60, $80, $95

Festival Flamenco Internacional: Compañía Jesús Carmona, Impetu’s

8 pm

Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque presents Compañía Jesús Carmona in Impetu’s, an evening of extraordinary contemporary flamenco along with classic Spanish dance.

From his beginnings as a dancer in other companies through the founding and maturation of his own company, Jesús Carmona has always aspired to have his creations serve as a showcase for Spanish culture. In Impetu’s, he draws upon the great musical compositions that have contributed to his artistic growth and built his life and character, both professionally and personally. New versions of these works allow for innovation, while preserving the legacy of fine music that gives the show its emotional impact.

Impetu’s features renowned musicians Daniel Jurado, Óscar Lago, Thomas Potirón, Luqui Losada, and Juan José Amador, with lighting by David Pérez. The talents of these artists, together with the strength and energy of Carmona’s choreography and staging and the masterworks of great Spanish composers, combine in a show that will keep the audience enthralled from the very first chord, and that can be summed up in the single word Impetu’s.
$40, $50, $70, $85

Festival Flamenco Internacional: Compañía Marco Flores, Entrar al Juego

8 pm

Festival Flamenco Internacional de Alburquerque presents Compañía Marco Flores in Entrar al Juego. In this contemporary and very theatrical production, Flores manipulates space and experiments with time—slowing it down, speeding it up, and changing its direction to open up a temporary timeline from another world and trap people and objects in an alternative dimension.

Flores’ first large-scale choreographic work, DeFlamencas, explored the female universe; his second creation, Tránsito, reflected his interest in looking within. Subsequently, he examined men’s actions and relationships in Laberíntica. With this new work, he expands his artistic focus and direction as well as the dynamics of his choreography. The creative process in Entrar al Juego, activated by intergenerational concerns, begins by bringing together artists of various ages and origins, with differing techniques and experiences. Breaking with traditional conceptions of hierarchy and methodology, Flores involves the artists in a collective composition, where the actions of each are essential to the development of the others, as all discover their own strategies to move, to be still, and to continue with the work, both individually and as a group. Along with stage director and choreographer Juan Carlos Lérida, he proposes to the participants in Entrar al Juego that they dance in a timeless place, and the audience witnesses how people transform when confronted with the need to continue, to resolve the unknown nature of that place.
$40, $50, $70, $85

Aliento: Fragmentos

8 pm—Friday & Saturday
2 pm—Sunday

In Fragmentos, Alice Blumenfeld and Esteban Garza will create an intimate, cutting-edge flamenco experience in the NHCC Salon Ortega that includes poetry and spoken word as well as dance. It will include original music by Alex Conde (Valencia, Spain) on the piano, Joaquín Gallegos (Santa Fe, NM) on the guitar and Guillermo Barrón (Monterrey, México) on percussion.

Our relationships with others, objects, places, and the world make up parts of our whole, but in any one moment, are we complete? We leave fragments of ourselves with everyone we encounter. Sometimes it takes understanding just a small fragment to better see the whole. Fragmentos, will examine these ideas through flamenco music and dance.

Alice Blumenfeld’s dancing has been hailed as “sharp and exhilarating,” and her groundbreaking contemporary choreography pushes the boundaries of flamenco, breaking down stereotypes of the genre. Blumenfeld was the first and only Presidential Scholar in the Arts from New Mexico, and has toured nationally as well as performing in Spain. She will be accompanied by Texas native Esteban Garza, now residing in Albuquerque, in a performance that includes poetry and spoken word as well as dance.

Alex Conde is an award-winning jazz and flamenco pianist with degrees from Berklee College of Music and the Jose Iturbi Conservatory of Music in Barcelona. His works have been performed across the globe. Award-winning guitarist Joaquín Gallegos has performed with numerous ensembles in Spain and the United States; his latest album won critical acclaim for its innovation and virtuosity.

$27 general admission; $17 for students

Aliento: Jesús Muñoz Flamenco, Red Note

8 pm

Casa Flamenca and the NHCC present Jesús Muñoz Flamenco in Red Note—borrowed from the tastefully symbolic “Blue Note Jazz Club” and exploring dynamic, visionary movements in dance, music, and visual art inspired by cante flamenco. Like jazz, flamenco has its roots in raw, intimate improvisation upon standard structures; it improvises through interpretations of the structures of cante jondo, or deep song. Red Note features original music and works composed and performed by a cast of international dancers and musicians.

Jesús Muñoz is nationally and internationally recognized for having created a unique original method and rhythm fusing his American roots with traditional Spanish influence. He has been called “riveting” and a “jazz session artist,” with the live-performance direction of an orchestra conductor. The world-class ensemble, dedicated to creating a unique improvisational structure that can adapt to both traditional and contemporary methods, features original works and national and international guest artists every season. Red Note will take you on a journey through southern Spain, where soul meets dance, breathing the evolution of flamenco’s dance and music.
$20, $30, $40, $50 w/ $5 off for seniors/students * No discount for the $20 seats.

(Des)Encaracolarse: Flamenco Master Class (Rental)

12:45 pm

Enjoy a flamenco dance master class with Alice Blumenfeld before the performance of (Des)Encaracolarse. The class will include a short lecture about the history of flamenco, the basics of flamenco dance technique, and a short “patada” (flamenco choreography). All ages welcome, no previous experience necessary. Limited to 50 people.
$25

(Des)Encaracolarse (Rental)

Saturday at 8 pm, Sunday at 2 pm

(Des)Encaracolarse uses flamenco to explore the myriad metaphors contained in a seashell. The world-class artists and performers in Alice Blumenfeld’s company journey through the curves and spirals, echoes and reflections that make up the odysseys of shells. The title comes from a word invented by Pablo Neruda to show his obsession with shells. The performance premieres original artwork, choreography, music, and costuming, along with traditional sounds of Spain and Latin American poetry.

Blumenfeld’s dancing has been called “sharp and exhilarating” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and possessing a “fierce presence (her movements seem to arise from several feet beneath the ground)…” (Thinking Dance).
$29 w/ a $5 discount for students, seniors and NHCC Members