duendelenguas “site of the month”
featured on MSNBC.com; Texas Civil Rights Review.org; Nola.com & Coloquio.com.
“a beautiful site; i've looked at the other ones. you have much higher caliber information and it is so elegantly presented.”
M.S., Queens, NY
“Planetflamenco is a site built on a foundation of deep passion for the art
of flamenco. With everything else happening in the world and in life, Ed
keeps in amazing touch with happenings within the Flamenco Diaspora and
publishes them with great care. I always enjoy seeing what he has posted.”
la tamara
“for someone who has never been exposed to flamenco your site has stirred a passion in me to bring it into my life. hence my thanking you for enriching my life.”
-anon.
since the dawn of the new century, planetflamenco has ranged from the pampas of patagonia to the snow-swept reaches of alaska to bring you all the hottest flamenco action in the americas. whether the setting is a dance studio, workshop, tablao, theatre, or a juerga lit by a bonfire in the desert, all the best of new world flamenco can be found right here.
brought to you by the ezekiel group international consultants, planetflamenco was created to promote flamenco and allied indigenous arts in the new world and to bring greater recognition to the role the new world has played in the evolution of flamenco. the ezekiel eco-resort group and planetflamenco have many exciting flamenco-related projects in the works, all of which you will read about here first.
planetflamenco is dedicated to all the teachers of spanish music, song and dance in the new world, who, in addition to creating exciting and inspiring art when they perform, work so hard to imbue their passion and knowledge to their charges. they will probably never know how grateful their students are, but if they ever wonder, all they have to do is reflect on how they feel about their teachers. salud, gracias, and ole!
-the editor
turning the tables: planetflamenco interviews “el chicharrone”
by pagan mcgarrity, associate editor
ed young, “el chicharrone,” is the founding editor of planetflamenco. a long-time student of spanish dance, over the years he has performed with vera celaya ballet folklorico y flamenco, teye & belen, four roses and a thorn, and various student and semi-professional groups. with film maker fred stodder he wrote, co-directed and acted in the lead role of duende, an independent art film (currently in post-production) suggested in part by events in his life.
starting in 1999, ed led the eighteen-month public relations campaign that brought the international-fugitive killer of rising flamenco star maria isabel fernandez to justice when numerous law enforcement agencies came up short. his work on the case was praised by Mexican journalist maria antonieta collins in her book, “cuando el monstruo
despierta” (random house/mondadori). he is a founding board member of the maria isabel fund (administered by the pasadena college foundation, inc.) which provides scholarships in the performing arts to inner-city college students.
PLANETFLAMENCO: how did you happen to discover flamenco?
EY: everyone gets asked that sooner or later. since flamenco is not something that we are generally exposed to in the media, i think that, somehow, mysteriously, flamenco finds you, not the other way around.
i was lucky enough to have had studied classical guitar when i was in fourth grade with a demanding spanish virtuoso, the sort of teacher one would have to audition for in spain. he ridiculed how i held the guitar and mocked my fumbling efforts to find a chord or two. after a few months i moved on to other things; not exactly an auspicious start, but it undoubtedly planted a seed. while i saw jose greco on the ed sullivan show and heard paco de lucia on the radio like everyone else, like countless others it was not until i saw carlos saura’s movie carmen that something clicked in my head. it took me a few years to take the plunge and walk into a studio, but i have never looked back. that first step is always the hardest.
PF: who were some of your teachers?
EY: i started with lilia llorens, a cuban spit-fire in orange county who taught at UC Irvine and orange coast college. when i moved to los angeles, i continued with assieh (la mora), oscar nieto, sarah bashir, linda andrade and other local teachers. being in los angeles, many great dancers have passed through over the years, and i have been lucky enough to take multiple workshops with the likes of andres marin, la tania, lola greco, lola montes (her last workshop; she must have been ninety), and many others. what a thrill it is even being in the same studio as these giants.
PF: why did you start planetflamenco?
EY: lonnie painter at ezekiel group first had the idea. i was writing the west coast notes column for flamencobuzz.com, when he suggested we start our own site. we wanted to foster a sense of community among flamencos and flamencas in south, central and north america. we plan to bring some of these outstanding artists together for a tour of the united states.
PF: tell us about your involvement in the maria isabel fernandez tragedy.
EY: the murder of maria isabel fernandez was a devastating blow to the california flamenco community. (see: profiles) veteran flamenco scouts said that she was as talented as anyone her age in all of spain. i will never forget tania’s workshop the next day when word got out. after the initial shock wore off, everyone was dumbfounded by the fact that the killer had slipped through the fingers of the pasadena city police who answered her 911 call. while the detectives did an outstanding investigative job, the concern was not that he get caught - we had no doubt that that would happen - but that he get caught before he struck again.
our big break was getting maria isabel’s dad, miguel, on the cristina show. (ed. note: the cristina show is the “latin american oprah.”) within a few days of the show airing in mexico DF, a woman called the federales and said, “that’s my daughter’s new boyfriend.”
now we are exploring the development of a flamenco arts center in her honor in cochabamba, bolivia, where she was born and brought up.
PF: what are the most interesting developments in the western hemisphere these days as far as flamenco goes?
EY: there is an ongoing melding of certain aspects of new world traditions, forms such as jazz, hip-hop, cuban son or salsa, with flamenco choreographies and harmonies that has enriched both sides of the equation. think of the bebo valdez and diego cigala collaboration, or teye and belen’s “barbarians of sevilla” in texas or the heavy metal “flametal” in berkeley. not all of it will be to everyone’s taste, and spain will always be the place to go for flamenco puro, but, more and more, the new world is reaffirming its integral place in the flamenco scene.
the development of serious flamenco festivals in chicago, california, new york, miami, and now toronto, as well as the recognition that the albuquerque festival has received in spain, bode well for the future.
PF: any personal goals we haven’t covered?
EY: just getting the planetflamenco B&B up-and-running, and “working on my chops” as ricardo chavez would say. flamenco dance is its own reward, and, as an aficionado, there is no better way to get close to the action than jumping in. to paraphrase saxophone player bobby watson, it does not matter how good one is, only that one keeps making progress. some great artists hit a plateau and coast. better to keep reaching and searching, even at the risk of coming up short.
my only goal as a dancer has been to pay tribute to my mother’s catalan and cuban heritage, and i always get a charge when she is in the audience. being able to study spanish dance firsthand with the masters is the honor of a lifetime, and exposing others to its transmogrifying duende is the least i can do in return.
* * *
el chicharrone
photo: niksnla@yahoo.com
“beautiful site!”
M.H., pennsylvania
“I happened to come across your site and it is fantastico!”
Ms. Amy L., actress & educator