{"id":254343,"date":"2026-04-17T15:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/254343\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T15:37:07","slug":"dallas-spanish-festival-brings-flair-and-flamenco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/254343\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Spanish Festival Brings Flair and Flamenco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"Flamenco
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFlamenco dancing will be in plentiful supply at the Cocina Flamenca Live.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sharen Bradford<\/p>\n

A free food and art festival is set<\/a> to transform the Latino Cultural Center (LCC) for a third year, with the sights and sounds of a vibrant Spanish holiday. This year\u2019s Cocina Flamenca Live Festival<\/a> on Saturday afternoon is stacked with performances, activities and authentic cuisine.<\/p>\n

The festival will take over the entire LCC from 4 \u2013 8:30 p.m. and utilize all performance spaces, says Delilah Buitr\u00f3n Arrebola, artistic director of The Flame Foundation, which produces the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat started as a single outdoor festival has turned into a full cultural takeover of the Latino Cultural Center. This year, flamenco isn\u2019t just happening in one place, it\u2019s alive everywhere,\u201d Buitr\u00f3n Arrebola tells us. \u201cArtistically, we\u2019ve become more confident in showing flamenco as something lived and shared, with dance, guitar, [singing], food and community all happening at once. As always, it\u2019s really special to see so many people coming back year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another addition for 2026? A salsa-flamenco style dance class<\/a> instructed by N\u00e9lida Tirado, a celebrated dancer whose resume includes an appearance in the In the Heights film adaptation. The class is free, but space is limited.<\/p>\n

The performance lineup includes a showcase by Sabor Flamenco, a professional group that dates back more than 20 years. The group, which has performed at previous Cocina Live festivals, plans to dazzle the crowd with a stylistic blend of techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a very interesting mix of dance styles and music,\u201d says Julie Kinzie, a performer in Sabor. \u201cWe have traditional numbers and also a few with a little bit more modern and contemporary infused flair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinzie, who\u2019s been practicing flamenco dance since 1999, says she appreciates the art form because of its inclusivity and because it brings so much joy to audiences.<\/p>\n

The festival is inspired by Spain\u2019s cultural tradition, La Feria de Abril de Sevilla, or the April Fair. Spain\u2019s version is a weeklong, colorful celebration, but the event here in Dallas is about capturing that same jovial energy in one jampacked afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, La Feria de Sevilla has always been about togetherness,\u201d Buitr\u00f3n Arrebola says. \u201cCocina Flamenca Live isn\u2019t about recreating the Feria exactly, but it\u2019s absolutely inspired by that same joy, pride, and sense of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flamenco art dates back to the late 18th century in southern Spain and spread to Madrid through the mid-19th century. The passionate, eye-catching characteristics of the complex art form were also influenced by performers in the Caribbean and Latin America.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlamenco brought me back to dance in a passionate way. While I\u2019ve danced all my life, I always felt excluded because I was not the picture of a traditional dancer, very long and lean,\u201d Kinzie says. \u201cIn flamenco [there\u2019s] a place for everybody. You\u2019re in a wheelchair? Great, we have something for you. You\u2019re overweight? Great, you\u2019re going to express yourself and do phenomenal things with your body. Flamenco is very inclusive and there is a dance for every emotion you could possibly imagine. Being able to express that is a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival will close with Fiesta Flamenca XII, a ticketed one\u2011hour indoor performance held in the LCC auditorium. The finale features flamenco dancers Tirado and Carmen Montes, guitarists Ricardo Sanchez and Juanis de la Isla and vocalist Jos\u00e9 Cortes. Local Maestro Antonio Arrebola of Flamenco DNA will represent Dallas in the lineup. Like the flamenco dance class, space at the finale is limited.<\/p>\n

The full event schedule, registration and more details are available online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flamenco dancing will be in plentiful supply at the Cocina Flamenca Live. Sharen Bradford A free food and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,6569,577,1972,23054],"class_list":{"0":"post-254343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-headlines","10":"tag-dallas-news","11":"tag-dance","12":"tag-festivals","13":"tag-holidays","14":"tag-latin-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}