Flamenco Festival Welcomes Spain's Andres Pena & Pilar Ogalla Company Tonight

The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival (Flamenco Festival) is proud to present the anticipated, Vancouver premiere performance of the sensuous and scintillating Andrés Peña and Pilar Ogalla Company, tonight, September 19, 2015 at 8pm in the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre. The sizzling couple, each a former pupil of Spain's most revered flamenco masters, reveal their rapid-fire footwork, flawless synchronization, and impassioned duende in Cadiz de la Frontera, a work that melds influences of two flamenco capitals -- Jerez and Cadiz.

"We're thrilled to welcome two of Spain's most well-respected flamenco stars together to Vancouver for the first time in the festival's 25-year history," says Rosario Ancer, Artistic Director & Founder, Vancouver International Flamenco Festival. "It's a privilege to bring such high-caliber international artists as Andrés Peña and Pilar Ogalla to Vancouver, which represents one of the many rare and culturally enriching experiences offered by the world-class festival. Seldom have our patrons had the opportunity to experience the powerful interaction between a couple - partners in dance and in life - on stage. Audiences will be enraptured by the symmetry of Peña's compact virility and vigorous physicality with Ogalla's elegant femininity and exquisite technique."

Renowned flamenco maestro Andrés Peña, known for his bold swagger and bullish conviction, began his training with Angelita Gomez, one of the world's most sought after flamenco instructors, and early in his career won the Young Flamenco Artists' prize at the Seville Flamenco Biennial Festival, launching him to international fame. Since then the tenacious virtuoso has toured across continents, headlining festivals, teaching coveted workshops, and performing with leading companies including those of Manual Maroa, La Chunga, Carmen Cortés, and notably Eva 'La Hierbabuena', winner of Spain's National Dance Prize, in the celebrated productions of Eva and 5 Women 5. In 2014, Peña received the Audience Award for 'Best Show' in his hometown at the Jerez Festival, a top distinction in the international flamenco scene.

Award-winning bailaora Pilar Ogalla, praised for her stylistic finesse and sumptuous movements, studied under Concha Baras, mother of the famed flamenco artist Sara Baras, and later worked with the great masters Manolete, Matilde Coral, Christina Hoyos, Manuela Carrasco, and Antonio Canales. The graceful dancer of exceptional temperance has appeared on stages around the world with regarded companies directed by Christina Hoyos, Rafael de Carmen and her acclaimed brother, Juan Ogalla, a major figure of the global flamenco community. Among the accolades Ogalla has accumulated is the 2005 Union Competition or Festival of the 'Song of the Miners' prize, considered one of the most prestigious awards in flamenco. The in-demand teacher is also founder of her own company the 'Assocation of Young Flamenco Artists' in Cadiz where she was born and raised.

Sparks will fly when Peña and Ogalla unite for Cadiz de la Frontera, described as "Two ways of thinking. Two ways of feeling. Two lives entangled." The co-choreographed performance by the influential couple is a tribute to each of their roots, weaving the austere and aggressive rhythms common of flamenco in Jerez, a rustic and conservative inland town, with the more jovial and free-flowing style of Cadiz, a vibrant, culturally progressive seaport. While perfectly matching the vehement click of their heels, and sensual sway of their hips, the pair compliment one another by evoking the tone of their own contrasting flamenco tradition, and in the process generate a fiery heat.

ABOUT VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL FLAMENCO FESTIVAL (vancouverflamencofestival.org) - The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival is one of few celebrated festivals devoted to Flamenco Art outside of Spain. Since its beginnings in 1990, the coveted event has developed a mature understanding of Vancouver's multicultural audiences by nurturing the form's hybridized roots in Sephardic, Persian, Gypsy and Indian cultures. The festival strives to reflect and connect diverse sociocultural identity through work narratives underlining flamenco's universal message of humanistic tolerance. Now a two-week long annual event, the festival remains visible presenting works at multiple venues throughout Vancouver, such as Granville Island's Waterfront Theatre, the Playhouse Theatre, Scotiabank Dance Centre, Vancouver Public Library, and Lower Mainland's Centro Flamenco. With a quarter century of flamenco presence behind it, the festival shines a stronger light on Vancouver for younger generations of dancers all around the world, while building new relationships with sister organizations across the nation, helping to forge a more integrated Canadian identity of flamenco.

IF YOU GO:

Cadiz de la Frontera by Andrés Peña and Pilar Ogalla Company
Date: September 19, 2015 @ 8pm
Tickets: Adults $60 Students/Seniors $55 and RAFAS Members
Address: Vancouver Playhouse, 600 Hamilton Street
Box Office: vancouverflamencofestival.org or 604.568.1273

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