Members of Alegria Academia, Malta and one student from Alegria India have just returned from Jerez de la Frontera where they attended the XV Flamenco Festival held annually in this Andalucian town, famous for its sherry. Alegria has the pleasure to have been present at this festival for the last 10 years. This year was all the more special as, since November of 2010 Flamenco has been declared as a UNESCO World Heritage.

The participants attended courses with renowned maestros of Flamenco namely Maria del Mar Moreno, Andres Pena, Blanca del Rey, Pilar Ogalla, Juan Antonio Tejero and Rafaela Carrasco. Apart from attending classes, the members also had a variety of lectures and discussions relating to Flamenco dance and music and enjoyed performances by great Flamenco dancers, guitarists, singers and percussionists, such as La Farruca, Remedios Amaya, Manuela Carrasco, La Tremendita, Olga Pericet, Ruben Olmo, Miguel Poveda and Javier Baron. Alegria also had the privilege to have welcomed at the studio in Malta, some of the artists performing at the Festival, who will be once again visiting Malta in the coming weeks.

All students who successfully completed their courses obtained certificates and many favourable comments from their maestros. Applications for the XVI Festival to be held in 2012 will be open from September of this year.

For further details email the Alegria Academia on [email protected]