OUR HISTORY
Flamenco Sin Fronteras started in 2009 as a informal group when 5 Singaporean flamenco dancers, Daphne Huang Vargas, Tilly Wong, Gan Hui Hui, Chang Hsiao Min and Chen Kunyi , who were under the tulalege of Flamenco maestro Antonio Vargas, wanted to come together to create Flamenco projects that would extend Flamenco beyond borders and were meaningful to us. We created a multidisciplinary project Cinco Suenos in Arts House Playden, that combined elements of visual arts animation, poetry, drama with Flamenco dance and music.
Since the inaugural production, Flamenco Sin Fronteras has grown to include many other core company dancers and musicians who have contributed to the growth and expansion of the company. We created many projects that included collaborations with both local and overseas artistes.
They included Flamenco Cantata (collaboration of Singapore Youth Choir, Dr Robert Casteels, and Flamenco masters Talegon de Cordoba, Carmen Talegona and Jorge Padilla); Chijmes Flamenco Festival and Vivocity Flamenco Festival that brought a variety of Flamenco programs to the general public that included collaboration of local musicians (such as Tabla player Nawaz Mirajkar, Jazz Guitarist Rick Smith, NUS Rondella amongst many others) with overseas Flamenco Spanish artistes.
In November 2011, Flamenco Sin Fronteras registered to be a formal non profit company and attained Institute of Public Character (IPC) status in April 2013. Our inaugural production as a formally registered company was " THE HOUSE" in March 2013, a novel adaptation of Garcia Lorca's famous play that transported the production to a Peranakan household, with a mix of actors, dancers and a original musical ensemble which performed to rave reviews.
Since 2013, Flamenco Sin Fronteras strives to continue to produce work that challenge and inspire us as artistes as well as to extend Flamenco without borders and build bridges through collaborative work in our commmunity.
Flamenco Sin Fronteras vision is to promote Flamenco across Borders, by returning to its roots with its eclectic mix of Indian, Arabic and Jewish origins, while pushing artistic borders and exploring new frontiers by presenting Flamenco in novel and diverse ways, such as dance theatre adaption of famous poets, playwrights and novelists; fusion with other musical genres and dance forms; and exploring contemporary and cutting edge presentations. One important aspect of our vision is creating works that continuously challenge and inspire us as artistes; remain relevant in today’s society yet entertaining, and involves the collaboration of both overseas and established Singaporean based artistes, and relates to our Singaporean based Asian culture in a modern world.
Flamenco Sin Fronteras hopes to share Flamenco as a way of life, not only for the gypsies in Andalusia, but also as a way of life for non-Spaniards who adopt this art form, as there are links and distant roots that can be found in the soils of Southeast Asia, as the familiar Oriental tunes with Arabic and Indian influence with its percussive nature, the strong tradition of the family and the universal expression of the human condition, strike a familiar chord that connects us to our own distant past.
Another important artistic mission of FSF is forging long-term partnerships with various social causes in community outreach projects, which have included Club Rainbow, M.I.L.K fund,Singapore Association of Mental Health, amongst others. Flamenco can be used as a therapeutic form of emotional release and expression while improving co-ordination, movement and musicality in disadvantaged communities.
Our distinction amongst other Singapore performing arts companies lies in our dedication to arts education amongst the young, as well as the commitment of our artistic director, Maestro Antonio Vargas, to nurture the future of flamenco dance theatre in Singapore through training world-class flamenco dancers. Maestro Antonio Vargas has a distinguished career in leading dance companies of Spain and Australia and has choreographed for many well-known movie productions such as Mission Impossible and Strictly Ballroom. He is currently grooming a new generation of Singaporean and Singapore-based artistes to lead Singaporean flamenco into the future.