Nuevo Flamenco: The Galván Legacy

"For dancers of any genre, not just flamenco, [Israel] Galván offers a master class in the art of the possible," writes Judith Mackrell of The Guardian (UK). In Nuevo Flamenco: The Galván Legacy, the centerpiece of its 2014 Flamenco Festival, Pasión y Arte presented two dances choreographed by Israel Galván. This two-week event in March 2014—a follow-up to the 2011 festival, which attracted 1,500 people to eight sold-out Center-funded performances—celebrated both contemporary and traditional practices of flamenco. Galván, winner of the 2012 Gold Medal in Fine Arts from the Spanish Ministry of Culture, is an artist who experiments with conventions of Sevillan flamenco and, along with his sister Pastora Galván, is known for deconstructing performance stereotypes and blurring gender roles. A series of festival events directed by Dr. Michelle Heffner-Hayes, a noted scholar on flamenco dance traditions, included discussions about flamenco's evolution as a living art form.