On behalf of my associate Kasandra “La China” and myself, it is with heart felt pride that I welcome new students and all of our students to our September Fall Session at Al Mozaico Flamenco Dance Academy. Why pride? Because we have one of the best flamenco schools in Canada! Join us for our Fall Term starting September 8th!

The first part of the year has proven to be a successful year of classes for all of our students.  We concluded our Winter/Spring session of classes with our "El Jaleo" in-studio performance, presented on July 20, 2007.  Many students showed their works-in-progress to the delight of friends, family and fellow students.

These Jaleo happenings have proven to be some of the most successful events that we present.  Andrea Williams was the person responsible for organizing this year’s event; something that Kasandra used to take care of.  With so much on her plate, this was a milestone for her to let other people take care of this event.  Andrew Klukas “El Toro” took care of the stage set-up and Jennifer Fitzpatrick was our stage manager.

       Andrea La Fifi                 Jennifer La Fitzi              Andrew El Toro

Also this year, Kasandra “our fearless leader” asked Andrea to teach an Introduction to Flamenco course on Sunday mornings. Along with Cyrena, our children’s teacher, we are slowly expanding our teacher base. Not an easy thing to do as we try to maintain a certain level of proficiency not only with our students but certainly with our teachers.  In the coming years our goal is to continue to expand our teacher base so that Kasandra and I will be freer to do the work with our company Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre.  In order to keep the company growing and performing, both Kasandra and I have to do the work of not only creating new choreographies and training dancers, but we also are busy writing grant proposals which are very time consuming.  But in order to produce our bigger productions, we have to continually work at getting both private sector sponsorship and also Government, Provincial and Municipal support.

Then of course there is the business of the day-to-day running of the school, which Kasandra does so well, even though she would rather be dancing. This year she has solicited the help of Luz Marina Meza to organize the studio rentals for our students.  Luz has been a tremendous help in keeping the studio clean, organized and running efficiently! 

La Luz

One of the areas of pride for me, as an example, is to walk into the rehearsal of "El Jaleo", which is just a few hours from performance time and see that everything is running according to plan.  My work has been done and all I have to do is set up the sound and get myself ready to be the MC for the performance.  There are too many people to thank without leaving someone’s name out so suffice it to say that I value each and everyone of the individuals who helps in getting the event off and running.

For the new students coming to our school for the first time, know that we welcome you with open arms and that the only thing we ask is that you study at the best level that you can, and you can be sure that all of our students will support you in your endeavors.

WELCOME!  And please feel free to ask questions not only from the students but the teachers as well.  This is your school afterall.

Sincerely,

Oscar Nieto

Artistic Director

             Oscar El Maestro