Joaquín Encinias Recaps Yjastros' Performance in Jerez
Joaquín Encinias, Yjastros artistic director, talks about the company's performance of "Xicano Power" at the 27th Annual Festival de Jerez , Spain, on February 28, 2023, and what's next for the company.
Yjastros: The American Flamenco Repertory Company is the first US-based flamenco company to be invited to perform at a Spanish flamenco festival, and the dance company in residence at the University of New Mexico.
Joaquín Encinias, Yjastros Artistic Director: The evening was called “Xicano Power,” based on the piece by Israel Galván that was in the concert, the third piece of the concert. It went really well. It was well received, I think.
The festival was really gracious with us and gave us a wonderful receptive welcome there. And we felt very welcomed and very honored to be part of that festival.
I think it was an important step for our company, and an important step for me personally, as an artistic director. The performers were incredible. The dancers did incredibly well. And the musicians did incredibly well.
We're looking forward to doing it in our Festival Flamenco Alburquerque in June here in Albuquerque.
Ungelbah Dávila, NIF Marketing Manager: What would you say the biggest win of the week was for you?
JE: It's a challenge to move such a big company, but, nobody was hurt, nobody was sick. So that's a big challenge. And, so I think the biggest win was, first of all, doing our best work without any hiccups.
I mean, I just feel like, so many things could have gone wrong and didn't. And I think that's a lot of luck, but also, it's a lot of hard work, and our company was well prepared. I think that's what I'm most proud of is that I feel we were well prepared, and we were ready.
UD: What was your favorite part of the experience?
JE: I got to see a bunch of shows, but of the performance experience for me personally, it's a surreal moment, you know, being there was surreal. And performing in Spain, as much as I've been to Spain many times before, it's not the same as when you're performing there.
I think one of the my favorite moments was between I was approached by this very elderly woman on the street, who was obviously a Spaniard woman and very short in stature and she just came up to me and two other dancers in the show, and just said that she thought we were incredible, and she couldn't believe what she had just seen. And that was very satisfying, you know. Obviously this woman who's been in the center of flamenco for a long time, and she really loved it.
UD: So what's next for Yjastros?
JE: Now that you're back home, we start the emerging artists project coming up. Dancers in the company do some choreography themselves. I think that it's an incredible thing coming up with our Spain trip. I'm sure a lot of them are ready for it and inspired. So, I'm looking forward to seeing them do that.
My sister and I will be working on our next show, which is going to premiere in November next year. We've been doing a lot of work getting that ball rolling, but we've gotten some good grants to do a project about Mestizo culture through flamenco.
So we're going to be working on that starting here very earnestly, now, and then the company will keep cleaning the “Xicano Power” show and getting it prepared for our June festival. Some very important choreographers will be here who have choreographers in the show, so I want to do the pieces really well for them.
The other thing that is so special about the Albuquerque festival is that those artists are here for 10 days in one place. In the Jerez festival artists come in, they perform and then they leave. Not a lot of people are there for the whole two weeks, or three weeks or four weeks. And at our festival a lot of those artists stay here, and so they're at shows every night. It's an incredibly warm and bonding experience at this festival. So I'm looking forward to doing our show in our festival for some of these artists to see and for the Albuquerque audience to see also.
