Flamenco Dance

We have a famous Flamenco Dancer in our group.

Iris Dekker From The Netherlands finished her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Amsterdam in 2010 with a degree in Theatre Studies. During her studies she focussed more on dance, participating in exchanges offered by the School of New Dance Development (SNDO) at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Iris also spent 8 months in Oslo, studying a minor at master level on playwright Henrik Ibsen. After finishing her university degree Iris worked for 4 years as a TV editor for Dutch television production company TV Holland, creating television shows for Dutch television. In 2014 Iris left Holland behind and moved to Seville, Spain to study dance full time at the flamenco academy Fundación Cristina Heeren. She studied here under the daily guidance of great maestros for 3 years, for which the last year she received a scholarship. Iris continues to dance flamenco and regularly performs and teaches. She has an educational flamenco project called Online Dance Classes that she performs at international universities and schools in Seville. In recent years Iris has moved more towards the contemporary side of flamenco and dance in general. These developments have led her to create contemporary pieces such as ‘Primer Aliento’ and ‘Relativity’.

When the corona virus hit, and I found myself at home with all of my performances cancelled, not knowing when things would pick up again, I knew that I had to reinvent myself. Adapt to this new situation and this new world that will have changed forever.

I started taking a lot of classes online from all these amazing teachers, people that I otherwise would have never been able to take classes with. That gave me the idea to start Flamenco Classes online, with the goal to gather people from all over the world in this virtual space to learn more about Flamenco. It worked, every Sunday I have people from all over the world in my Flamenco class, from Egypt to Germany. From the safety and intimacy of their own living rooms they can just for a brief moment travel virtually. Forget about the situation in the world, and emerge into Spanish Culture.

My classes are for everyone, all ages and abilities. For everyone there is something to be learned from my class. Because Flamenco is not just dancing. What I have been teaching my students all these years and also in these online classes is that flamenco is mostly improvised. The flamenco artists create flamenco in the moment on stage. They all speak the ‘flamenco language’, and they communicate on stage to create this amazing art form in the moment. This means that the flamenco artists, dancer/ singer/ guitarist, are always connected, and this creates an ultimate dependency and a sort of energy that I feel like is unique and can only been seen and felt so deep in flamenco.When I came to Sevilla I had to spend years studying to master this art form, to learn not just about dance but also about the guitar and the singing. When all these elements come together magic happens and we create the art flamenco.

So my classes are not just dancing, they are also based on learning more about all the different elements that are involved in creating flamenco. Listening to music, looking at video’s etc. Every class has a theme, so every class you can learn something new.

Next to that I have noticed myself how important it is to keep moving during Lockdown, to keep dancing! So we also dance! We move our hands, arms, feet! We bring Flamenco alive with our bodies!

My main goal with the online classes is to teach more about flamenco in an accessible and fun way. To make people understand and feel flamenco!

So feel free to join!

For more information check out her website: http://www.irisvictoria.eu/en/

Sign up for classes now Click here..