Flamenco Festival New York City Center 2024 brings the best dancers and musicians from Spain to New York every year, at the start of their Americas tours. This is the very best flamenco from Spain.
Flamenco Festival New York City Center 2024
Flamenco Festival New York City Center 2024 presents 38 dancers of the National Ballet of Spain; Spain National Dance Award winner Olga Pericet with guitarist Antonio De Torres; and a Gala Flamenca featuring the explosive Manuel Liñan, Alfonso Losa, El Yiyo (Miguel Fernández Ribas), soloist Paula Comitre, and vocalist Sandra Carrasco; at New York City Center in Midtown, Manhattan; Friday-Sunday, March 8-10, and 15-17. From $45. nycitycenter.org 🇪🇸 🇪🇸 🇪🇸
The Friday, March 15 performance is Community Night. Go early for a free pre-show mix and mingle with the artists, guest speakers, and other flamenco lovers. Ticket buyers will be emailed to RSVP.
This is not just great music and dancing, it’s duende, the flamenco spirit. Caribbeans call it trance, performers call it soul, techies call it flow. Whatever you call it, the state of relaxed concentration that flamenco artists call duende is a connection with the universal spirit that binds us all together. Inside duende, you perform at a level that is beyond your normal potential. Making a spiritual connection in front of an audience is not easy. These artists practice entering the duende every day. When they open up on stage, you open up too, and there is no better feeling. You’ll leave New York City Center feeling really good. That’s flamenco duende.
The Artists
National Ballet of Spain (Ballet Nacional de España) performs “Invocación,” an epic work for 38 dancers by Director Rubén Olmo. Stage flamenco is not traditional, but this is a grand show of traditional flamenco. It includes a tribute to Mario Maya (1937-2008). Maya, from Córdoba, founded a flamenco school in Seville and trained many dancers in Andalucía, the flamenco heartland. He performed in Carlos Saura’s monumental film “Flamenco” (1995). balletnacional.mcu.es or @balletnacionaldespana
Olga Pericet dances “La Leona,” a solo with Antonio de Torres on guitar. Lion prides are run by females. In this show, the lioness is both Olga and Antonio’s flamenco guitar. With perfect technique, Pericet playfully deconstructs traditional flamenco. It’s a very fun piece, and a privilege to see on the New York City Center stage. olgpericet.es or @olgapericet
Gala Flamenca presents four dancers with their own unique styles and personalities.
- Manuel Liñán, from Granada, is a strong and explosive dancer. He is very masculine, but plays with gender fluidity. He dances beautifully in a skirt and shawl. That’s not a big deal in New York, but is a very bold move in Spain’s ultraconservative flamenco culture. manuellinan.com or @manuellinan 🇪🇸
- Alfonso Losa represents the Madrid school of flamenco. In 2022 he won the Critic’s Prize at the Festival de Jerez, an important flamenco festival in Spain. Losa is known as a teacher of teachers. He is fun to watch. alfonsolosaflamenco.com or @alfonsolosaflamenco 🇪🇸
- El Yiyo, from Barcelona, is Miguel Fernández Ribas, a young Romani dancer. A self-taught artist who learned to dance at home with his family (probably the best way), El Yiyo can dance beautiful traditional flamenco, but is more than likely to mix it up. He loves Michael Jackson’s style of dancing. The world is smaller than it once was, and in the postmodern world, we are influenced by everything, all the time. Raphael Minder in the New York Times called El Yiyo “a flamenco dancer for the YouTube generation.” @elyiy0 🇪🇸
- Paula Comitre, from Sevilla, has won many awards including at both the Festival de Jerez and the Flamenco Biennal in Seville. She began dancing soon after she learned to walk and is a very athletic young performer. @paulacomitre 🇪🇸
- The dancers are accompanied by vocalist Sandra Carrasco. @sandracarrascomusic 🇪🇸
All of these artists are known for the ability to project emotions in their dance and music. We’re back in the duende again. Get some at the Flamenco Festival New York City Center.
Get tickets at nycitycenter.org