Reflejos Flamencos and the FlamencoTULSA dancers performed to a sold out crowd at the Tulsa PAC last month! If you did not get to see the show, or if you would like to see us all again, we will be performing at the Festival de los Campeones at the Tulsa River Parks on August 19th at 7pm.

The Noche Andaluza evening of flamenco music and dance sold out and was a huge success! From the absolutely wonderful audience members and announcer (Sonia Lopez), to the spectacular dancers (Doris Coughlon, Frieda Odell, Lexi Allen, Linda French, Madhuri Nair, Morgan Robinson, Raenalle DeGidio, and Yvonne DeFabio) and amazing musicians (Johnny Beard, Dylan Allen, Kaymen Pitts, and Luke Allen), to the great PAC staff (Chad Oliverson, Shirley Eliott, Scott Gaffen, among others!), everyone helped make it truly an unforgettable evening and sold out event!! We are working on getting the video ready, but you can take a look at our cast photo below by Tiffany Crouch and some more of the pics on facebook! -¡olé!

The evening included pieces by Reflejos Flamencos as well as ensemble pieces like the Tango “En el espejo”, performed by Yvonne DeFabio, Raenalle DeGidio, Frieda Odell, and Doris Coughlon, the Farruca “Aire, fuego y pasion”, performed by Raenalle DeGidio, Frieda Odell, Doris Coughlon, and Linda French, and the Sevillanas “Fiesta flamenca” with Reflejos Flamencos, and all Flamenco TULSA dancers including Morgan Robinson. The evening also offered a Spanish Classical piano performance of Granados’ Spanish Dance No. 5 by Luke Allen and two fusion pieces showing the relationship and influence of Indian Kathak and Dance Orientale/Maghrebi style on flamenco.

Indian Kathak and Flamenco TULSA dancer, Madhuri Nair partnered with Lexi Allen to show the rhythmic footwork similarities between kathak and flamenco dance in “Raices indias”. They were accompanied by Kaymen Pitts on the sitar and Dylan Allen on the cajon. In “Marruecos”, Frieda Odell introduced Dance Orientale/Maghrebi style dancing with Lexi Allen, showing the similarities in fluid movement and arm and hand movements. Luke Allen, Kaymen Pitts, and Dylan Allen accompanied with an assortment of hand percussion instruments. It was a beautiful evening complete with a humbling standing ovation at the end!

We (Johnny, Dylan, Lexi and Raenalle) spent a wonderful flamenco weekend in Dallas at a workshop  taking classes from and accompanying, dancer, Carolina Pozuelo from Madrid. The workshop was put on by Dallas dancer, Conte de Loyo (www.flamencotheatre.com) at Amy’s Studio of Performing Arts. Johnny and Dylan accompanied the classes on the guitar and cajon, which was a huge help! Carolina was a really nice teacher and taught us a fun Tango and five patadas de Bulerias.

Along with taking classes, we also got to see a flamenco show by a goup from San Antonio (I believe they were called Arte Flamenco Theatre) which consisted of three dancers and a singer/guitarist. The event was put on by Troy and Delilah of the Dallas Flamenco Festival (www.dallasflamencofestival.com), and turned out to be a lovely evening of flamenco with really good food from the Afghan Grill. The whole weekend was great and well worth the five hour drive. Hopefully we can make another trip sometime soon! ….Pictures coming soon!