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Festival Flamenco Alburquerque, now in its 39th year, is the largest flamenco festival outside of Spain. For the second year in a row, Festival Flamenco is also sponsoring the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Fringe Festival, a unique showcase for nontraditional forms of movement and dance. Both week-long festivals start on Friday, June 19, bringing a wide range of world-class performances to Duke City dance lovers.

At Festival Flamenco, more than 100 artists will perform contemporary and traditional flamenco dances, as well as related forms, such as son jarocho, a style of music and dance from Veracruz, Mexico. Marisol Encinias, the executive director of the National Institute of Flamenco, which organizes the festival, said the diversity of dance styles is a hallmark of their programming.

鈥淎ll of these very distinct and diverse artists will be presenting their full works within the festival,鈥� Encinias said. 鈥淪o, what you see here in the festival 鈥� is this huge array of different interpretations and different artistic choices. There鈥檚 just so much to choose from.鈥�

This year鈥檚 festival will feature 11 U.S. dance premieres, as well as the world premiere of Spanish dancer and choreographer Susana Casas鈥� 鈥淐贸mo Reluce鈥� (鈥淗ow It Shines鈥�), a work created especially for the festival.

鈥淪usana Casas is from Sevilla. 鈥� She鈥檚 a beautiful flamenco dancer, and she鈥檚 working with a male dancer from C谩diz, named Juan Fernandez,鈥� Encinias said. 鈥溾�� This work is emblematic of her style 鈥� which is more of a traditional, Sevilla-style flamenco.鈥�

On the more contemporary end, Mar铆a Pag茅s will present the U.S. premiere of 鈥淐ompa帽铆as de Scheherezade鈥� (鈥淪cheherazade鈥檚 Companions鈥�).

鈥淢ar铆a Pag茅s is an incredible choreographer, and she鈥檚 the director of a very important dance center in Madrid (Spain), called the Centro Danza Matadero. 鈥� I saw this work at a festival in Spain last year鈥� which tells the story of Scheherazade (from 鈥極ne Thousand and One Nights鈥�) 鈥� and the resilience and brilliance and beauty of this woman 鈥� and women in general,鈥� Encinias said. 鈥溾�� It tells a story in an incredibly beautiful, artistic way that is not cliche. It was one of the strongest large-scale flamenco company performances I had seen in a long time, and I knew I wanted to present it in the festival.鈥�

This year鈥檚 Festival Flamenco will also introduce two new competitions 鈥� Certamen Coreogr谩fico and Concurso de Tablao 鈥� as well as a juried platform for youth, called Puentes Flamencos. Certamen Coreogr谩fico is a choreographic competition, whose winner will receive a $1,000 prize and the opportunity to perform at the festival鈥檚 grand finale event, Fiesta Flamenca, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center on Saturday, June 27.

Concurso de Tablao, meanwhile, is a competition for tablao, a type of improvised flamenco.

鈥淭he choreographic competition is based on set choreography for theater, whereas tablao is a very different kind of skill set, because it鈥檚 much more improvised,鈥� Encinias said. 鈥淭he dancers that are in that (competition) don鈥檛 know who the musicians are going to be. So, they鈥檙e performing together based on communication codes that are required to do flamenco.鈥�

Puentes Flamencos will showcase outstanding youth flamenco dancers, all of whom will also receive some form of scholarship.

鈥淚鈥檝e been working to get scholarships for them at different training academies around the world 鈥� some of them in prestigious institutions in Sevilla and Madrid 鈥� giving the kids additional opportunities and inspiration to continue their study of the art form,鈥� Encinias said.

In addition to dancers and choreographers, Festival Flamenco will highlight many acclaimed flamenco musicians.

鈥淚n the United States, specifically, people often think of flamenco as dance, but flamenco is really as much, if not more so, the music. So, this year, I鈥檓 very excited to present several shows that are music-forward and some shows that have only music,鈥� Encinias said. 鈥淥ne of those shows is by an incredible artist by the name of Miguel Poveda, who鈥檚 going to be performing on Tuesday, June 23. He鈥檚 one of the most recognized singers in Spain today and probably one of the most recognized artists that we鈥檝e ever brought to the festival.鈥�

For those looking for something more experimental or avant-garde, the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Fringe Festival returns for its second year with a series of nonflamenco performances at the University of New Mexico鈥檚 Carlisle Gym (aka Carlisle South) and other sa国际传媒官网网页入口 venues. The festival is inspired by other fringe festivals, which tend to present an eclectic array of experimental performances.

鈥淭he shining example of a fringe festival is the Edinburgh Festival (in Edinburgh, Scotland), which is very hodgepodge 鈥� anyone with any project can contact the venue and get on the Edinburgh Fringe listing. So, we wanted some of those elements. We had an open call, and we didn鈥檛 curate it,鈥� Madrone Matysiak, festival co-founder, said. 鈥淲e are imagining sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Fringe as the kind of thing where you can go to a show one night and see something you really love, then the next night go and see something you would have never seen otherwise.鈥�

Co-founder Elyse Fahey said the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Fringe Festival is more dance- and movement-oriented than many similar festivals.

鈥淏ecause of our affiliation with the National Institute of Flamenco, and because we are both dancers, it was important to us to keep it heavier on the movement side,鈥� Fahey said. 鈥淏ut, these days, in contemporary dance, the lines between dance and theater are getting pretty blurred, and there鈥檚 a lot of experimental stuff going on.鈥�

The Fringe Festival officially kicks off Friday, June 19, with an event at Tony鈥檚 Pizzeria in Nob Hill, but Matysiak and Fahey recommend their Saturday evening opening ceremony, 鈥淓utrapelia,鈥� for anyone who wants to sample the range of works on offer at the festival.

鈥淥ur opening ceremony is a meander throughout the Popejoy lobby that includes breakdancing, butoh and improvisational contemporary movement,鈥� Matysiak said. 鈥淭here will also be live cello and singing by an ensemble created by local cellist and artist Caitlin Fahey Crow, who鈥檚 actually Elise鈥檚 (Fahey鈥檚) sister. It鈥檚 going to be like a cello music flash mob.鈥�

Other festival programming ranges from 鈥淯nbound,鈥� a ritual-centered performance exploring director Sarah Hogland-Gurul茅鈥檚 Gen铆zaro history and identity, to 鈥淪parkling Bones,鈥� Fahey鈥檚 contemporary dance piece about death and beauty, which both Fahey and Matysiak will perform in.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e hoping is that people will come for Festival Flamenco, find out that there鈥檚 these weird little other shows happening and come see them,鈥� Matysiak said. 鈥淎nd then, vice versa, people coming to Fringe can take advantage of the fact that there are incredible international flamenco artists here. Elyse and I have been able to see shows at Festival Flamenco that changed our lives 鈥� and we didn鈥檛 have to travel to Spain to see them.鈥�

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the sa国际传媒官网网页入口. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at .