Nicolasa Chavez, Curator, International Folk-Art Museum
July 14, 2019 (Sun)

Passionate, fiery, sensual, intense—these words describe flamenco’s highly expressive and distinctive dance and music. Originally a folkloric art form, various traditions and influences contributed to its birth from fifteenth-century Moorish Spain to its golden-era nineteenth-century emergence, from a regional form to the café society emerging in Europe, to the American post-war roaring twenties that welcomed European culture and the “Spanish craze,” and, finally, to New Mexico where flamenco has been claimed it as part of a resurgence of traditional cultural arts. Nicolasa Chavez will explore the cultural roots and forces that allowed for its transformation from the caves of Andalusia to the cafés and theaters of Europe and New York and, inevitably, to the heart of New Mexico’s art scene. She will also discuss the popularity of flamenco around the world in such far away places as Argentina and Japan.

Nicolasa Chávez, is Curator of Latino/Hispano/Spanish Colonial Collections at the Museum of International Folk Art. A fourteenth generation New Mexican, she received her Master´s Degree in History with a concentration in Iberian Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her love of flamenco began during a year-long residency in Spain. She continued studies during her time at UNM and has joined several local groups as a soloist. She is the curator of the exhibition Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico at the Museum of International Folk Art, which was named by USA Today as one of the top 10 exhibitions of the summer of 2016. She is the author of the accompanying publication The Spirit of Flamenco: From Spain to New Mexico.

Supported in part by Haverland Carter Lifestyle Group and Sandia Laboratory Federal Credit Union