Episode 5 – Flamenco Sounds
The art of flamenco is soulful, mournful, exuberant all at once. Much of that mix comes via its incredible journey from the Romani people of India, through Spain with Moorish and Jewish influences, and across the world. In Tucson, flamenco artist Angelina Ramirez has practiced the form for thirty years. In this episode, she shares the sounds of the artform, in which the body itself becomes an instrument to communication both hardship and celebration.
Angelina Ramirez is a flamenco movement artist and teaching artist living in Tucson, Arizona. Ramirez’s artistic work explores what it means to be a queer, latinx flamenca, practicing in a traditional Roma/gitano form of dance. As a teaching artist, she is interested in the intersections of arts and healing, focusing on work with elders of all abilities and integrated flamenco with autistic individuals. She is devoted to promoting accessibility and eradicating ableism, racism and bigotry by practicing and promoting dialogue, acceptance and community participation. In 2021 Ramirez received the Master-Apprentice Artist Award through Southwest Folklife Alliance for her dedication and commitment to Flamenco arts. She is a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures fellow. In 2018 she received the Arizona Commission on the Arts’ Artist Research and Development Grant to support the development of her evening-length work /SER/. Ramirez is an original member of Yjastros, the American Flamenco Repertory Company and has toured with world-renowned, New York-based company Noche Flamenca. Along with teaching and performing Ramirez produces events and festivals, including the Traditional and Ethnic Dance Festival with the Southwest Folklife Alliance and Caseta Flamenco for the annual folklife festival Tucson Meet Yourself.
