Get ready to dance at Perth Flamenco Festival!
Perth’s flamenco and Spanish dance enthusiasts unite for The Flamenco Collective’s 2nd annual flamenco festival, Unidos!
The festival boasts three days of flamenco workshops, fiesta-style performances, fashion parade and free community classes for children, teens and adults from Friday 2 October to Sunday 4 October 2020.
The festival’s theme is all about coming together to celebrate and support one another in what has been a challenging year for everyone. Something the Flamenco Collective’s organising committee knows all too well.
“We’re all dancers and dance teachers ourselves, with most of us running our own businesses,” said the Flamenco Collective’s treasurer, Karen Mooney.
Karen runs her own Spanish costume business, Fuego Flamenco from home, is co-director of the Spanish Dance Company, and a dance teacher at Eden Dance Institute.
“We all want to do what’s best for community health and safety, but it’s impacted on the livelihoods of many of us. The social and physical activity benefits of a regular dance class left a gap for many during the restrictions that was hard to replace,” added Karen.
The Flamenco Collective’s founder and committee chair, Ashanti Balaratnasingam, who is the director of Perth’s only exclusively adult dance studio, The Dance Workshop, had a similar experience over the past six months.
"Many students and teachers felt disconnected from themselves and their community without access to their regular classes. Dance and music, and more importantly dancing with others fulfills vital emotional and physiological needs,” Ashanti said.
“When studios were forced to close our community really felt the impact of this void, and many students with reduced incomes still feel this now."
In keeping with the Flamenco Collective’s aim to celebrate and promote Spanish performing arts in Western Australia, the 2nd annual Flamenco Festival will showcase local artists and teachers while celebrating the camaraderie of the Perth flamenco community.
Experienced beginners through to professionals can immerse themselves in a three-day Flamenco intensive, while open community classes offer free workshops to children, teens and adults thanks to support from the City of Bayswater. A free fashion event will take place on the Saturday night with the weekend culminating in a ticketed studio performance on Sunday evening. All workshops and performances will be held at The Performance Company (Morley) from Friday 2 to Sunday 4 October 2020.
More information and bookings, including reservations for free events, can be made through the Flamenco Collective website (www.flamencocollective.com.au).