3/5/2014 12:00:00 AM

The Philadelphia Flamenco Festival kicks into high gear this week with the presentation of three new works choreographed by Flamenco innovator Rosario Toledo. Entitled TAPAS, the entertaining and highly original works premiere in the 4th Floor Main Building Dance Studio on the evenings of Thursday, March 6, Friday, March 7th and Saturday, March 8th.  For the past month, Toledo, from Cadiz Spain, has been in Philadelphia working with Philadelphia’s own acclaimed tap dancer Germaine Ingram, post-modern dancer Meg Foley, and interdisciplinary movement artist Eun Jung Choi. Toledo will be dancing in each work, acccompanied by the brilliant Flamenco guitarist Dani DiMoròn. Click here to watch a video on the creation of TAPAS.

Drexel will also be hosting free master classes with all of the Festival’s principal artists as well as a series of free lectures on Flamenco. For the Festival’s full schedule and to purchase tickets, please click here. Drexel students, faculty and staff can receive a 10 percent discount by purchasing tickets through the Philadelphia Flamenco Festival site and entering promo code “westphal."

Next week will mark the first Philadelphia appearances of Israel and Pastora Galván . Israel has won nearly every top flamenco prize possible and a recent The New York Times review said, “it is extremely rare in any genre to see a dancer of this singular imagination and authority.” His sister Pastora Galvin has been celebrated for her extraordinary skill as a traditional flamenco dancer who disobeys flamenco archetypes of female beauty by embracing ugliness, vulgarity and absurdity. The 2014 Philadelphia Flamenco Festival will present both Galvin’s in separate performances beginning on March 13th.

Israel Galván will be accompanied by jazz pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, vocalist Ines Bacan, and rhythm accompanist Bobote. Giraldillo Prize-winning guitarist Dani de Morón will accompany Pastora Galvin. Presented by Philadelphia’s premiere all-female flamenco dance-company Pasión y Arte, the Philadelphia Flamenco Festival has been made possible with support from the James L. Knight Foundation through the Knight Arts Challenge. “Nuevo Flamenco: The Galvan Legacy” has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage.