Tomorrow will mark the first-ever Phoenix Festival de España, a celebration of Spanish culture at the Phoenix Center for the Arts.
The event promises a variety of activities, including Flamenco dance performances, Flamenco workshops, and lectures on Spanish culture. There will also be live dance and music acts every 30 minutes, food and art vendors throughout the day.
The festivities will conclude with a performance by the nationally acclaimed flamenco dancers from the Third Street Theater.
“I’m hoping to inspire people, to reach out and educate them. I want them to get up and dance with a stranger. I’m hoping we inspire a little more community,” said Angelina Ramirez, the mind behind Phoenix Festival de España.
Ramirez, who is also the founder and artistic director of Flamenco Por La Vida, a Flamenco dance company based in downtown Phoenix, was inspired by her travels in Spain to create the festival. The cultural pride held by the people Ramirez met in Spain had a big impact on her, she said.
“The Spanish culture always encourages life and being with friends, family and neighbors. They are very celebratory and proud,” Ramirez said.
She said she wants to share her memories, like dancing late into the night in the streets of Sevilla, with her community.
Petra Conde, director of the Asociación Cultural Española de Arizona, will give a lecture on northern Spanish culture. Conde said this festival is a chance to expand the public’s knowledge of Spain’s rich and diverse culture.
“Some people cannot even locate Spain geographically because it is such a minority,” Conde said. “This is the first time in Phoenix that we can publicly share our little country.”
Besides inviting newcomers to the Spanish community, the festival will also reunite old friends from within the Flamenco community, said Mele Martinez, founder of Tucson Flamenco Studio and one of the many Flamenco dancers who will perform at the festival.
“In Tucson we don’t have the opportunity to be with artists from Phoenix because we are so isolated and the community is smaller,” Martinez said.
Martinez began her own Flamenco festival in Tucson six years ago. These festivals afford Flamenco dancers from around the valley the opportunity to come together as a larger community, she said.
Downtown Phoenix is the ideal place to host Phoenix Festival de España because of the diversity of other cultural celebrations that are already hosted in the area, Ramirez said.
“This town has been evolving and I figured, ‘Why not add this other flavor, something different that is still in collaboration with what downtown Phoenix has already done?’” she said.
Besides having every festival attendee walk away with an appreciation for Spanish culture, Ramirez said she would also like to see people leave with a better appreciation of their own culture.
“I hope to inspire other cultures to do the same thing as I have so that we can have more enjoyment and education of other cultures,” Ramirez said.
Phoenix Festival de España will take place Saturday from noon to 9 p.m. at the Phoenix Center for the Arts. The festival is free except for a $15 (or pay what you can) ticket for the Third Street Theater flamenco dancers performance.
Contact the reporter at kristy.westgard@asu.edu
