Riga has just celebrated its 810th birthday with concerts, markets, a knights' tournament, a retro car parade, a salsa marathon, a regatta, aerobatic displays, and many other engaging and crowd-pleasing events. It seems the highlight of this year's celebrations was not the customary fireworks - also impressive enough - but the casting of a key to Riga from 52,763 keys previously donated to a chest.
When I stumbled upon the promotional article by chance, I was pleasantly surprised that a musician of such world standing would be performing right here in Latvia, and that tickets were available for a mere Ls 3. Of course, they were purchased without delay, and on Saturday evening we headed to Reņķis Garden in Ventspils. The British musician, despite his years, was just as charismatic as ever - but his voice had lost a good deal of the resonance of its younger years.
Returning home from the concert, we found that 1,500 shots had been saved to the camera's memory. Some time was needed to choose the best from the good and the very best from the best. The girls' costumes and graceful poses outdid one another - but judge and evaluate for yourselves in the photo gallery below.
The Duende flamenco club's dancers performed various flamenco styles - tangos, seguirias, tientos, alegrias, tanguillo, caracoles, guajiras, rumba, sevillanas. There were also guest dancers Sofija with a flamenco farruca and Anda with a contemporary dance improvisation. Alternating with Spanish rhythms, Argentine tango was also performed, and audiences could watch the sinuous tango dance steps in the performance of two couples - Kārlis and Dace, Aigars and Ginta.
Yesterday, on 17 April, the hall of the Riga Congress Centre resounded with vibrant Spanish rhythms. Energy flowed from every movement of the dancers, the flamenco musicians, and the singers. A powerful wave of vitality swept over all the audience members, who with every performance followed what was happening on stage with ever-increasing liveliness, applause, and cries of delight.
At the Almost Theatre Artelis on Monday evening - 22 November at 19:00 - in collaboration with the flamenco dance club Duende, a flamenco evening was held. The venue must be said to be ideal for such an evening - I cannot imagine a better one in Riga. One could enjoy Marianna's nimble dance steps and Agustin's velvety voice timbre.
From 26 to 29 August, the annual summer camp organised by the flamenco dance studio DUENDE took place in Zvejniekciems, with an opportunity for all studio dancers to gather together and learn from guest teachers - flamenco instructors from Spain. I took the opportunity to attend two days of compas classes with percussionist Andrej Vujicic, as well as tangos and alegrias dance technique with flamenco dancer Francesca Grimm.
Yesterday in the hall of the independent Riga theatre "Skatuve", the annual end-of-year concert of the flamenco dance club Duende took place. Various flamenco styles were danced on stage - tangos, farrukas, sevillanas, alegrias, tanguillo, bulerias. The performances were made more splendid not only by the variety of brightly coloured costumes, good dance technique, and the dancers' emotional engagement, but also by various dance accessories - castanets, fans, hats.
