COYLE — If you find it hard to imagine Irish step dancing, hula, belly dancing and flamenco on the same stage — along with music from those traditions — you might want to look in on Lobo del Mar.
The 24-member ensemble will arrive at the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center this afternoon for another show in the Concerts in the Woods series.
This one’s a matinee at 3 p.m., and as usual it’s for all ages with admission by donation.
Lobo del Mar, Spanish for sea wolf, took its name from the boat its members once lived on.
“We were raised on the water,” said Rachael Panzer, the dancer who teaches and choreographs for her family band.
It was about 20 years ago that they started this venture; they were in Mexico, so they chose a Spanish name for it.
The family has sailed to Alaska, Latin America and Hawaii, and “in all these places, we picked up different dance styles,” Panzer said.
She was born in Port Townsend, and now that Lobo del Mar is based in Port Hadlock, she feels she has come full circle.
The band, with its guitarists, percussion players, pipers and dancers, is composed of Panzer’s siblings and other relatives and those who have married into the family.
Brady Buntin, Panzer’s uncle, is the unofficial leader of the pack.
“He taught himself to play bagpipes,” she said. “We play a lot of Scots-Irish music . . . we haven’t gotten [to the British Isles] yet, but we just really like the music,” which aligns with their heritage.
“The main vibe is Celtic,” Panzer added, with other genres stirred in, from flamenco all the way to bluegrass.
“This was the band that I liked best at the 2014 Juan de Fuca Festival last May,” concert presenter Norm Johnson said, referring to the Port Angeles’ Memorial Day weekend music festival.
Lobo del Mar’s show “is like a kaleidoscope of sight and sound. They look like they are having so much fun on stage,” he said, “you can’t help but share in their excitement.”
To find out more about today’s Concerts in the Woods matinee — and about the Blackberry Bushes show Sunday, Jan. 18 — see www.coyleconcerts.com.
For directions to the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center at 923 Hazel Point Road, phone Norm Johnson at 360-765-3449 or email johnson5485@msn.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily
news.com.
