the crumbs, Flamenco Queer, Alba Carmona, Mayte Martin, Karen Lugo o little boy are some of the Catalan artistic proposals included in the program of the Girona Flamenco Festival, FlamenGi. The artistic direction of the contest, which is in its fourth edition, is in charge of the flamenco made in Catalonia activist from Girona Naomi Osorio, also a dancer and cultural manager, who wants to claim this year the “inclusive and diverse origins of flamenco art”. The FlamenGi poster includes twenty performances that will take place during the month of November in the Girona capital. Other prominent names are that of the Yolanda Cortés dance company or that of Pol Jiménez. There will be a preview by Mayte Martín on September 24.
The organizers of the festival emphasize that FlamenGi is a “social and local” festival born in Girona’s neighborhoods, “some of them at risk of vulnerability”, and emphasize that the poster for this fourth edition includes shows and events that by Catalan talent with gender perspective.
The exhibition claims “the origin of flamenco art”, which “historically” has taken an approach that is “much more open, multidisciplinary, diverse and inclusive than the current stereotype of ‘traditional flamenco'”.
Those responsible for the initiative remind that FlamenGi is committed to programming “with a feminist perspective and with a gender perspective”, and they emphasize that this year, in addition, the LGTBIQ+ collective is included to claim that the origin of flamenco is “totally linked” with the queer community.
In this sense, the program includes the “subversive” show of Flamenco Queer; the performance ‘Lo Faunal’ by Pol Jiménez, which reflects on gender identity; the show ‘Colmao’, from the Cía. Yolanda Cortés, who looks back on this type of commercial establishment during the 1940s in Spain, and the online conference ‘Historia Queer del Flamenco’, by Fernando López, on flamenco and a gender perspective.
On the other hand, in the field of emerging talent, the festival programs the Girona artist El Güeno and the two groups that won the FlamenGi de Primavera, Las Flamenquitas by Loli Carmona and the Joven Ballet of the Pilar Sánchez school.
Another outstanding performance is that of ‘singer’ Pere Martínez, who will exhibit at the Girona festival the talent he has already shown around the world.