by Nancy
Snipper
“I was a very sad girl. My parents
divorced when I was young,” said Patricia Linares – San Miguel’s great flamenco
feline. At the age of ten, she went to a flamenco concert in Mexico City, and
bewitched by what she saw.
“I knew this is what I wanted to do for my life.
Flamenco was me.”
She studied with the great flamenco teacher, Joselito
in Mexico City for six years, and then moved to Madrid to the hot spot of
Corral de la MorerÍa – where flamenco stomping and gitano singing echoes from
every corner in the area. There she taught, and performed, as she did when she
moved to Seville to study, as well.
In 1989, Patricia founded the Instituto Mexicano de Flamencología.
Many of her students went on to even perform with her. In 2011, she founded the
Centro Cultural de arte flamenco
which gives classes to all ages of flamenco aficionados.
“If you want to teach, you have to know
how to sing.” Patricia sings, and when I went to her huge dance studio – part
of her house which took her 23 years to finish building, she gave me a mini
performance of her brilliant talents – which included the various rhythms of
flamenco and she sang. I watched this diminutive woman transform into a muse of
movement and emotion with her allegrÍas –
a flamenco dance expressing happiness; she also danced soléa – a mournful
sorrow, and siguiriga – deep anguish.
Patricia’s sister, Sylvia Cruz sings in
the trio which also includes her guitarist husband, Juan Rosas Avila. The
family involvement in flamenco is remarkable.
Indeed, her mastery of the dance
garnered her second prize for her Soléa in the prestigious Concurso Nacional de arte flamenco in Cordoba in 1986.
“Flamenco is for everyone. I feel this
dance has made me a citizen of the world. When I go on stage, my feelings
change. I go into another world.”
Visit her two websites:
and
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