Organizational History

 Flamenco Fever is the Dallas-based nonprofit component of Alcantara Arts and Entertainment, which has been bringing the best of flamenco music and dance to North Texas since 1998, when it was founded. The organization received its IRS 501(c)(3) determination in 2018.

Flamenco Fever launched the week-long “Oak Cliff Flamenco Festival” in 2014 as its signature event. Each fall since, the Festival has presented performances by local and international flamenco artists, as well as flamenco- themed classes, culinary arts and cinema for diverse public audiences, employing more than 50 local performers and as many eight international dancers annually. Festival events each weekday also provide flamenco performances in restaurants, open air spaces, and performing arts venues in the contiguous Bishop Arts District and Deep Ellum communities, where the organization’s founder hosted flamenco festivals prior to moving to Oak Cliff. Since 2017, the highlight of the annual Festival has been the Paella y Pasion event held on the Festival’s opening Sunday, attracting the largest crowd, outside the Grand Finale, and providing the most diverse flamenco programming of the 7-day event.

Having  a single flamenco guitarist and no flamenco singers in Dallas/Ft Worth once stunted this community’s ability to affordably host or present authentic local performances for decades because such presentations require live music to retain the spontaneity characteristic of flamenco puro.   Flamenco Fever’s focus on addressing this need since 2015, and has been a very important stimulus for local flamenco artists and this art form.  Recognizing the paucity of flamenco musicians in the Metroplex, the organization now sponsors classes in the complex art of ‘flamenco communication’.  To date, this initiative has doubled the number of flamenco dancers and recruited four flamenco guitarists and more than half a dozen singers into Flamenco Fever’s training program.   

Flamenco Fever’s presentation and training initiatives now provide residents of Oak Cliff and surrounding communities of the Metroplex with the full flamenco experience, putting together all the pieces of an authentic flamenco community.  Flamenco Fever now seeks community support to further expand its outreach to new audiences and increase its impacts on their cultural knowledge, enjoyment and appreciation of and/or participation in and support of local flamenco dance and music.