{"id":190878,"date":"2026-04-09T13:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190878\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:40:14","slug":"impressions-new-york-flamenco-festival-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/190878\/","title":{"rendered":"IMPRESSIONS: New York Flamenco Festival (Part II)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Features<\/a> > Impressions <\/a>The Dance Enthusiast’s Brand of Review\/Thoughts on What We See \n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"IMPRESSIONS:\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Published on April 9, 2026
Sara Baras, New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Sofia Wittert<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tAt the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, New York City Center, Guggenheim New York, and The Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York Flamenco Festival (Part II)<\/p>\n

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts<\/p>\n

La Argentinita in New York: New York in La Argentinita<\/p>\n

Performers: Speaker:\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Javier Le\u00f3n, Vocalist:\u00a0Roc\u00edo M\u00e1rquez,\u00a0Dancer:\u00a0Irene Morales<\/p>\n

Saturday, February 28, 2026<\/p>\n

Bruno Walter Auditorium, NYPL for the Performing Arts<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Irene Morales<\/p>\n

RAW<\/p>\n

Live Producer: Anthonius<\/p>\n

Cante: Al-Blanco, Guitar: Jos\u00e9 Ferm\u00edn Fern\u00e1ndez,\u00a0Baile: Irene Morales<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s Pub at The Public Theater –\u00a0Saturday, February 28, 2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sara Baras<\/p>\n

Vuela<\/p>\n

Direction, Choreography & Staging: Sara Baras<\/p>\n

Script: Sara Baras<\/p>\n

Music Direction & Musical Adaptation of Paco de Luc\u00eda: Keko Baldomero<\/p>\n

Scenic Design: Ras Artesanos<\/p>\n

Costume Design: Lu\u00eds F. Dos Santos<\/p>\n

Lighting Design: \u00d3scar G\u00f3mez de los Reyes & David Reyes<\/p>\n

Sound Engineer: Sergio Sarmiento<\/p>\n

Painting: Fernando Quir\u00f3s<\/p>\n

Texts: Santana de Yepes<\/p>\n

Stage Manager: David Reyes<\/p>\n

Dancers: Sara Baras, Daniel Saltares, Chula Garc\u00eda, Cristina Ald\u00f3n, Carmen Bejarano, Miriam P\u00e9rez, Elena Barba, Mar\u00eda Guerrero<\/p>\n

Musicians: Keko Baldomero, Guitar; Andr\u00e9s Mart\u00ednez, Guitar; May Fern\u00e1ndez, Singer; Mat\u00edas L\u00f3pez \u201cEl Mati,\u201d Singer; Rafael Moreno, Percussion; Alexis Lefevre, Violin; Ivo Cort\u00e9s, Cellist (recorded)<\/p>\n

New York City Center –\u00a0Thursday, March 5, 2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Juan Tom\u00e1s de la Mol\u00eda<\/p>\n

Singer: Juan de la Mar\u00eda, Guitarist: Jos\u00e9 Ferm\u00edn Fern\u00e1ndez,\u00a0Dancer: Juan Tom\u00e1s de la Mol\u00eda<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s Pub at The Public Theater –\u00a0Friday, March 6, 2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Works & Process Presents<\/p>\n

Uptown Rhythm Dance Festival<\/p>\n

Kukai Dantza: Yarin<\/p>\n

Dantzari – traditional Basque dancer:\u00a0Jon Maya, Flamenco dancer:\u00a0Andr\u00e9s Mar\u00edn,\u00a0Drums: Julen Achiary<\/p>\n

Peter B. Lewis Theater, Guggenheim New York –\u00a0Sunday, March 8, 2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sonia Olla & Ismael Fern\u00e1ndez<\/p>\n

Los Ricos<\/p>\n

V\u00ednculo<\/p>\n

Dancers and Singers: Sonia Olla and Ismael Fern\u00e1ndez,\u00a0Pianist: Camila Cortina,\u00a0Guitarist: Gabriel Gonz\u00e1lez,\u00a0Bass Guitarist and Percussionist: Juan Diego Villalobos,\u00a0Drums: Yilmar Vivas<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s Pub at The Public Theater –\u00a0Friday, March 13, 2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Olga Pericet<\/p>\n

From Carmencita to Pericet<\/p>\n

Guitarists: Gerardo N\u00fa\u00f1ez and \u00c1lvaro Martinete, Dancer: Olga Pericet<\/p>\n

Film: La Carmencita\u00a0(1894)<\/p>\n

Producer and director: William K.L. Dickson<\/p>\n

The Metropolitan Museum of Art –\u00a0Sunday, March 15, 2026<\/p>\n

Someday, Irene Morales<\/a> will have the luxury of dancing on an opera-house stage. At this year\u2019s New York Flamenco Festival,<\/a> however, the emerging artist from Spain had smaller venues assigned to her. On February 28th 2026, Morales appeared on the shallow platform of the New York Public Library\u2019s<\/a> Bruno Walter Auditorium, and on the modest corner stage at Joe\u2019s Pub,<\/a> where, as part of its 25th-anniversary season, the Flamenco Festival programmed a series of events. Undaunted, Morales cut loose, proving her mettle in imaginative performances that riffed on the old saying, \u201cThere are no small (stages), only small actors.\u201d
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\"A<\/p>\n

Irene Morales performing at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
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At the library, the dancer took part in a lecture exploring the career of the late, flamenco phenomenon Encarnaci\u00f3n L\u00f3pez J\u00falvez, better known by her stage name, La Argentinita<\/a> [1898-1945]. Professor Jos\u00e9 Javier Le\u00f3n gave a scholarly account of La Argentinita\u2019s turbulent life, with its artistic triumphs and personal tragedies. She was part of a \u201cSilver Age\u201d triangle of friends that included her lover, the doomed bullfighter Ignacio S\u00e1nchez Mej\u00edas,<\/a> and the poet Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca<\/a>, murdered during the Spanish Civil War. La Argentinita\u2019s legacy includes the preservation of Spanish ballads such as En el Caf\u00e9 de Chinitas, and the style of dancing she passed to later generations through the teaching of her sister, Pilar L\u00f3pez.
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\"A<\/p>\n

Irene Morales in front of an image of\u00a0La Argentinita at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
\u00a0<\/p>\n

In her first dance, Morales seemed to bring the past to life. Entering like a sleepwalker, she turned her back to us and averted her gaze. When this ghost came alive,\u00a0however, she was fully present, all coquetry and charm as she stamped and turned beneath curling arms, played castanets, and flashed ruffled petticoats. During the second interlude, she managed the bata de cola<\/a> daintily, tiptoeing and spinning her train before striking a triumphant attitude.<\/p>\n

Later that day, Morales passed from the antique to the contemporary, presenting an imaginative piece called RAW at Joe\u2019s Pub. Making a dance out of the ritual of dressing, she transformed the ruffled bata into a series of costumes. The skirt concealed her like a chrysalis, wrapping her in an enigma as she sat astride a chair. Once risen, Morales showed herself fully in command of the space and of the skirt, promenading, swishing, and abruptly changing directions. She played coyly with a fan; and spinning her train expertly, Morales scoffed at risks, never spilling over the edge of the diminutive stage, where viewers lining the edge doubtless expected a mouthful of ruffles.
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\"A<\/p>\n

Al-Banco and Irene Morales in RAW at Joe’s Pub, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
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Taking turns with her musical partners, Morales also performed in a leotard, and in a simple frock. Her relationship with Al-Blanco,<\/a> the honey-voiced singer, alternated between tenderness and defiance. She placed her head on his shoulder, allowing him to serenade her with a heart-broken lyric: \u201cSeated on the sand, I die of grief\/All that remains are memories of you.\u201d Then she broke free. Coiling and gathering energy, Morales hitched up her dress and fanned herself, dancing madly and rearing back with pride.
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\"At<\/p>\n

Sara Baras and dancers in Vuela at New York City Center, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Sofia Wittert
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The second week of this ambitious flamenco season also featured a mainstage event: Vuela was Sara Baras\u2019<\/a> theatrical tribute to the late guitar virtuoso Paco de Luc\u00eda,<\/a> on March 5, at New York City Center<\/a>. Smoky bars of light criss-crossed the stage; and projections helped define the space. Yet Baras controlled the scene with the force of her personality. From the very first, this star demonstrated a magnetic ability to manipulate the weather, summoning a thunderstorm with an abrupt gesture or echoing the patter of raindrops with a gentle diminuendo in her heels. A well-rehearsed corps of dancers reinforced or relieved her deploying canes and fans as props. Yet the ensemble numbers lacked imagination, amounting merely to precision drill, or a parade of colorful costumes. The women flounced in aquamarine dresses like sea-foam. Blazoned with purple wisteria, they assembled human bouquets, while an empty chair signaled Paco de Luc\u00eda\u2019s absence, and Baras placed flowers on the maestro\u2019s grave.
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\"A<\/p>\n

Sara Baras and dancer in Vuela at New York City Center, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Sofia Wittert
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ironically, with all the resources of a large production at her disposal, Baras\u2019 triumph came in an episode without embellishments. During the stripped-down duet titled Mourning, she danced opposite Daniel Saltares unleashing primal energies. Concentrated bursts of stamping alternated with dramatic gestures, as Baras stretched her hand in mute appeal or clenched it to her heart. Clasping hands, the partners rocked from side to side, or raised their arms to form symmetrical figures. Baras curled in Saltares\u2019 embrace, and reeled away. Despite their vitality and the tenderness of their relationship, this dance exuded anguish and the clammy air of death. At last, we heard those mysterious \u201cblack sounds\u201d that Lorca wrote about; and Baras brought forth the spirit of the duende<\/a> from what the poet called \u201cthe deepest chambers of the blood.\u201d
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\"A<\/p>\n

Sara Baras and company in Vuela\u00a0at New York City Center, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Sofia Wittert
\u00a0<\/p>\n

The series at Joe\u2019s Pub continued, turning the spotlight on young hotshot Juan Tom\u00e1s de la Mol\u00eda<\/a>, on March 6. Flinging sweat from his brown ringlets as he arched his taut body, and lowering thick eyelashes, Mol\u00eda won the title of Flamenco\u2019s newest sex symbol. A dancer\u2019s looks are never ultimately what counts, however \u2014 only the dancing matters, and the artist borrows whatever beauty he has from alchemical combinations of form, movement, and style. Mol\u00eda cannily employed dynamic and emotional changes to compensate for the lack of space. He blistered the floor, pitched invisible flowers to his adoring public, and collected himself in a solemn in-gathering that maintained the flow of energy through moments of profound silence. In cheerful segments, he twinkled and playfully slapped his rump. He spun at daring angles, and commanded our attention with a single raised finger. While Mol\u00eda changed costume off-stage, guitarist Jos\u00e9 Ferm\u00edn Fern\u00e1ndez<\/a>\u00a0kept us occupied expressing delicate melancholy or gaiety; but we waited with impatience for the dancer to return.
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\"A<\/p>\n

Juan Tom\u00e1s de la Mol\u00eda performing at Joe’s Pub, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo:\u00a0Manuel Naranjo Martell Small
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s Pub also gave a platform to Sonia Olla (dancer) and Ismael Fern\u00e1ndez (vocalist),<\/a> in a show that celebrated the release of their latest music album, V\u00ednculo, on March 13. Crowding the stage with a piano, a drum set, and a keyboard, and headed by the versatile flamenco cantaor, the group known as Los Ricos jammed its way through Latin music genres from rumba to bolero, with Olla\u2019s heelwork integrated into the sonic mix. After a passionate opening, Olla\u2019s figure softened and grew playful, and, though she did not dominate the ensemble, her stamping feet had the final word. The message of this feel-good program \u2014 that love is more powerful than war \u2014 seemed confirmed near the end, when audience members joined the cast in a raucous, on-stage dance-party. Miraculously, there was room for all.
\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Dancers Jon Maya and Andr\u00e9s Mar\u00edn with percussionist\u00a0Julen Achiary,\u00a0Works & Process Uptown Rhythm Dance Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marching onward, the Flamenco Festival invaded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,<\/a> on March 8. Here, as part of the museum\u2019s Works & Process Uptown Rhythm Dance Festival, in the Peter B. Lewis Theater, dancers Jon Maya<\/a> and Andr\u00e9s Mar\u00edn<\/a> presented an experimental dialog between Basque folkdance and Spanish flamenco.<\/p>\n

Maya, the Basque dancer, introduced this austere and shadowy number called Yarin\u00a0bouncing and twirling with one leg crooked before him. He rocked on his feet, cut capers, and traced airy circles (ronds de jambe). Maya never seemed to tire, though Basque dancing is relentlessly aerobic. Emerging from the audience, Mar\u00edn presented a characteristically Andalusian figure in a bolero jacket and hat, which he shed as he approached the stage. His dancing was taut and planted, where Maya\u2019s was loose and rollicking, one stamping and the other springing. How can these dance styles, and these nations, ever be reconciled? Julen Achiary,<\/a> the upstage percussionist, attempted to create a neutral environment with sounds that transported us from the Iberian Peninsula into outer space. The dancers laid hands on each other\u2019s shoulders in a gesture of solidarity, but, try as they might, their bodies would not fit together neatly.
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\"Two<\/p>\n

Jon Maya and Andr\u00e9s Mar\u00edn, Works & Process Uptown Rhythm Dance Festival, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
\u00a0<\/p>\n

The history of Spanish dancing in New York is a long one. Flamencologist Ninotchka Bennahum<\/a> has documented tours by 19th-century performers including Lola Montez,<\/a> Pepita Soto,<\/a> Isabel Cubas,<\/a> and Trinidad Huertas<\/a> (\u201cLa Cuenca\u201d), the latter performing in drag. (Sixty-one years before Hollywood siren Rita Hayworth turned the tables on Tyrone Power in the movie Blood and Sand;<\/a> and 122 years before Pedro Almod\u00f3var depicted a female bullfighter in Talk to Her,<\/a> La Cuenca donned a matador suit to become a gender-bending sensation.)
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\"A<\/p>\n

La Carmencita by William Merritt Chase displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Yet, the organizers of this year\u2019s New York Flamenco Festival wished to draw our attention to another memorable Spanish star, Carmen Dauset<\/a> Moreno (\u201cLa Carmencita\u201d), who conquered this city in 1891, and whose charms were so devastating that disappointed lovers threw themselves from balconies. She was also the first woman to be filmed in the studios of Thomas Edison;<\/a> and today La Carmencita\u2019s full-length portrait<\/a> hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The portraitist, William Merritt Chase, painted her with gifts from her admirers, and seems to have caught the dancer in a very good mood.
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\"A<\/p>\n

\u00a0Olga Pericet with guitarists\u00a0\u00a0\u00c1lvaro Martinete\u00a0and Gerardo N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u00a0at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dedicating its closing act to La Carmencita, the Flamenco Festival presented a lecture-demonstration by a glamorous contemporary star, Olga Pericet,<\/a> at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on March 15. Enjoying the intimacy of a salon performance, this event took place in a gallery surrounded by John Vanderlyn\u2019s panoramic views<\/a> of the palace of Versailles. Other works of art, including \u00c9douard Manet\u2019s The Spanish Singer<\/a>, appeared on a screen, and, in another nod to oil on canvas, Pericet wore the white gown and black shawl of the dancer in John Singer Sargent\u2019s famous picture El Jaleo.<\/a> Yet it was Pericet\u2019s living art that held our rapt attention.
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\"A<\/p>\n

\u00a0Olga Pericet and guitarists\u00a0\u00c1lvaro Martinete and\u00a0Gerardo N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u00a0at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pericet is one of those rare individuals whose inner light cannot be concealed, and who moves with a luxurious fullness at any speed. She began posing languidly, her skirts spread over a bench, attentive to the guitarists playing on the other side of the space. Raising one hand with a graceful gesture, she drew attention to the curve of her neck, and grazed the rosebud in her hair. Though feigning indolence, her energy at rest could have brought water to a boil. Then, rising to the challenge of the music, Pericet performed a volatile solo, small-scale twists and flourishes growing into powerful kicks and swirls. In a delirium of movement, she swept the space with her whole body, and surrendered in ecstatic backbends. Pericet marched and threw down her hands angrily, eliciting an \u201col\u00e9\u201d from the standing crowd. Then, turning again to seduction, she darted sinuously among the viewers.
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\"A<\/p>\n

\u00a0Olga Pericet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas
\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the lecture portion of her program, Pericet described La Carmencita as \u201cthe Muse of upper-class society,\u201d but also as the heir to a historical tradition, who contained \u201cmany women within herself.\u201d According to Pericet, La Carmencita left a lasting impression on the Russian school of ballet. The Russians, she said, were amazed by her ability to play casta\u00f1ets while performing the destaques (extensions) and quebradas (body-bends) of the Escuela Bolera.<\/a> A screening of the silent film made in Edison\u2019s studio (in 1894!) confirmed not only La Carmencita\u2019s effervescent personality, but also her redoubtable technique; and one could indeed trace a direct line of influence between the horizontal position of La Carmencita\u2019s body in a vuelta quebrada, and the extreme plasticity that Russian choreographer L\u00e9onide Massine\u00a0<\/a>demanded of his dancers in the 1930s. Twenty-first-century scholars have identified the dance in this remarkable film as a petenera;<\/a> and for her finale, Pericet changed costume and improvised her own dance to a second screening of the film with music added. Bounding and prancing, and accompanying herself with casta\u00f1ets, Pericet ravished us again – another avatar embodying the spirit of a great people.
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\"The<\/p>\n

\u00a0Olga Pericet in front of the portrait of La Carmencita at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as part of the New York Flamenco Festival. Photo: Matt Karas<\/p>\n

The Dance Enthusiast Shares IMPRESSIONS\/our brand of review, and creates conversation.
For more IMPRESSIONS, click here<\/a>.
Share your #AudienceReview<\/a> of performances. Write one<\/a> today!<\/p>\n

The Dance Enthusiast<\/a> – News, Reviews, Interviews and an Open Invitation for YOU to join the Dance Conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Features > Impressions The Dance Enthusiast’s Brand of Review\/Thoughts on What We See Published on April 9, 2026Sara…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1113,1112,1126,1121,1116,1125,1117,1114,1106,1127,1111,1123,1107,1124,9,24,55,54,56,1118,1109,1120,1108,1122,1110,1119,1115],"class_list":{"0":"post-190878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-a-day-in-the-life","9":"tag-a-day-in-the-life-of-dance","10":"tag-african-dance","11":"tag-ballet","12":"tag-barefootnotes","13":"tag-contemporary-dance","14":"tag-dance","15":"tag-dance-up-close","16":"tag-features","17":"tag-flamenco","18":"tag-from-the-press","19":"tag-hip-hop","20":"tag-impressions","21":"tag-modern-dance","22":"tag-new-york","23":"tag-new-york-city","24":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","25":"tag-new-york-city-news","26":"tag-ny","27":"tag-nyc-dance","28":"tag-postcards","29":"tag-qa","30":"tag-reviews","31":"tag-tap","32":"tag-the-dance-enthusiast-asks","33":"tag-the-dance-enthusiast-hits-the-streets","34":"tag-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}