Flamenco Universal
Una llamada a los aficionados al Arte del Flamenco
Mission | Accomplishments | Future Goals
How to Help
Flamenco Universal is a Sonoma-County-based non-profit organization created to promote flamenco music and dance and Spanish culture. The organization was founded by a group of local flamenco teachers, performers, students and aficionados.
Flamenco Universal's purpose is to support growth of both student and professional flamenco artists by sponsoring performances, flamenco music and dance education opportunities, and increasing audience outreach.
Since its foundation in 2001, Flamenco Universal:
- Distributed scholarship grants to help local students study song and dance with various local teachers.
- Launched Flamenco Stage, a regular series which provides performance opportunities for aspiring artists and students by joining them with professional artists for shows in a variety of venues.
- Collaborated with local group Aire Flamenco to produce a show at the Raven Theatre in Healdsburg.
- Presented a fusion workshop of belly dance with flamenco in Petaluma.
- Organized palmas (hand clapping) workshops taught by Jaime del Río, local flamenco artist.
- Produced two Sonoma County shows of Soniquete de José Galván, which were seen by more than 500 people and provided performance opportunities for 11 local dancers and singers.
- Made grants to support a flamenco performance to benefit the Roma of Kosovo and the filming of a documentary featuring both Spanish and North Bay flamenco artists.
Projects include:
- Continuing to present Flamenco Stage.
- Producing professional shows featuring visiting Spanish and American artists.
- Organizing workshops in palmas (hand clapping), percussion, cante, and dance. Sponsoring a special workshop where children will learn the basics of flamenco compás (rhythmic patterns) and musical forms through the use of simple instruments and song.
- Bringing flamenco performances into the schools.
- Awarding more scholarship grants for flamenco studies.
- Producing a monthly Flamenco Open Mic in a casual, supportive environment where students can try out their numbers and anyone can participate in spontaneous performance.
- Further development of our website.
- Publishing a printed newsletter.
- Sponsoring a flamenco film series.
- Establishing a library collection of audio, video, and printed flamenco materials.
Be a part of the universal flamenco family by enrolling as a member of Flamenco Universal. Your tax-deductible contribution will help us support local flamenco artists and students and bring flamenco music and dance to a wider audience.
Flamenco Universal also seeks volunteers to help with event publicity and organization, Web site development, administration, database maintenance, networking and fund-raising.
To donate or volunteer, email info [at] flamencouniversal dot org. (In your email program, remove the spaces, replace the [at] with the "at sign" and the word dot with a period -- the address is written this way here to ward off spam. Thanks!)