High stakes, high emotion: How one dance can change the game.
Performers from Spain, Ecuador, Mexico, Taiwan and all over the U.S. wowed Saratoga before heading to NYC for a pressure-packed competition.
The modest-sized audience inside SPAC School of the Arts sat spellbound, before breaking out into roaring applause and a standing ovation. It was a sunny afternoon, and we’d been invited to watch a dozen or so finalists from around the world perform the finished flamenco dance routines they would bring to NYC for the 2025 Certamen USA competition for scholarships and career opportunities of a lifetime.
“I didn’t know what to expect,” said one audience member, shaking his head in wonder after the performance.
Describing the power of the centuries-old Spanish art form could never do it justice. As some of the competitors themselves had learned more deeply during their five-day residency here, it’s more than the steps — which are indeed incredible, a mesmerizing beat of lightning-fast and powerful stomps, plus the grace and strength that mark dancers of all genres.
The competitors were in Saratoga to level up their work via an intense five days with NYC’s Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana, one of the country’s premier flamenco companies that Saratoga last saw in March when it performed at Spa Little Theater. Before we saw them perform, the dancers had worked with the company’s mentors to improve their routines and marry the dances they created themselves to the accompaniment of Flamenco Vivo’s live musician and singer, with his hauntingly beautiful voice.
“We think that we come with an already finished piece, but it’s nothing like that,” says finalist Camila Valdiviezo, 38, a gerontologist and literature student from Ecuador. “It [turns out] I had a little piece of brownie, and now I have a full cake.”
“It’s definitely an adventure,” says mentor Rebeca Tomás, who performed with Flamenco Vivo here in the spring. “You get a video that they submitted of their dance so you have an idea. But you don’t know how they conceived the choreography or what they’ll be like when they first dance it with the [live] music.”
There were three big winners at the NYC competition: Amaia Villegas, Luis Beltra Ureña and Isabella Alderete.
“This week is centered around the competition, and there are prizes,” Tomás says. “But it’s really about helping them to push through to the next level of their performing.”
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SPAC brings global spotlight to Saratoga with new flamenco residency