Chorley woman creates new website for international flamenco lovers on International Flamenco Day
In time for the UNESCO-recognized International Flamenco Day (16th November), a woman from Chorley has created a new website that aims to help hundreds of thousands of people who love the flamenco art form but, as they live outside of Spain, struggle to find teachers and suppliers near to them.
While flamenco is intrinsically linked to Andalusia, the art form is becoming increasingly popular around the world, especially in Japan, Mexico, USA, Canada, Germany and the UK. However, practitioners and fans living outside Spain often have difficulty finding reliable information about instructors, suppliers, and the art form itself.
Former student at Parklands High School, Emma Radcliffe, created the website FlamencoFinder.com to centralize these resources, positioning itself as the premier global hub for the flamenco community outside of Spain. It signposts online teachers and dance schools, learning resources, online and physical stores, and artisans around the world. It also lists all the tablaos (flamenco show venues) in Spain and around the world in cities like Tokyo, London, New York and Sydney.
For countries like Japan, which has the largest flamenco student population outside of Spain, the art form is particularly revered for its cultural exoticism, which contrasts sharply with many East Asian cultural norms.
Emma Radcliffe, founder of Flamenco Finder commented: “When I first started to learn flamenco dancing, it was incredibly hard to find anything because all of the main resources are written in Spanish, and they’re about places and resources in Spain. I had to ask around fellow dancers and get tips from them. Even internet searches weren’t that fruitful, as you have to know what to search for.
“Having been to the Jerez Flamenco Festival and met dancers, guitarists, singers and percussionists from all over the world who had the same problem as me in finding teachers and suppliers, I realised that we all needed a solution. So, I created the website that I wished existed when I first started learning to dance flamenco.
“When I approached dance instructors in Spain who teach flamenco online in English, they were thrilled that there was finally a way for aspiring dancers around the world to find them.”