Summary
Organization name
Flamenco Denver
2013
Tax id (EIN)
46-3829735
Category
Arts, Culture & Humanities
Organization Size
Small Organization
Address
1934 So BroadwayDenver, CO 80210
Denver County, CO, US
About
Testimonials
Show your support for Flamenco Denver as we celebrate our 10th Anniversary!
Through ongoing classes, interactive community outreach and high quality performances, Flamenco Denver engages diverse audiences of all ages in celebrating a rich and evolving Hispanic tradition whose Spanish roots go back centuries.
We estimate we have reached more than 10,000 people through our classes, performances, and school and community programs. Support us we strive to reach even more people in 2024! Donations received help us expand our free school and community programs and enable us to bring more of the world's best flamenco talent to share with the broader Denver community.
Mission
The mission of Flamenco Denver is to train, educate and share with the broad community the discipline, power and joy of flamenco as a living art form. Through ongoing classes, interactive outreach to schools, and high quality performances, Flamenco Denver engages diverse audiences of all ages in celebrating a rich and evolving Hispanic tradition whose Spanish roots go back centuries.
Flamenco Denver is known for its creative performances, extensive community-based initiatives, and in-depth arts education programs. Artists from Spain, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Argentina, and the US have participated in Flamenco Denver workshops and performances and reflect its core goals: fostering a cross-cultural form of expression, preserving the tradition of Spanish dance, and guiding this art form's modern evolution. Flamenco Denver has been honored to perform at Denver Art Museum, the Botanic Gardens, Taste of Colorado, Cinco de Mayo, Levitt Pavilion, Lone Tree Arts Center, Cheeseman Park Pavillion, and Newman Center for Performing Arts, numerous cultural festivals as well as small venue tablaos. Flamenco Denver's educational programs are surpassing expectations with free presentations to many underserved elementary and secondary schools each year.
Background Statement
ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY OF FLAMENCO DENVER
Maria Vazquez, Founder and Artistic/Executive Director is a native of Sevilla, Spain. She has been dancing Flamenco her entire life and performing and teaching Flamenco since 1994. Maria danced with the company Ciudad de Sevilla for two years, touring with them throughout Europe. She continued performing with other independent Flamenco groups in Sevilla until 2002 when she moved to Denver and began teaching in her new community, founding Flamenco Denver as a for-profit entity.
In line with its educational goals, Flamenco Denver evolved into a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in 2013. In the Flamenco Denver studio on South Broadway, Maria and contract instructors teach 15 classes per week for more than 60 students of all ages and experience levels. The Flamenco Denver Dance Company, consisting of three to five of the most advanced students, performs annually with guest artists from around the world in the company’s premier performance, Raices, at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Denver campus. Smaller, intimate performances, or “tablaos,” are presented throughout the year in various locations around the metro area including the Mercury Café in downtown Denver.
Flamenco Denver reaches hundreds of children each year through its education program in schools from south Denver to Green Valley Ranch. Through presentations and workshops, Maria Vazquez introduces the concepts of flamenco dance and music, as well as its history in fun and interactive movement and vocalizations designed to engage all the students in the excitement of the artform.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF FLAMENCO
Flamenco is a genre of music and dance that originated in Andalusia, Spain in the 18th century, influence by Gypsy traditions going back to Rajasthan, India. The development of flamenco can be traced back to the Middle Ages and the meeting and mixing of several musical traditions in Andalucia where African and Arabic music developed along with the Spanish guitar and its rhythms. During the Spanish Inquisition, groups of persecuted peoples - Romani, Greeks, Visigoths, Moors and Jews - married their songs and dances of exile, despair, suffering, hope and celebration with the ecstatic religious sounds of Andalucian music to produce flamenco, whose essence is duende. Duende's deep emotion is the ineffable mystery of life in art, song, music and dance. In November 2010, the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) deemed Flamenco a cultural treasure on its Intangible Heritage List.
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Organization Data
Denver, CO 80210