LGBTQIA+ FLAMENCO WORKSHOPs
4 x 2-hour sessions
Dates: 2nd, 9th, 16th & 23rd August 2025
Structure: 1 hour technique & cultural context + 1 hour choreography
This four-part workshop series will introduce participants to the fundamentals of flamenco, while building confidence, elegance, and expressive presence. We’ll explore the strength, power, and control that flamenco demands, how it disguises insecurity through commanding body language and audience engagement.
We will aim to produce a 4-minute choreography, focusing on TIENTOS, a flamenco palo (style) which is slow and sensual in tempo but also expressive and proud. This gives us an opportunity to look at posture and flamenco’s classical influence, and how the dancer develops a dramatic persona through stillness, slow movements and striking poses.
We will be working with TIENTOS to develop queer physicality through flamenco. Generally this style is danced by women, so it provides an opportunity to subvert its traditional role. Flamenco history is rich with figures like Carmen Amaya, who in the 1940s defied gender norms by performing in a male suit and pioneering aggressive solo footwork. These workshops will honour that legacy by working with gender as something that doesn't necessarily belong to a single person or a body, but to masculine and feminine moments in each dance.
Tientos uses a 4/4 rhythm, making it accessible for beginners. Towards the end of the choreography, we’ll shift into Tangos Flamencos, a livelier, more upbeat style, to explore a more aerobic, lighter and playful physicality.
Each 2 hour session will follow this general structure:
PART 1 : Intro to Flamenco history and TIENTOS / Learning and practice of rhythm with palmas (claps) / Warm-Up / General body, hands and footwork technique.
PART 2: Learning of TIENTOS and TANGOS choreography / Practice / Warm-down.