“When you dance soleá, it is like walking on a wooden bridge,” Farruco told his grandson. “You take a false step and down you go, into the precipice.”
“What precipice?” Farruquito asked.
“The precipice of the soleá,” Farruco responded.

What the veteran dancer meant to impart to the novice with this dramatic explanation is that every dance follows a strict path with it its rhythm and beat. If you miss a beat, you fall from the dance into oblivion.

A blending of many cultures

Flamenco was born in the streets of Spain, a place where people have been dancing for millennia. In antiquity, Romans employed dancers from the Iberian Peninsula, admiring their dexterity and grace. Later, a mixture of cultures―Iberians, Jews, Muslims, Gypsies, Africans―all blended to create flamenco in the southernmost regions of Spain. There, in Andalucía, the Gypsy community took flamenco to a limitless beauty.

In Andalucía, flamenco is a way of processing life, bringing together people of all social strata and different ethnicities to celebrate religious and non-religious festivities. For many, it is a means of expressing individuality.

There are those, however, that have taken flamenco from its folk origins to a polished, highly professionalized art form. In the 20th century, the Farruco family became legendary throughout Spain and beyond for sharing flamenco with audiences around the world. As one of the most prominent inheritors of the flamenco tradition, Farruquito blends fiercely stunning and intricate rhythmic foot patterns―performed at harrowing speeds―with elegant and expressive body movements.

Watch Farruquito in action here:

“Farruquito is a vibrant young artist who has garnered world-wide recognition at the highest level as he continues to deepen his personal approach to flamenco, bringing his family’s dance legacy firmly into the 21st century,” says Nina Menéndez, founder and artistic director of the Bay Area Flamenco Festival. “With Improvisao, he makes a strong aesthetic statement affirming flamenco’s improvisational essence and its roots in the vernacular culture of the Andalucían Gypsies.”

A starry entourage

At this year’s Bay Area Flamenco Festival, Farruquito is joined by a roster of stars, including his favorite young female dancer, Gema Moneo. Moneo has appeared at the Bay Area Flamenco Festival on several occasions since Menéndez first introduced her to U.S. audiences in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York in 2012. Vocalist Encarna Anillo is also part of Farruquito’s entourage at the festival. When singing, Anillo strives to get beyond the technical aspects of her art form, sharing with Farruquito the desire to return to the primeval spontaneous core of flamenco.

Gema Moneo (red scarf) on stage at the Bay Area Flamenco Festival 2015. (Photo: Christine Fu)

The Festival continues on Wednesday, Mar. 9 with a collaboration between Cuban jazz wizard Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Gypsy flamenco diva Esperanza Fernández. The duo pays homage to two greats of the mid-twentieth century: Beny Moré (one of the foremost exponents of traditional Cuban “sonero” singing) and Spanish Gypsy flamenco vocalist Manolo Caracol.

For more information about the 11th Annual Bay Area Flamenco Festival go here.

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