Lecture and Presentation

Flamenco, Sephardic, and Arab-Andalusian Music emerged from a shared cultural heritage in Southern Spain beginning around the 9th century. Today, these enduring musical forms and practices that emerged out of the cultural crucible of the Iberian Peninsula continue to inspire cross-cultural collaboration and experimentation that are truly sin fronteras.

“Un sonido que nos manda sentir”–a sound that makes us feel–that’s how flamenco singer David Lagos from Jerez de la Frontera describes the essence of flamenco. From medieval al-Andalus and la Convivencia and on to the diasporas of the present day the art form endures and thrives.

This talk by Flamenco dancer, scholar, and Ph.D. Elena Villa, explores some of the commonalities between three art forms (Flamenco, Sephardic, and Arab-Andalusian Music) that grew from a geographic space whose unique history saw rich cultural expansion and innovation, political turmoil, and the trauma of expulsion.

7 PM All Ages FREE: REGISTRATION REQUESTED, please consider donating at checkout ($6-$12 suggested donation).

Elena Villa:
Elena Villa has combined a lifelong pursuit of dance studies, including a professional dance career, with a scholarly and academic acumen. She received an M.A. in Literature from UC Santa Cruz in 1998, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Oregon in 2006. Her scholarship focuses on representations of dance in literature and film, cultural and performance studies, feminist and postcolonial writers, Orientalism, and themes of self and other in 19th-21st-century narrative. Elena teaches in the English department at Portland Community College, Sylvania and teaches and performs flamenco and MENAT dances in diverse venues in the North West.