Pasión y Arte (PyA) is proposing Flamenco Nuevo: The Galván Legacy as the centerpiece of the 2014 Flamenco Festival. This festival will center on new work choreographed by Israel Galván, winner of the 2012 Gold Medal in Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture, with performances by he and his sister, Pastora Galván. The Galváns represent both the legacy of Sevillan flamenco and the influential, cutting edge of contemporary flamenco innovation.
The 2014 festival will include four performances by the Galváns, with an additional four performances comprised of works from Rosario Toledo, the featured dancer-choreographer of the 2012 Philadelphia Flamenco Festival and recipient of Best Show at Sevilla’s 2012 Biennial de Flamenco; as well as master classes, film screenings, and lectures and panel discussions on the changing landscape of flamenco. The Galváns and Rosario Toledo are artists who master and perpetuate the traditions of flamenco while at the same time challenging its conventions. They disrupt familiar representations of flamenco by inserting new vocabulary within codified “steps,” creating unexpected syntax and cadence in the flamenco ‘language,’ changing the context of meaning from the traditional palos (rhythm families) to scenarios that may be dramatic or compositionally abstract. These artists self-consciously exaggerate stereotypes in order to critique them, blurring conventional gender roles beyond aggressive footwork for men and sensuous postures and arm movements for women. They dance with distinct witty personas and a use of humor that brings self-referential awareness into their dance, pulling their works into a contemporary idiom and expression.
Nuevo Flamenco: The Galvan Legacy has been funded by the PEW Center for Arts and Heritage. Additional funding has been provided by the Knights Foundation for the 2014 Flamenco Festival.