Flamenco de la Isla Society was formed in 1998 to advance the knowledge and appreciation of flamenco through education, financial support, scholarships, and performance opportunities for professional, amateur, and aspiring flamenco artists in Greater Victoria and on Vancouver Island. The Society regularly produces flamenco shows, collaborates with local businesses, and leads fundraising efforts to support student and professional scholarships. In 2013 the Society started the Victoria Flamenco Festival to bring local and international flamenco artists together, to learn from each other and to collaborate in some of the best live flamenco shows this Island has ever seen.

The Board of Directors is grateful to live and learn on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish Lekwungen speaking peoples, the Quw’utsun Tribes, the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples and many other nations on Vancouver Island. Our current organizational work includes developing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion policies, sponsoring a community needs survey, developing transparent processes for the disbursal of scholarship funds, and prioritizing partnership development.

We celebrate that Vancouver Island is home to several flamenco guitar makers, many professional artists, companies and instructors, and a huge and growing base of flamenco students. Since the 1990’s, members of our community have shared flamenco arts and cultural practices across Vancouver Island, through workshops in communities such as Hornby Island, Denman Island, Campbell River, Duncan, Nanaimo, Courtenay, Cumberland, Ladysmith, Ucluelet and Tofino. Local teachers have offered regular classes in Courtenay, and classes in Nanaimo that have attracted students from Parksville, Qualicum, Gabriola Island, and Salt Spring Island. During the pandemic, the Flamenco Festival online programming received over 5,300 views, and up-Island communities expressed much appreciation for this accessible programming.

Flamenco is an improvisational, participatory art form that requires long-term engagement in its passions and protocols. The Flamenco de la Isla Society works to help the diverse flamenco community flourish across Vancouver Island by providing support to all of our members, from aficionados to artistic directors, and by making flamenco financially accessible to the whole community. 

Board of Directors

Constitution

As presenters of the Victoria Flamenco Festival we are proud to support flamenco on Vancouver Island.