K-12 Educational Experiences
Bring Spain to life in your classroom! Inspiring the next generation of creative and critical thinkers, building social skills, body awareness, and confidence! ¡Spain Alive! enlivens students’ experiences of Spanish language and culture with firsthand participation, opening a space for joy in learning. Lead teaching artist Alice Blumenfeld has over 14 years experience teaching in K-12 settings.
Performance & Class offerings:
Performance at St. Joseph Academy
Educational Performances
Our live performances feature live music and dance, combined with brief narration of the history and music and audience participation.
Student performance at Mendocino College
Residencies
In-school or after-school residencies give students the opportunity to learn flamenco in-depth with recurring classes. We partner with the Center for Arts Inspired Learning in NE Ohio to offer programs on flamenco and migration, titled Ida y Vuelta.
Workshop at the Children’s Grief Center
Workshops
Workshops consist of one-off classes or a short series of classes, usually designed for after-school or community programs. Students learn the basic dance steps and improvisational structures, culminating in learning a short dance.
Teaching Artist Alice Blumenfeld teaching flamenco online for the Kennedy Center’s Teaching Artists Present Series created during the pandemic.
We’ll find the right fit for your school or organization.
The lead teaching artist, Alice Blumenfeld, has over a decade of experience working in the public schools with all grade levels. We can design a program to fit a school’s needs and budget, or incorporate flamenco into on-going curriculum. The rhythms and spatial patterns of flamenco can be applied to math; the history and culture can be integrated into social studies; we can create a story-telling dance that ties into literature…the possibilities are endless to make your curriculum shine and engage students in new ways!
We offer all our programs in English or Spanish, or a mix of the two.
Extensive research shows the benefits of incorporating dance into school curriculums. From language arts to math, dance improves literacy by embodying concepts.
Share flamenco’s rich cultural history with students:
Flamenco is a music and dance tradition that formed in southern Spain (Andalusia) in the 19th century from a mix of Spanish, Moorish, Sephardic Jewish, West & North African, and Latin American traditions. Though most people think of the dance (baile), flamenco also includes the singing (cante), guitar (toque), and rhythmic handclaps (palmas). Many of flamenco’s songs come from the laborers and artisans of southern Spain who expressed their woes and joys through this exuberant folk tradition. Flamenco is traditionally an improvised form. Nowadays, flamenco can be seen all over the world, from small family gatherings to the world’s largest stages.