Tag Archive for: gr flamenco fest

July 21st, 2024 at The Registry Theatre

— Artists —

María Serrano

principal dancer, choreographer, director

Yiyi

principal singer, cajón and djembe player

Claudia Aguirre dancer-singer

Julian Berg guitarist

Gabriel Coral flautist

Program

Anda jaleo – traditional song, full ensemble

Tangos – traditional songs, full ensemble

Farruca – music by Sabicas, played by Julian Berg

Sevillanas – traditional song and dance, full ensemble

Cajón solo – Yiyi

Solea por Bulerías – choreography by Maria Serrano

Intermission

Ojos verdes – music by Manuel Quiroga, arrangement by Julian Berg

Solea – traditional music with compositions by Jesús Panea Morente, Julian Berg, and Paco Peña, played by Julian Berg

Guajíras – traditional song, full ensemble, choreography by María Serrano, composition Julian Berg

Calú” – music by Gabriel Coral, full musical ensemble

Alegrías – choreography by María Serrano

Fin de fiesta – traditional songs, full ensemble

Is it the Grand River Flamenco Fest, KW Flamenco Fest, or Flam Fest? Clearly, we’ve had some issues with branding. If you ask our Fest founders, our event name is “Little Grand River Flamenco Fest;” but, at present, our organization’s name is still Grand River Flamenco Fest. Why the discrepancy?

We founded the Fest in 2018 as the “Little KW Flamenco Fest,” in large part (no oxymoron intended) because we wanted to pay tribute to the fact that a) we were trying to build up a tiny, little flamenco community, and b) because we were hosting our concert the Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre (KWLT).

The temporary rebranding started a couple of years later, when due in part to Covid, but also in part to growing in scale, we started hosting our events outside of the KWLT, and so dropped the word “little.” Also, someone (and may I point out, someone very tall) asked if calling it the “Little” KW Flamenco Fest was supposed to be making light of the fact that I (Claudia) and some of my featured dance colleagues, are short. This was certainly not the case and I regret having let the thought sway me, as I love the name and no other Fest name has has quite the same ring to it.

Also, our Fest started off as an independent, self-funded, and low-budget project led by two independent artists – a husband-wife duo. Ironically, in order to qualify for certain supports, such as grants and promotional opportunities, we needed to incorporate the Fest as a non-profit, and so we did. This led to having a Board of Directors to whom we were accountable, to joint decision-making with them, to a new marketing schema, an emphasis on growth, and a rebranding of our name. Hence, the name “Grand River Flamenco Fest” was born. In an attempt to keep the branding fun, we often referred to the Flamenco Fest as the “flam fest” for short, and even used flamfest.ca for some time, until the domain name caused us issues that couldn’t be rendered under the current website provider.

And so now here we are, in 2024, with a hodgepodge of names and an attempt to try to get our original name, and original sentiment back. In the end, so long as you find out about our Fest, that’s what matters most. But, keep in mind that we are modest in size (there are many more international flamenco festivals out there with a lot more programming and prestige) and remains modest about our abilities as flamencos (there are masters of the artform who have reached the highest flamenco heights whom we admire). Thus, in spirit, we remain and always shall be your, “Little KW Flamenco Fest.” Although, for brevity, on social media, we’re simply @kwflamencofest… As if we hadn’t confused you enough!