The Webster’s dictionary defines Flamenco both as a style of music as well as a style of dance. Rightly so, because Flamenco is not just one performing art form, but several of them included under the umbrella name of Flamenco. The different performing arts we are talking about are: Baile (dance) Cante (singing) and Toque (guitar playing). Each one of these aspects of Flamenco is a distinct art form in its own right.
Flamenco, which originated as a multiculturally influenced oral...

Contemporary Barefoot Flamenco Dance by Puela Lunaris

“Where and when did you discover barefoot Flamenco?” I am sometimes asked. I cannot say I “discovered” barefoot Flamenco. It is my natural expression to dance Flamenco barefoot. Similar to Isadora Duncan’s experience in the beginning of the 20th century, I feel constricted dancing in shoes. I love the freedom and the lyricism of dancing barefoot.

Isadora Duncan dancing barefoot in the Temple of Athena,...

Click here if you wish to read part 1 of this article

Since 1993, I have been developing a barefoot Flamenco choreographic body of work that emphasizes creative self-expression and connection to my audience, rather than merely the use of choreographic devices or technical virtuosity. 

Similarly, I have developed my own distinctive style, using a free-flowing, interpretative approach to Flamenco, doing away with the rigid rules characteristic of conventional, footwork-based Flamenco...

I want to share with you a bit about the awesome place where I was born! The ancient castle and village of Montanchez in Southwestern Spain (about two hours from Seville).

My birthplace was considered in ancient times the sacred mountain of goddess Ataecina, also known as Proserpina and Persephone.

For centuries, the castle was in the middle of a sort of "Game of Thrones" between the Goths/Vandals, from Northern-Europe, who were Christians and the Arabs/Moors, from Northern-Africa, who were...

By Puela Lunaris

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Madonna: a case study

When I use the term “The Archetypal Experience of the American Dream", I am referring to a certain mentality, that I have found in the US, which allows people to –first of all- dream, and then, believe that they can make that dream come true.

I was born and grew up under Franco’s repressive 40 year dictatorship in Spain. People enjoyed no freedom of association, no freedom of speech, no freedom of press, no freedom of religion…. To make a very...

Do you remember the excitement of the new year?

Beginning a new cycle?

Your new year's resolutions?...

Or is that excitement of the New Year/New You gone… and what's left is the "same old, same old"?

In Montanchez, the ancient village where I was born in Southwestern Spain, people enact, on February 2nd, a very special ritual of renewal called Las Candelas (The Fires).

On the second night of the second month of the year, everybody gather together in a town's square bringing something...

In 1994 I began The Chanelar Flamenco Project as part of Dances of the World Society's focus on preserving aspects of  Flamenco in danger of extinction, specially the oral tradition.

I am delighted to share with you below an outstanding vintage documentary (produced by TVE- the public national television of Spain) where we can see kids singing, dancing and playing the guitar as part of family tradition.

It is interesting to note that many of these kids have grown to become famous...

Although I have been a dance teaching artist since 1994 and I have learned a lot from experience, the study entitled the Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in Dance, created by the New York City Department of Education, has given me a theoretical framework and an understanding of the foundational principles behind effective dance education. I have been studying and  practicing the principles stated in the Blueprint since 2005; during this time, I have become proficient at implementing...