PORT ANGELES — Each time, Savannah Fuentes steps out further.
The Seattle-based flamenco dancer is independent, which means she books and promotes herself, her art form and her tour. And this time, she is embarking — with a vocalist from Spain’s traditional flamenco scene — on a 27-date sojourn from Vashon Island to Port Angeles to New Orleans and Lafayette, La.
With her show titled “La Primavera: Flamenco en Vivo” (“Spring: Live Flamenco”), Fuentes will appear at the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, 1235 E. Lauridsen Blvd., this Wednesday, March 4. The 7:30 p.m. performance marks a return visit, as Fuentes has found the venue and the audiences here welcoming.
As she has done before, Fuentes offers a ticket price for students and low-income patrons: $15. General admission is $22, VIP tickets with reserved seats in the first three rows plus an event poster are $35 and children’s tickets are $7, all at Brownpapertickets.com. More about the artist awaits at Savannahflamenko.com.
This tour is different, Fuentes said, as it brings both U.S.-based guitarist Gerardo Alcala and cantaora — singer — Kina Mendez of Spain together. This will be Mendez’s first trip to the Seattle area.
Mendez is from Jerez de la Frontera, in the province of Cadiz in Andalusia. And “Jerez style is a little more homemade . . . I’m always going to dance the way I dance,” Fuentes said, “but [this show] is going back to real traditionalism and core flamenco values.”
The Jerez region is known for its gritty style, “not super-orchestrated flamenco,” as Fuentes puts it.
“There is no other art form like it,” she added. “It is so emotional.”
Seattle is not known as a flamenco hotbed, Fuentes said. So she travels, as a kind of dance evangelist, never knowing whether she’s booked the right night of the week at the right venue. The dance, with its intensity, keeps her inspired.
Come see something you wouldn’t ordinarily see, Fuentes said.
“Come have an experience.”
