New York, USA – The 2004 edition of Flamenco Festival USA will take place between January 29 and February 28 of 2004 in the cities of New York, Boston, Hartford, Washington DC, Cleveland, Chicago, and Miami.  

In four short years, Flamenco Festival USA has become the hottest flamenco event in the country.  With sold-out shows in such prestigious venues as City Center in New York and glowing reviews in publications like The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal, the Flamenco Festival USA has made a reputation for itself with a speed almost equal to its dancers’ famous footwork.   

The festival is now acknowledged throughout Spain as the country’s most important cultural ambassador, responsible for igniting an explosion of new interest in America for flamenco music and dance. Over 100,000 Americans have seen Flamenco Festival USA concerts, and 2004 will be the biggest season ever.

The festival’s history is intense and passionate, like flamenco itself. Frustrated that overseas audiences were seeing only a small and increasingly old-fashioned version of flamenco, the young Cordoba native Miguel Marín envisioned a festival committed to presenting flamenco as it really is – a modern, exciting art that includes not only great traditionalists but also innovative, even controversial, young performers.  Working tirelessly on both sides of the Atlantic, Marín put together his first Flamenco Festival USA in 2000.  Since then, the festival continues to win new fans by showing that flamenco is truly a revolutionary art.   

Flamenco Festival USA 2004 highlights include:  

    ·         Sara Baras, Spain’s most popular dancer, who recently made flamenco box office history with a record-breaking five-month show in Madrid, performing the U.S debut of her acclaimed traditional flamenco show, “Sueños” " (“Dreams”); 

·         Compañía Andaluza de Danza, under the direction of the brilliant master José Antonio, performing “Bodas de Sangre” (“Blood Wedding”), the dance masterpiece by Antonio Gades, as well as “La Leyenda” (“The Legend”),  a tribute to flamenco’s great Carmen Amaya; 

·         Flamenco’s vocal sensation José Mercé, whose ability to passionately meld boleros and other Latin styles with flamenco has sold out stadiums in Europe; 

·         The legendary guitarist Paco de Lucía, known for three decades for his inimitable style and groundbreaking fusions; 

·         Compañía Manuela Carrasco, featuring one of Spain’s most passionate representatives of “flamenco puro”; Israel Galván, “the Nijinsky of Flamenco,” a controversial dancer who has created a post-modern vocabulary for flamenco; and Juan de Juan, the “future of flamenco”;  

·         Ojos de Brujo, “Eyes of the Wizard,” the Barcelona group whose mix of world, hiphop, punk and DJ beats is the most electrifying sound in flamenco today

NEW YORK

Thurs, January 29, GALA DE SEVILLA: Manuela Carrasco, Chocolate,
City Center Gypsy matriarchs Juana la del Pipa and La Negra
Israel Galván, Juan de Juan & Rocio Molina in "Alkimia"

Friday, January 30, Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras "Sueños"
City Center

Saturday January 31, Compañía Andaluza de Danza, "Blood Wedding" (Antonio
City Center Gades) & "La Leyenda: Homage to Carmen Amaya"

Sunday February 1, Compañía Andaluza de Danza. Special appearance of director José Antonio, with Rafael Campallo & "Blood Wedding" (Antonio Gades)

Saturday February 7, José Mercé "Lío"
Town Hall

Saturday Feb 27, Paco de Lucía
Beacon Theatre

Saturday February 15th Ojos de Brujo
Venue TBA

BOSTON

Thursday January 29, Compañía Andaluza de Danza "Blood Wedding"
Cutler Majestic Theatre (Antonio Gades), "La Leyenda: Homage to Carmen Amaya"
at Emerson College

Friday January 30 Compañía Andaluza de Danza, "Blood Wedding"
Cutler Emerson Majestic (Antonio Gades), "La Leyenda: Homage to Carmen Amaya"

Saturday January 31, Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras "Sueños"
Cutler Emerson Majestic

Sunday February 1, Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras "Sueños"
Cutler Emerson Majestic

Saturday February 14 Paco de Lucía
Orpheum Theatre


MIAMI, FL

TBA February Paco de Lucía

TBA February Ojos de Brujo


WASHINGTON DC

Tuesday February 3, GALA DE SEVILLA: Manuela Carrasco, Chocolate,
Lisner Auditorium Gypsy matriarchs Juana la del Pipa and La Negra
Israel Galván, Juan de Juan & Rocio Molina in "Alkimia"

Wednesday February 4, Jose Mercé "Lío"
Lisner Auditorium

Friday February 7 Compañía Andaluza de Danza "Blood Wedding"(Antonio Lisner Auditorium Gades) & "La Leyenda: Homage to Carmen Amaya"

Saturday February 8 Compañía Andaluza de Danza "Blood Wedding"(Antonio Lisner Auditorium Gades) & "La Leyenda: Homage to Carmen Amaya"


CHICAGO, IL

Thursday February 5, José Mercé. "Lío"
TBA

Monday February 16 Paco de Lucía
Symphony Center

TENT. Mon Feb 16 Ojos de Brujo
Martyrs


CLEVELAND, OH

Friday January 30 Compañía Manuela Carrasco "Pureza"
Cleveland Museum of Art

Saturday January 31 Compañía Manuela Carrasco "Pureza"
Cleveland Museum of Art

Friday Feb 6 José Mercé "Lío"
Cleveland Museum of Art

HARTFORD, CT

Wednesday, February 4 Compañía Andaluza de Danza "Blood Wedding"(Antonio
Belding Theater, Gades) & "La Leyenda: Homage to Carmen Amaya"
(Bushnell Center)

Thursday, February 5 Compañía Andaluza de Danza "Blood Wedding"(Antonio
Belding Theater, Gades) & "La Leyenda: Homage to Carmen Amaya"
(Bushnell Center)

[Photos: 1) Manuela Carrasco, 2) Sara Baras]