Vancouver flamenco maven Rosario Ancer wins Dance Centre's Lola Award

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      The woman sometimes referred to as "the mother of flamenco in Vancouver" has just won the $10,000 Lola Award.

      Rosario Ancer, who founded Centro Flamenco here in 1989 and launched the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, receives the award presented to a senior-level choreographer every two years. It is named for beloved, late Vancouver dance artist Lola MacLaughlin.

      “This Award acknowledges a body of outstanding work which spans more than 25 years, and in particular, Rosario’s risk-taking artistic spirit and unflagging dedication to flamenco innovation, pursued through multidisciplinary collaborations and a progressive exploration and deconstruction of the form, which challenges conventional stereotypes," said Dance Centre executive director Mirna Zagar in the announcement today. "She has been instrumental in building the art of flamenco in our community and I am thrilled that her unique contribution has been recognized.”

      “I'm honoured and humbled to be the recipient of the 2016 Lola Award and also that the committee thought of me worthy of such an honour and distinction," Ancer said in a press statement. "I knew Lola as a kind, welcoming and profoundly humanistic person and a thoughtful and smart artist. She was an inspiration to me, as a person and artist. This award fuels me with the desire to continue exploring free, new and daring ways of expressing myself. Gracias Lola!”

      Mexican-born, Ancer trained in Spain and launched her professional career there in 1980, when she joined Ballet Español Antonio del Castillo.  In 1981 she danced with the prestigious Tablao Flamenco Arco de Cuchilleros in Madrid, later touring Mallorca and South East Asia with the Paco Mundo and Maria Velasquez Dance Company. She moved to Vancouver in 1989, cofounding Centro with her flamenco-guitarist husband Victor Kolstee (who she met in Spain), teaching the art form to students here long before it gained wide popularity .

      The raven-haired bailadora once told the Straight: "We lived and worked in Spain for years and we picked up all these nuanced things that if you are removed are hard to pick up. And we are lucky to be acquaintances with great artists....Unquestionably, you need technique to do flamenco, but if it’s only technique it’s not enough. So it’s more about understanding flamenco. That’s what you get through our experiences—we want to pass that knowledge.”

      Among the works she has created for her company Flamenco Rosario are the multimedia, autobiographical Mis Hermanas; Thicker Than Water My Sisters and I, as well as RAICES: An Exploration to the Tangled Roots of Flamenco, Flamenco Ayer y Hoy, Fantasía Flamenca, Danzas de España, and Los Cuatro Vientos.

      Among her other projects and accolades, she won a Mayor’s Arts Award in 2012, received the Isadora Award for Excellence in Choreography in 2009, and has worked as a guest artist at both the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Vancouver Opera.

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