Alegria Academia de Baile Flamenco recently celebrated its end of the scholastic year with a much-needed celebration at Bottegin Palazzo Xara in Rabat.

This scholastic year was a very busy one for the school and for the Dance Company.  The highlight of events was the Academy performance Amor that, for the first time was also held in Gozo, and which enjoyed full houses both in Malta and Gozo.  Alegria Dance Company enjoyed participation in Vespers at Pjazza Teatru Rjal in October, Carmen at Teatru Manoel in February and El Sagrado in April which was an interesting project with funeral marches.

Alegria was buzzing with activity and lots of hard work and finished off at the end of June with the Alianza Flamenca Assessments. This year the school is very proud to announce that Estelle Bonello Sant, the choreographer of the school, has been granted her Teacher's certificate for Alianza Flamenca. Alegria is also proud that all students who attempted their assessments got their certificate with very impressive remarks on the high standard of Flamenco that they exhibited and which the school works hard for.

The evening finished off with the handing out of awards which included a few new ones this year.  An incentive for all young members, Elena Maria Grixti was awarded a brand new pair of castanets for Perseverance and Cheerful Spirit and Marelaine Mercieca was awarded the Alegria & Puerto Flamenco scholarship to attend a workshop with Puerto Flamenco in 2018. An opportunity for all beginners of flamenco who attempted their first Alianza assessment was introduced and Lucienne Camilleri was awarded the Alianza Flamenca Scholarship to enter her second assessment in 2018.  Louisa Dalli was awarded the Dhalia Local Scholarship to attend any flamenco dance classes for the next scholastic year and Jes Sciberras got the Comsec International Scholarship. Jes will be attending a course during the 2018 Festival de Jerez in Spain.

Realising your Passion is what Alegria sets out to do and our intention is to give many opportunities to its members who work hard and deserve it. We now look forward to a short break and get ready to embrace another scholastic year beginning on Monday, 2 October.  A free trial class for Flamenco for kids, flamenco for adults and Estilizada for ballet trained flamenco dancers will be held on Monday, 25 September from 5.30pm onwards.  For more information send an email on: [email protected]

We do hope to see you all at TikkaAlegria which is another experimental flamenco work for Alegria Dance Company which will be held on 2 August as part of Evenings on Campus.