Culture
One Night Only: Flamenco Denver’s “RAICES” at the Newman Center
In this episode of Real Good Denver, we dive into the vibrant world of Flamenco with Maria and Eva from Flamenco Denver. They discuss the upcoming performance 'RAICES,' the rich history of F...
One Night Only: Flamenco Denver’s “RAICES” at the Newman Center
Culture •
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Interactive Transcript
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Denver, get ready for some fire and rhythm today.
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On this episode of Real Good Denver Podcast,
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we're joined by Maria and Eva from Flamengo Denver,
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the powerhouse behind one of the city's most dynamic
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arts organizations.
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With over 20 years of history, thousands of students,
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and performances that light up stages across Colorado,
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they've been keeping the soul of Spain alive
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right here in our backyard.
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We dive into how Flamengo blends culture, storytelling,
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and community, why the art form is exploding in Denver,
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and what it means for the next generation of dancers.
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If you're an arts lover or a culture junkie,
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or just somebody who's looking to be inspired
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by movement and passion, this conversation is for you.
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Let's get into it, but first some business.
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This episode is brought to you by Kit Kaster,
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That's KitKaster.com.
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What's good, Denver?
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All right, what's up, Denver?
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How are you?
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I hope you're having a great day.
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We have a very special interview today.
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There is an incredible event coming up for Flamenco Denver.
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And joining me today is Maria and Eva
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from Flamenco Denver.
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How are you?
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Great, we're wonderful.
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Hi, I'm wonderful.
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We're excited.
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Yeah, me too.
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Okay, let's jump right in.
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Now, give the listeners a scoop on exactly the event,
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the dates, how they can purchase tickets,
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and what they're in for.
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So the band A is on Tuesday, the 30th, September 30th,
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at the Newman Center, and you can buy tickets at Flamenco Denver.com.
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Amazing.
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September 13th or October?
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September 30th.
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30th, September 30th.
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Okay, okay.
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Tuesday.
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Tuesday, yeah.
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Okay, fantastic.
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And is it one show or?
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Just one show, one performance, or is your chance to go?
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Incredible.
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Okay, so tell us a little bit about Flamenco.
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Now, I know I don't know enough.
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Now, I play guitar, so I've always loved that kind of Spanish guitar,
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Flamenco guitar, the minor chords and the fast fingers.
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I'm a fingerstyle player myself,
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so I always admire the playing.
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But I know a lot of your studio is about the dance.
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Tell us a little bit about the dance in the history of Flamenco.
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Yeah, so I'm a dancer, so I mainly teach dance,
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but we have a guitarist around,
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and we bring guitarists from out of town
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that they teach for shop and private lessons to guitarist,
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you know, because you're a guitarist, come from a spake.
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So there's many, many wonderful guitarists there too.
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But we have glasses, ongoing classes,
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from children to adults every week,
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regular, regular basis from Monday to Saturdays.
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And we have all kind of different age coming to the classes.
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It's really fun.
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It's a community.
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We start from scratch.
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We start with the people that don't know anything at all.
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Some time I have seniors coming,
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and they don't have any knowledge, any background in dancing,
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and they keep improving and they keep moving on in the levels.
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And we have children's courses.
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It's really a neat community.
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It says small community, but it's really fun.
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We also go to schools.
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We have a free program for title one schools.
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This is the Hispanic Heritage Month,
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when kind of crazy running from school to school,
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to representation.
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That's really fun too.
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And a part of the teaching, the educational programs
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we have performances.
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So, Rises is the performance that we do on Tuesday, September 30th.
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It's in 11th time that we do this kind of performance.
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So, the title is always the same.
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The name of the show is called Rises,
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because that means roots.
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That's where I don't like to get too crazy
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with mixing scenes together,
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because Flamengo is so big and so large.
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That's just with Flamengo for me, it's enough.
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And I just keep digging into Flamengo,
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I'm bringing different artists, new choreographies every year,
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new dresses, new musicians,
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and it's always a new performance,
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even though the name of the performance is always Rises.
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Amazing.
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I love it.
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So, tell us a little bit about your history
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and how you found yourself coming to Denver to teach Flamengo.
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Well, I'm in Denver, it's my husband Alivie,
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so my husband was in Spain
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and he's studying in the university.
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They have three elective classes.
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One was pottery, he's a big thing in Southern Spain.
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Another one was like with horses,
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just like that.
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And they said one was learning how to dance Alivie,
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because we have a big party at the end of the spring.
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In Sevilla, it's like four-week party,
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where we create a city, or a city made out of tents,
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where we just offer a blast.
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We drink, eat, hang out with family and friends,
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and dance, Sevilla, and so everybody knows how to dance
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this traditional dance that is part of Flamengo too.
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They may have found decided to take dancing lessons
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for the party, to be part of the party.
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And he came to the classes,
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they called me to the university,
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they asked me if I could teach that class
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because the teacher got sick.
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So I was subbing for the teacher,
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and my husband just came into class all the time,
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even though when they have long weekends
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and the kids just travel around,
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he just came in and came in.
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Yeah, we start dating,
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and I guess he was interested in more things
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than just the dancing part.
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And we move back here, and that's how I started here.
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Amazing, so was he from Denver?
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He's a young Denver, he showed up the first day
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with his cowboy boots and big belt, and yeah.
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Nice, do they like cowboys in South Spain?
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Yeah, of course.
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That's amazing, so where are you from?
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I'm from Sevilla.
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Sevilla, nice.
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Cool, and it sounds like you've been in Denver
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for about 20 years?
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25, yeah.
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Incredible, so when did you start the academy?
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So I started teaching right away,
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when I moved here actually on 2002,
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2005, I was still teaching in different places,
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but 2005 when I opened my only third grad-action studio
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for people to come to take classes with me,
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and eventually I transitioned to a non-profit organization.
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I have been, we have been a non-profits in 2014.
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So that's the year that we moved to our new location
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in South Broadway.
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We have been there since then.
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It's incredible.
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I love it, so talk a little bit about the academy.
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Now, who are the best students?
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Someone's thinking about doing something new,
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because maybe people are like me.
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I did Jiu-Jitsu for like 15 years.
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Got to have beat up, so I did yoga.
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Now I'm getting bored with yoga.
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Flamenco seems really fun.
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Who's the best student for Flamenco?
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Yoga people is not going to do it very happy with you.
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Well, it just happened.
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Sometimes the people who is more afraid
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is the one that they stay longer,
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and they are really committed to keep going.
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So like in the case of Eva,
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she's learning how to dance,
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but also she's learning how to sing.
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And she's getting really good at singing.
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Singing is one of the three elements from Flamenco.
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We have the singing, which is a major part,
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guitar and dancing.
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And suddenly we don't really have any singer here.
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So she's doing a great job of learning,
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and she's doing both now,
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so she's very, very strong about that she can explain you
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everything.
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But I have people who have been with me for like 15 years.
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I have children that later they actually are now living
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in Spain to then work in professionally there
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as a Flamenco dancer.
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That's pretty big because later they come back and teach us.
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So yeah, and they steal them.
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Incredible.
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Yeah, Eva, I'd love to know about the singing
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because it's the dancer who sings, right?
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The guitar player just plays guitar and stays out of the way.
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Like the dancer is like the spotlight.
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Yeah, so the answer dances the singer sings
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and the guitar, guitar player plays.
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It's really hard to do more than one.
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So sometimes a singer can compare you with some chords,
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mostly for his own learning or a singer can play some percussion
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like the Cajon is one of the instruments that we use.
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But for the most part, each of the roles stays on that
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because it's so, so the, it's so rich.
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Like when you're dancing, you're listening to them,
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you see you're keeping the beat.
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You have to remember the choreography.
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There is one, but then the feet are doing worth in.
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Your body's doing something else.
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Your hands are doing something else.
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Your head is doing something else.
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So there's so many movie parts that you really have to like focus on that a lot.
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And then for the singing, I mean, I, I've been a musician for all my life.
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So I'm not a professional musician,
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but it was kind of like an easy transition
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because I mean, I've been dancing for a while,
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but even though I can understand it and follow the rhythm,
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some steps are just hard.
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And I mean, I didn't start when I was young.
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So I'm not like doing all the progress that I wish I did.
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But singing, yeah, I can sing.
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So it's just very interesting.
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And I'm now studying the music and the history and it's juicy.
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Yeah, it's incredible.
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It's what a such a romantic style, right?
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I mean, it's elegant and feminine and it's just,
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it's, it's unbelievable art form.
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It's so cool.
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Maria, I like that you kind of like a, a purest.
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Are there a lot of people doing like the flamenco fusion kind of things?
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There is and there is great thing because flamenco is a life art form.
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So you just keep evolving.
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People just get into other stuff and grab it because that's how it create.
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It was created.
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Flamenco is a mix of different cultures.
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You know, in Andalusia, where it comes from,
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the triangle of flamenco, we call it is Granada Sevilla and that is it.
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And they were the Jewish, the Christian, the Maurizh,
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living there together for 800 years and along came the gypsies
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and they kind of like to, to mix it up all together.
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And they travel the way to America and we got different rhythms from there
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that we took it to.
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We call it the Palos de de Vuelta, go back and front.
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So it's a mix of things.
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So that's how it created.
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And that's how it is.
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It's not, it's not for clore.
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I do for clore too, but for clore, you have the step that you have.
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That's it.
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But flamenco is a life art form.
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We keep evolving, we keep getting different steps, different movements.
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Someone sings something a little different and people like it and they
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it's changing that way.
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And but in order to do that, you have to know the roots.
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You have to know your, your basic and it's so big.
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Just in one of the palos, I can tell you like,
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Fandangos, we have 86 different styles of Fandangos.
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Yeah.
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And it's like I, I know when with everything, I always, you know,
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when I have the artist coming that no more than me.
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For like this event, I it is like, oh, maybe you know,
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if I live as long as my dad, I one day we know everything of flamenco.
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But I feel like I still have enough to learn that I don't really need that
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extra challenge of mixing up with something else.
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Totally.
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Is it is tango kind of a related to flamenco?
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No, I mean, tango is a Latin dance from from Argentina.
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And we have flamenco tangos, but they don't, they don't have any, any
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similarities with the Argentinian tango.
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I was doing some research with some flamencoologists.
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And basically the root rhythm of everything comes from Cuba,
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from some Cuban rhythm.
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I don't remember the name of it, but we're talking
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compasse like the binary compass, one, two, three, four blah blah blah.
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So that Argentinian tango, me longer comes from that Cuban rhythm.
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And many of the binary rhythms of flamenco also come from there.
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So they're related.
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Yeah.
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Are they related?
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Well, I mean, in the end, a lot of things come from Cuba because there was
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a lot of traveling in Cuba is a rich place of, you know, musical culture.
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And a lot of musicians come from Cuba all over go to Cuba to learn things,
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you know?
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So there's something from the flamenco.
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Right?
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Okay.
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No, the flamenco can Cuba.
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In Rimo, I think we have the rhythm, not the letters.
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Yeah, but the rhythm of some particular palos, no, the tango, the tango,
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just the tango.
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Yeah, he talked about the tango.
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Oh, no, no, no, just the stuff.
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I brought it up because there's that amazing scene with Selma Hayek and
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Frida, you know, where they're, and I was always thinking that was flamenco,
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but I was like, no, I think that was tango is what they were doing.
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In that, I don't know, but
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but there's no song.
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We call it palos to the different branches of the big tree, no?
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The different style of songs.
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And there is those palo.
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We call it from Ida Iwota going back and from Cuba and that area, for example,
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there is one.
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And the name is Wajira and the Wajira is directly related to the Cuban Punto
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Cubano.
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So you hear the Punto Cubano from Cuba.
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It sounds very, very similar to the Wajira and then you can see a lot of
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relationships.
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So a lot of the, the four clotic dancing and a lot of the music from Latin
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America for sure have like salsa, no?
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Yeah, even that what that Wajira and the lyrics say, talk about Cuba, the cigars and
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the, the, the, the women and the, the things that happen in Cuba.
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So there's like all these little bits that get absorbed into the, like she said,
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from Enquist, a live art.
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So it's always picking up pieces like from history, from all these
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population was in this place for these many years.
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But then these other came and then they kind of got together and then that's
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what half of a main call is like a big soup.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Well, in the folk styles, I just, I love it so much.
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I mean, being a blues player, but also, you know, I train
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in cap of water for like 10 years.
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And so like it was doing some somba.
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And by doing somba, I mean, I play a little bit of drums.
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I cannot do that kind of dancing, you know, I'm just, I'm not very coordinated.
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It's fast.
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It's fun.
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But yeah, you know, it's, I'm so excited for this.
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So, so for the performance, what can people expect to see?
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What is it?
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What will your performance entail?
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Oh, for the performance, for this particular performance, as I told you, we
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don't really have many musicians in Denver.
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So I'm bringing kind of the best of the best from out of town.
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So we have Andrés Badín with from Cuba.
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He living in LA right now.
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He's going to fly here.
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We also have Amparo Heredia, Gipsy from Granada from a big name, family name
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from Flamenco family.
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Jose Cortés, also Gipsy.
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He's coming to be the other second singer because it's a lot of singing is really,
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it requires a lot of energy.
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So we need two singers for this show.
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We have Diego Valvarez, the Negro.
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I don't know how many.
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Grammys are working out that he's one of the best percussionists in Latin music
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and Flamenco for sure.
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He lived for many years in Spain and he's coming.
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And the guest male dancer, because I don't really have any male dancer in here,
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is Manuel Gutierrez.
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So he'll be the major guest artist.
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Will come from court.
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He's Spanish too.
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He come from, he was raised in France, you know, from parents, emigrate,
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after civil war and stuff.
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But he's from Córdoba in Southern Spain.
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Yeah.
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It's cool because I'm sure you've noticed being in Denver this long,
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but there's a, there's the Gutierrez and Vazquez in Denver, a huge families
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have been here forever.
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A lot of Spanish names in Denver that I grew up with as well.
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Well, very cool.
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I can't wait.
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It sounds like tickets are between 45, 75 bucks, something like that.
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They can pick them up at flamencodenver.com.
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Is that correct?
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Yes.
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That was right.
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Mm-hmm.
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Okay.
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And we're going to do a giveaway of a pair of tickets to this performance
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for flamencodenver.
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So definitely keep your eyes peeled.
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We'll put that on the newsletter.
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We'll put that on Instagram and TikTok.
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And you can get a chance to see, you know, Denver flamenco.
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Now, the kind of last question here, Maria, you could do anything with your life.
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And you decided to teach flamenco dancing.
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Why did you do that?
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Well, I started very young.
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And I have it very clear.
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I know it's now I have a teenager song.
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And I know it's a lot of people.
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It's hard to decide what to do with your life.
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But I just knew since I was very little, I wanted to be a dancer,
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not particularly a flamenco dancer.
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But just I love ballet.
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I love all kind of dance.
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And later on I started to learn the traditional dance from my city at the Asia of three.
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I think.
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After that, I keep moving with flamenco.
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I got into conservatorio.
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I got the degree.
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Yeah, I could give you a strong version of that.
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You know, flamenco is so difficult that she is teaching it because she can.
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Nice.
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Not everybody can.
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It's just really hard.
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Yeah.
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Eva Maria, thank you so much for coming on the show and tell us about this extraordinary event.
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And thanks for doing what you do.
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Thank you.
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Thank you for inviting us.
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We work.
Topics Covered
Flamenco Denver
Denver arts organizations
Spanish culture in Denver
Flamenco dance classes
community arts programs
Hispanic Heritage Month
Rises performance
Flamenco guitar
dance education
cultural storytelling
next generation dancers
Flamenco performances
arts lovers
podcast guest booking
Kit Kaster