I moved to Vancouver for the mountains, the ocean, the wooden houses with a front porch and, more generally to discover the North American way of life. So really, meeting a Vancouver-born professional Flamenco dancer wasn’t part of the plan.

A few weeks ago a couple of friends took me to Kino’s after I told them how much I liked Flamenco. I had vaguely heard about a regular Flamenco show somewhere in Vancouver but I didn’t pay much attention back then, I guess I was too busy snowboarding or something. But my friend convinced me to go with her, and for that I am very thankful! (Gaby, you rock!)

I grew up in France, where Flamenco is pretty big, Spain is our neighbour after all. My mother, who was born and raised in Chile, is a major hispanophile, her job is to teach Spanish in a high school in France so she lives and breaths the Spanish and South American culture, and that’s what she fed me growing up… and we would go to Spain so often that at times I felt as though my heritage was more Spanish than Chilean, even though my blood is technically 100% South American… But sorry, I digress.

Dance is an art I feel so passionate about that when I see a really good dance performance I feel like my heart is going to explode. This is pretty much how I felt when I saw the Flamenco show at Kino’s that Sunday. It was everything: the venue, the musicians, Venezuelan singer Luis Gutierrez and, above all, Karen and Christina’s beautiful performance. For the first time since I’ve moved to Vancouver I felt nostalgic. In a very good way.

I always figured that it would be hard to really appreciate something like Flamenco if it wasn’t part of your culture and I got the opportunity to find out how wrong I was when I met up with Karen a few days later. I was very curious to know the story of how she became a Flamenco dancer. She told me her parents signed her into ballet class as a child, hoping that it would help her overcome her shyness. Smart move. Karen eased her way through every level, studied at the Royal Academy of Dance and later went on to study more about teaching. She eventually got accepted in a ballet-teaching position in Singapore where she stayed for a year. But that’s not all, she also attended the Contemporary Dance Program at SFU, which allowed her to teach and choreograph contemporary dance as well. Then one day she walked into a Flamenco class at the Harbour Dance Centre, and despite not really knowing what to expect, she fell in love with Flamenco. The rest is history.

We spent about 2 hours chatting. She told me how privileged she feels to be able to live off her passion. Besides choreographing and performing, she loves to teach and learns a great deal from her students. Because Flamenco is not a dance that you can learn in a 6-week program, some of her students end up committing for the long term which means that over time she has built a real community of dancers and Flamenco lovers amongst her students, adding to the small Flamenco community in Vancouver.

What’s funny about Karen is that, even though her heritage is Scottish, she could easily pass for Spanish. Could it be that passion and dedication ends up shaping your looks?

Another beautiful thing about the show was seeing Karen performing each set in a different dress. I had to ask her where she got them thinking they were shipped directly from Andalucia… My jaw dropped when she told me she makes them herself! As it turns out, Karen also has a degree in fashion design and is a talented seamstress.

I have been meaning to write this blog post for a while but I struggled describing how amazing the show was because I am literally short of words… I can’t say more than that, this is something to be seen. Whether you know what flamenco is or not , whether you love it or are not sure you like it, I can guarantee that you won’t regret going!

Karen performs with Poema Flamenco every Wednesday and Sunday at Kino, 3456 Cambie Street.
Worth checking as well: Jose Lara every Saturday. He is this 77 years old Spanish man who dances and sings. And I heard he will blow your mind!
If you want to give Flamenco a go, visit Karen’s Flamenco School.

Snowboard champion Louie Vito competed in ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and he did a fine job! Granted he is not a great dancer but this shows exactly what I like about the snowboard world: people who are not afraid of failing and looking silly… Like we French people say: ‘Ridicule doesn’t kill you’… deeply everyone knows that it doesn’t, but I’d even say that sometimes it makes you damn cool!

The editing is not great but stay tuned until the end you don’t want to miss the salsa routine (start around 6:50).

I look forward to bumping into him during the Olympics… (yeah right!)

What I am doing tomorrow:

The video that I have been watching over and over again

Not normally a big fan of videos with kids but some people just know how to get it all right!