Flamencolía

Solo performance (one dancer)
A Flamencolía solo performance features award-winning dancer Lia Grainger in full traditional flamenco costume and accessories performing traditional flamenco dancing. This includes dances featuring "manton" (Spanish shawl) and "abanico" (fan). Traditional Spanish dance is a deeply expressive and emotional art form, expressing profound joy and suffering -- it is hard to be bored or indifferent to a flamenco dance performance. Expect rapid-fire percussive footwork, beautiful and elegant choreographies, and flawless hand-tailored costumes, all performed to the recorded music of the genres great masters.

Small Ensemble (one dancer, one guitarist, one singer)
The same passionate dance performance as in the solo performance, but accompanied by an award-winning flamenco singer (Tamar Ilana) and guitarist (Nicolás Hernández). This is flamenco as it is meant to be performed - with the performers interacting with one another and improvising live like jazz musicians. Audiences will be dazzled by the intricate guitar technique of legendary Canadian guitarist Nicolás Hernández, and moved by the emotion and skill of celebrated flamenco singer Tamar Ilana.

Larger Ensembles (custom)
Ensemble size can grow to accommodate your unique needs, up to 4 dancers, 2 guitarists, 2 singers, and a percussionist.

“The Peggy Baker of Canadian Flamenco.” - Carmen Romero, Canadian Flamenco Legend

“I am so grateful that I saw Lia Grainger’s La Forastera. She put all her cards on the table and danced us from Canada to Spain, lead by her love of flamenco. Perhaps expressing the pain of being an outsider is what flamenco expresses like no other.” - Jim Creegan, Musician, The Barenaked Ladies

“Like a Sade video, but 20 feet tall.” - Aurora Brown, Actor, Baroness Von Sketch

Evocative, precise, passionate. These are just a few of the words that have been used to describe the flamenco performances and choreographies of Flamencolia Ensemble, led by Spain-trained dancer and choreographer Lia Grainger. Her unusually long and lean physique makes Lia something of an anomaly in the flamenco world, a fact she has embraced to create a quality of movement — sharp and elegant — that is all her own.

Lia has regularly toured North America and Europe for the past decade and was based in Seville, Spain for five years before relocating to Toronto in 2019.

Technical requirements vary based on the size of the ensemble requested (from solo dancer to 9 person ensemble)

- Dance will always require a wooden surface to dance on (dancer can supply upon request for an added fee).
- Guitarists and singers generally require basic amplification. Stage plot and rider provided upon request.

**NOTE: Flamenco dance does not require a large amount of space and can be performed on very small stages, as small as 4 feet x 4 feet (thought more room is of course ideal!).