Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana announces the 2015 New York State Flamenco Certamen, featuring a live dance competition by 10 finalists on the evening of October 9, 2015 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.

The company has also confirmed dates for other major 2015-16 performances, including its 2016 New York home season, May 3-8, 2016 at Brooklyn Academy of Music’s BAM Fisher Building; free “Flamenco in the Boros” performances in neighborhoods across the city, December 9-16, 2015; and a National Tour of more than a dozen engagements in nine states coast-to-coast, November 5-19, 2015 and February 8-March 4, 2016.

Founded in 1983, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana is one of this country's longest-established flamenco companies, dedicated to promoting flamenco as a living, evolving art form. In keeping with that mission, the company last year launched the New York State Flamenco Certamen, a competition for pre-professional dancers living, working or studying in New York.

Patterned after regional dance competitions that take place throughout Spain, the New York Certamen drew a standing-room-only crowd to the inaugural year’s final competition, held last October 10 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium on the Lincoln Center campus.

For the second edition of the Certamen, Flamenco Vivo will return to Bruno Walter for an awards competition by ten finalists on the evening of Friday, October 9, 2015.
The New York State Flamenco Certamen is intended to showcase emerging talent, but it also serves to highlight flamenco’s cross-cultural appeal, as well as New York’s enduring attraction to artists from around the world. This year’s finalists include dancers born in Spain, Columbia, Mexico, Russia and the U.S., all of whom have come to New York to perfect their art.

“We are thrilled to provide exposure to these dedicated dancers, who sacrifice so much to pursue their passion,” remarked Flamenco Vivo founder and Artistic Director Carlota Santana.

“We’re equally proud to bring the vibrancy and diversity of New York’s flamenco community to Lincoln Center in this way.

In addition to announcing the 2015 New York State Flamenco Certamen, Santana has also released details on some of the Flamenco Vivo’s other public performances for 2015-16:

New York Home Season: Following up on its BAM Fisher debut in May 2015 – the first time flamenco had been featured on-stage at this theater – Flamenco Vivo will return for a week-long engagement, May 3-8, 2016, including two premieres and additional repertory by contemporary flamenco choreographers. The company will stage the world premiere of "Farruca," a new dance to by Madrid-based choreographer Juan Manuel Prieto, a prize winner at the 2014 Madrid Certamen for Spanish Dance & Flamenco competition; Prieto has been awarded a creative residency in New York City as part of a cross-Atlantic collaboration between Flamenco Vivo and the Madrid Certamen, one of Spain’s most prestigious dance competitions.

The second new work for BAM Fisher is the company premiere of "Gernika," adapted from the 1988 full-length dance by choreographer Susana di Palma, founder of Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre in Minneapolis. "Gernika" is inspired by Pablo Picasso's masterpiece, Guernica, which depicts the 1937 bombing of the Basque city of the same title.

The premiere works and other company repertory will be performed by Flamenco Vivo’s international ensemble of twelve accomplished Spanish and American dancers, singers and musicians, including guest artist Ángel Muñoz, whom The New York Times described as “singing with his feet” during his 2013 company appearance; the paper went on to praise the “excitement of his performance…its impetuousness, its unpredictability.”

Flamenco Vivo’s 2016 New York home season takes place May 3-8, 2016 at BAM Fisher, 321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY. The performance calendar includes evening performances Tuesday-Saturday, May 3-7, at 7:30pm, and matinees on Saturday and Sunday, May 7-8, at 2:00pm.

The May 3 opening will include a First Night Fiesta celebration for friends of the company, with party tickets including premium seating and a special post-performance reception with the Company artists. A post-performance artist talk will take place on Thursday, May 5. Additional program details will released to the public later this fall, and tickets for the season will available for on-line purchase beginning in December at bam.org and flamenco-vivo.org.

Flamenco in the Boros: Flamenco Vivo collaborates with community-based partners on this annual public outreach program, which brings free flamenco performances into neighborhoods across New York City. For 2015, the company’s Flamenco Vivo II ensemble will stage Navidad Flamenca, an original hour-long presentation showcasing holiday customs from across the Spanish-speaking world, including music and dance from Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, and the Caribbean Islands, as well as Spain.

Performances are scheduled for December 9-16, at locations including the Queen Library/Flushing (December 9), St. Joseph’s College/Brooklyn (December 11) and the Bronx Museum of the Arts (December 12). Additional “Boros” dates and details will be released at the beginning of November.

2015-16 National Tour: Flamenco Vivo will appear at more than a dozen venues in nine states this season during a two-leg tour that includes stops in upstate New York, New England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri and Washington State, November 5-19, 2015 and February 8-March 4, 2016. This year’s tour program pays tribute to the unique land and people of Andalucía, the southern provinces of Spain considered the “cradle of flamenco,” with works inspired by writers and artists born in the region, as well as by the rich multi-cultural mix of influences that have shaped Andalucían music and dance. More information on the November tour dates can be accessed on the Flamenco Vivo website, flamenco-vivo.org. Details on the February-March tour, including the company’s first self-produced North Carolina season at Motorco Music Hall in Durham (February 12-14, 2016), will be posted in November.

About Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana

Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana is one of America’s premier Spanish dance companies, dedicated to the belief that the universal spirit of flamenco, a multicultural art form, has the power to build bridges between cultures. Founded in 1983, the company tours extensively across the country (appearing at some 71 venues in 26 states over the past 5 seasons), and serves New York audiences with an annual home season, supplemented by intensive arts education programs in a dozen or more public schools each year, and an annual “Flamenco in the Boros” tour which brings free flamenco performances to new audiences around the city. Flamenco Vivo also operates the Center for Flamenco Arts, one of only two New York City dance studios dedicated to the specific requirements of flamenco, and produces the New York State Flamenco Certamen, a competition for pre-professional dance artists. In 1996 the Company was invited to create bilingual programs targeted to Spanish-speaking immigrants in North Carolina, and has since then established a second base of operations there, providing extensive arts education programming and community engagement performances across the state. Recently, The Public Theater commissioned the company to create an original dance for its free Public Works musical production of The Odyssey at The Delacorte Theater in Central Park, September 4-7, 2015.

The 2015 New York State Flamenco Certamen is made possible, in part, through support by New York State Dance Force, New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Flamenco Vivo’s other public programming is supported by these and additional funders including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Brother Fund, the New York Community Trust, Con Edison the Harkness Foundation for Dance and the Consulate General of Spain.

For more information, contact:
Michelle Tabnick, (646) 765-4773, michelle@michelletabnickcommunications.com.