My Dancing

A little bit about me:

You can follow my current adventures at:http://adventuresinflamenco.blogspot.com/

Photo Credit: Luis Pons

My life is inseparably intertwined with flamenco.  Now, as I begin to define my dancing career, my other interests—particularly literature—are linking with my passion for flamenco and supporting my growth as a dancer.    

I began my formal dance training at age three in ballet class. I felt the expressive potential of dance and its many challenges, but by middle school, I outgrew ballet’s rigidity.  At this crucial point, I encountered flamenco. The intricate hand movements and complicated rhythms were challenges I wanted to master, and the movements’ expressive capacities satisfied my search for dance that was not limited to any one body type or expression.  Shortly thereafter, I attended classes at an international flamenco festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my hometown, seizing the opportunity to see some of the best dancers from Spain.   While watching a rehearsal there, a sort of vertigo took hold of me; as the music and dance filled the studio, the movements themselves pulled me into a world of whirling emotion where I felt I had become part of the dance.  That feeling of aliveness resonated inside me long after the feet slowed and the rhythm stopped. I knew in that moment that I had to dance flamenco.

Rehearsing with Rosario Toledo for the First Philadelphia Flamenco Festival

I studied at the National Conservatory for Flamenco Arts for five years, quickly becoming a soloist with the pre-professional company. Concurrently in high school, I worked on two independent studies writing research papers about flamenco’s history.  My knowledge of Albuquerque multiplied as I experienced firsthand its culture so rich with Spanish, Mexican, and Native American influences. In 2008, I received a Silver Award from YoungArts, a program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, which gave me added encouragement and resources. Being named one of 20 United States Presidential Scholars in the Arts enhanced my determination to simultaneously pursue flamenco and school. 

Poster from a performance I danced in at Alegrias in NYC

               Once at New York University, I sought out every opportunity to dance—studying, performing and teaching.  I have worked with Nélida Tirado, Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, Pasíon y Arte, Rosario Toledo, Rebeca Tomás, and many others since arriving in New York.  I have also taught and volunteered in many Arts in Education programs.  

               As a university student, I pursued my interest in flamenco just as fervently in the world of academics.  I graduated summa cum laude with a degree in comparative literature.  My honors thesis, which won the comparative literature thesis prize, analyzes Fernando Romero's flamenco performance based on Dante's Inferno, entitled, "Paseo por el amor y la muerte."  While at NYU, I received three different research grants to study flamenco, two to fund my thesis research, and one to study gender roles in flamenco while studying abroad in Sevilla in 2010.  In 2011, I choreographed a new piece using mantón (shawl), and musically reworked another with the collaboration of an accordion player, and presented the works at NYU as part of an independent study and performance entitled “Dibujos.”  Creating my own work was a difficult, but rewarding, process.

               

               Now I'm heading off to Spain with the support of a Fulbright grant to gain even more knowledge and understanding of flamenco so that I can create my own performances and express myself even more profoundly in this unique and beautiful art form.  

Performing in Cómplices in Philadelphia 2012, 
where reviews described my dancing as, 
"sharp, exhilarating" (Philadelphia Inquirer) 
and another reviewer noted "Blumenfeld's fierce presence 
(her movements seem to arise from several feet beneath the ground)" 
(thinkingdance.net).  
Photo Credit: Mike Hurwitz