Flamenco Fire 'Viva Sevilla' 2016 Tour
Flamenco Fire returns with Viva Sevilla – The Golden Age of Flamenco! Directed by composer / guitarist Andrew Veivers and featuring dancer Francesca 'La Chica' Grima, singer Olayo Jimenez and percussionist Andrej Vujicic - direct from Spain - performing alongside Australia’s finest flamenco artists - dancer Simone Pope and violinist Shenton Gregory. Viva Sevilla is a beautifully crafted show that reveals the flamenco art form in all of its guises. From contemporary festive dances to heart wrenching traditional songs, to fiery guitar ensemble pieces, Flamenco Fire will transport you to España......¡Olé!
2016 Tour Dates & Ticket Links
Sun 6 March - Bleach* Festival (Gold Coast) - bleachfestival.com.au
Fri 11 to Mon 14 March - Port Fairy Folk Festival (VIC) - portfairyfolkfestival.com
Tues 29 March - Brisbane City Hall (lunchtime concert)
Wed 30 March - The Events Centre (Caloundra) - theeventscentre.com.au
Thurs 31 March - Gympie Civic Centre - gympieboxoffice.com.au
Fri 1 April - Redcliffe Cultural Centre - moretonbay.qld.gov.au
Sat 2 April - Redland Performing Arts Centre - rpac.com.au
Wed 6 April - Empire Theatre (Toowoomba) - empiretheatre.com.au
Fri 8 April - Millmerran Cultural Centre
Sun 10 April - Charleville Town Hall
Mon 11 April - Quilpie Shire Hall
Thurs 14 April - Our Lady of the Southern Cross College (Dalby) - redchair.com.au
Sat 16 April - Moncrieff Entertainment Centre (Bundaberg) - moncrieff-bundaberg.com.au
Fri 22 April - Sarina Cultural Hall (Tickets available at Sarina Information Centre or at the Door)
Sat 23 April - Proserpine Entertainment Centre (To Book Call (07) 4945 2312)
Thurs 28 April (7:30pm) - Barcaldine Shire Hall (for table bookings contact Robyn: 0427 544 986)
Fri 29 April (6:30pm) - QANTAS Founders Museum (Longreach) - qfom.com.au
Sun 1 May (12:00pm) - Cloncurry Community Precinct (Free Entry)
Thurs 5 May (7:00pm) - Diggers Entertainment Centre (Hughenden)
Sat 7 May (7:30pm) - Pilbeam Theatre (Rockhampton) - seeitlive.com.au
Tues 10 May (7:00pm) - Picnic Bay Hotel (Magnetic Island) Tickets - $35 available at the door
Fri 13 May (6:00pm) - Normanton Shire Hall (tickets available at the door)
Sat 14 May (7:30pm)- Burke Shire Hall (Burketown)
Fri 20 May (7:30pm) - Tanks Arts Centre (Cairns) - tanksartscentre.com
If you have ever wanted to see top class Flamenco dancing you won't need to go to Spain, just take in Flamenco Fire, you won't get a more authentic performance anywhere. I am sure that anyone experiencing Flamenco for the first time, especially from this troupe, would be affected the same way I was; just fall in love with it and be hooked for life.
- Eric Scott (Absolute Theatre) - review of Flamenco Fire Viva Sevilla - 30 January 2016
Viva Sevilla is the third installment of a historically based flamenco trilogy that explores the cultural, geopolitical, and religious influences that, combined over a period of almost two thousand years, produce the various elements of the art form of flamenco.
The years known as the Golden Age of Flamenco, approx. 1850 - 1920, saw all of the elements that we now distinguish as flamenco come together in Sevilla and flourish. Sevilla had been the unofficial capital of Andalucia, in Southern Spain, for many hundreds of years and by the nineteenth century it had already been a relatively large and extremely cosmopolitan city for centuries. Flamenco, on the other hand, had been a private expression amongst farmers, peasants, miners etc. and those close to them. From the 1850's to the 1920's flamenco was introduced to the wider public for the first time in the environment of The Cafe Cantantes. Performers of flamenco became ‘artists’. Performing in cafe's, tablaos and eventually theatres and concert halls initially throughout Spain and then the rest of the world, these artists continued the flamenco tradition of absorbing the influences they encountered.
As with the other major periods of development in the flamenco story, explored in the previous two Flamenco Fire shows in this trilogy (Al-Andaluz and Gypsy Pathways), this Golden Age didn't blossom unaided. A fertile new ground of changing attitudes to political and religious authority, unprecedented economic, industrial, and population growth as well as challenges to long held social structures, empowered practitioners of an art form, who had been marginalised and persecuted for two millennia, to consolidate centuries of folk lore, influenced from cultures and stories from around the world, into what would quickly, but unexpectedly, become a Spanish national treasure.
Many challenges that exist in Australian society today were present in 19th century Spain. The concepts of nationhood, sovereign territory, the balancing of political and religious powers, cultural tolerance, the influences and difficulties in balancing the growth and decline of industries, the impact of migration on farming, mining and urban communities. Using the aesthetic of traditional flamenco combined with contemporary dance choreography, original composition and supporting visual and staging design, Viva Sevilla examines these cultural challenges within the Spanish historical cultural context and connects them to the contemporary Australian experience.
Tour produced by Red Chair. This project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.