Clinard Dance's Flamenco Quartet Project
Wendy Clinard founded Clinard Dance in 1999. Rooted in flamenco, her productions are the result of years of work, of sustained, collaborative inquiry into a huge range of ideas.
Watch the Performance
Wendy Clinard founded Clinard Dance in 1999. Rooted in flamenco, her productions are the result of years of work, of sustained, collaborative inquiry into a huge range of ideas. This inquiry can take many forms but it always brings together people from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds and has to do with people's place and their sense of belonging. Their interdisciplinary works have been presented in the United States and abroad including India, Syria and China.
Currently Wendy Clinard and Elena Andújar, based in Seville Spain, are working on an International Connections Fund grant from the MacArthur Foundation. The focus of the project is to make connections between two generations (seniors in Chicago and youth in Spain), to bring them together through flamenco dance and music, by way of creating new letras (verses) of our time from the histories and stories of the participants. Wendy has lived, raised her family and taught flamenco in Pilsen since the early 1990’s.
Above photo by John Boehm
About the Performance
Clinard Dance started their Flamenco Quartet Project in 2014. Flamenco is the bridge for exploring a range of cultural influences, from Balkan jazz to klezmer; flamenco and classical Arabic and Spanish as well as recent collaboration with Son jarocho artists from Pilsen.
Quartet member Jose Moreno dances, sings, and plays the guitar. He was born into a family of famous flamenco artists Estrella Morena and Pepe de Málaga. Jose began his flamenco career at age 6 under the guidance of his parents. Jose has worked with distinguished artists such as Manolete, Joaquin Ruiz, Pastora Galvan, El Pecas, Jose Cortes “Pansequito”, Isabel Pantoja, David Bisball, and Omayra Amaya. He has choreographed and performed with his mother Estrella Morena, appearing with the renowned flamenco singer Carmen Linares and the New World Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Theater in Miami. He has also appeared at the annual Panama Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall and as a guest dancer for the Metropolitan Opera in NYC.
For this project Jose and Wendy will revisit excerpts from previous compositions as they relate to the Tangos and Alegrías flamenco forms.
Photo by John Boehm