10/14/2026
I spend a lot of time on social media, watching trends and observing how Flamenco is evolving. I have some concerns about the direction a lot of these artists are going.
I've seen some videos of groups performing Flamenco to Michael Jackson songs and other artists that have no resemblance to Flamenco. The costumes have pushed the boundaries on decency and decorum. So I thought I'd share my thoughts with you. I am a traditionalist, and I'm a little saddened that future generations will never know what the real art is.
So here's my editorial:
A Concern for the Direction of Flamenco
I have spent many years studying and teaching Flamenco, and I have seen it interpreted in many different ways. I do not believe an art form must stand still. Every generation brings new energy, new artists, and new ideas.
What saddens me is the possibility that, in the rush to make Flamenco flashier, faster, sexier, or more immediately entertaining, we may lose the very qualities that gave it depth: its music, its discipline, its restraint, its relationship to cante and compás, and its extraordinary emotional language.
Flamenco is capable of joy, humor, sorrow, defiance, tenderness, elegance, and power. It does not need popular music or spectacle to make it exciting. Its own history and structure are already rich beyond measure.
My concern is not with any one dancer or one performance. It is with direction. I hope that young artists will be encouraged to learn the roots of Flamenco as deeply as they learn its steps. Then, if they choose to explore and create, their work will grow from understanding rather than replace it.
To preserve an art is not to trap it in the past. It is to care enough to know what must not be lost.
