The “Vancouver International Flamenco Festival,” produced by Flamenco Rosario, celebrates its 35th anniversary this year with a program that blends authentic Spanish tradition and contemporary experimentation.

La Música del Flamenco

• On Sunday, September 28 at 8 pm.
• At St. James Community Square. Buy tickets.

The Gypsy José El Cachito Díaz (voice) and Caroline Planté (guitar) return to the stage after performing with Flamenco Rosario to present a traditional flamenco concert in an intimate setting.

Flamenco Rosario & Guests: Soulfulness

• On Saturday, September 27 at 8 pm.
• At the Vancouver Playhouse. Buy tickets.

An evening of ensemble pieces and solos, both traditional and contemporary flamenco works by Flamenco Rosario dancers and international guest artists.

Soulfulness, in essence, is about living with a deep sense of purpose, meaning, and connection, both within oneself and with the world around. It is about living with emotional depth, truth, and a genuine expression of one’s inner self.

—Rosario Ancer

Karen Flamenco: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

• On Friday, September 26 at 8 pm.
• At the Waterfront Theatre. Buy tickets.

Vivaldi and Flamenco meet in Karen Flamenco’s journey through the Four Seasons.

Spring colours will swirl with promise of something new. Summer holds a fear wrapped in shawls and long ruffled skirts. Autumn brings a bounty with percussive canes and clapping. Pulsating castanets represent the cold shiver of Winter’s wrath.

Seffarine: De Ferez a Jerez

• On Thursday, September 25 at 8 pm.
• At the Waterfront Theatre. Buy tickets.

This concert brings together the music of both sides of the Straits of Gibraltar — Spanish flamenco and Moroccan Arabic music.

Palabra Flamenco: Dark Sounds

• On Wednesday, September 24 at 8 pm.
• At the Waterfront Theatre. Buy tickets.

Palabra Flamenco is a series of flamenco literary performances featuring members of Palabra Flamenco alongside poets Garth Martens and Jan Zwicky. This unique reinvention of the flamenco tradition brings together two poets with a dancer and a guitarist, who improvise and respond to the English-language poetry and storytelling.

Be/Sois

• On Tuesday, September 23 at 7 pm. At Alliance Française Vancouver.
• Short film screening, live guitar performance, and artist talk. Buy tickets.

Social conditioning suffocates the human, confining them in a tunnel with no light. In her world, the dancer explores and transcends the duality within herself. Aspiring to become a simple atom, she merges into the planetary spiral. This atom grows, revealing a hidden light. The revelation is simple: we know nothing, we are a particle in the infinite universe. Be nothing. Be.

Don't miss the DC Artists Showcase, a series of free performances on September 20–21, as well as masterclasses and workshops.