To see, hear and experience Flamenco is to love it, and never forget it. Like a passionate encounter it lingers in your memory. Olé.
Brianna Rego, a Sun Valley resident, is offering a three-day Flamenco Dance Workshop culminating in a performance through the Footlight Dance Centre, with whom she studied for 12 years. The workshop Thursday, Jan. 13 through Saturday, Jan. 15, at the Sun Valley Athletic Club is available to students age 10 through adult. The performance is at The Community School Theatre in Sun Valley at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 16.
Flamenco is the traditional music of Spain, where it's revered as one of the country's greatest forms of art.
Developing over several centuries from Gypsy, Moorish, Andalusian and other roots, flamenco music and dance entered café society in the early 19th century.
Recent popularity of the dance has given rise to Flamenco classes, workshops, companies and festivals all over the world. It blends acoustic guitar playing, singing, chanting and dancing with staccato hand clapping to set the rhythmic scene.
Born in Antigua, Guatemala, Rego moved with her family to Sun Valley when she was 5. She is currently a junior at Oberlin College in Ohio, where she performs with the Oberlin Dance Department, while majoring in Modern European Studies, Spanish Literature and Latin American Studies.
Rego danced lead roles in past Footlight productions over the years, including "The Nightingale," "Wizard of Oz," "Swan Lake" and "Don Quixote." She studied with the National Institute of Flamenco in New Mexico, as well as with Monica Bermudez' company Arte y Compas from San Francisco. Bermudez has performed in many fiestas throughout Southern Spain, including La Bienal de Arte Flamenco and La Feria de Sevilla.
As well as becoming a proficient Flamenco dancer, Rego has attended dance programs with the Idaho Dance Theatre, San Diego Ballet, Los Angeles Classical Ballet and the American Academy of Ballet.
For more information and to register for the class, call Hilarie Neely at 726-3664 ext. 16.
Flamenco artist Brianno Rego strikes a pose. Photo by Aubrey Stephens
