TICKETS
WED SEPTEMBER 11 - TORONTO, ON - SPECIAL TABLAO TOUR KICK-OFF AT DROM! 8PM! - PWYC
FRI SEPTEMBER 13 - VICTORIA, B.C. - METRO STUDIO THEATRE - TICKETS HERE
SAT SEPTEMBER 14 - SALMON ARM, B.C. - SHUSWAP THEATRE - TICKETS HERE
SUN SEPTEMBER 15 - KELOWNA, B.C. - ROTARY CENTRE FOR THE ARTS - TICKETS HERE
THURS SEPTEMBER 19 - VANCOUVER, B.C. - WATERFRONT THEATRE - TICKETS HERE
“LA FORASTERA”
TOURING B.C. - SEPTEMBER 13-19, 2024
La Forastera has been nominated for a 2023 Dora Mavor Moore Award in the category of Outstanding Performance by an Individual - Dance.
“La Forastera” (The Outsider) is a live flamenco dance production by Flamencolia Dance Company and featuring dancer and choreographer Lia Grainger accompanied by live guitar, singing and percussion. First presented in Toronto in 2022, the premiere run was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award in the category of "Best Individual Performance."
Through live flamenco music and dance, narration, documentary footage and interviews shot across Canada and Spain, “La Forastera” tells a love story, about the love between a woman and an art form that is not hers. It follows a young artist who falls in love with flamenco, and who follows her obsession to a foreign country in the hopes of assimilating and perfecting a foreign craft. It is about learning an art versus being born into it, about the things that cannot be taught but can only be gathered through lived experience, and the realization that every story has value.
Script, Choreography and Dance: Lia Grainger (Toronto)
Vocals: Carlos Lobo (Seville)
Guitar: Nicolas Hernandez (Toronto)
Percussion: Gabrielle Lemseffer (France)
Production and Lighting Design: Shawn Henry
Director of Photography and Editing: David Grimes
Costumes: Laura Nardone and Fatima Mora
Photography: Rodorod.com
Artistic eye: Carmen Romero, Oscar Nieto, Katherine Leyton, Linda Besner
Photo by Ali Soheil @Andallagi_Photography
about FLAMENCOLÍA DANCE COMPANY
Evocative, precise, passionate. These are just a few of the words that have been used to describe the contemporary flamenco performances and choreographies of Canadian dancer Lia Grainger, the founder and leader of Flamencolía Dance Company. Her unusually long and lean physique makes Lia something of an anomaly in the flamenco world, a fact she has embraced to create a choreographic vocabulary and quality of movement — sharp and elegant — that is all her own.
Born in Vancouver, Lia began her dance training in 2002, studying with renowned maestros Oscar Nieto and Kasandra “La China.” In 2004 she began performing regularly at the city’s famed flamenco peña, Kino Cafe. Lia performed with Vancouver’s Mozaico Flamenco Dance Theatre in 2007 before relocating to Toronto, where she continued her studies with Canadian flamenco legends Carmen Romero and Esmeralda Enrique. In Spain, Lia has studied with many of Andalucia’s great artists including Manuela Rios, Farruquito, Manuel Betanzos, Juan Polvillo, Ursula Lopez, and Alicia Marquez. In 2012, she toured nationally with Flamenguitos del Norte Dance Company and was a featured performer at the Vancouver Jondo Flamenco Festival and the inaugural Montreal Flamenco Festival. That same year Lia began dividing her time between Canada and Spain.
In 2013, Lia was one of just three dancers nationally to be selected for participation in the prestigious "Paso a Paso" mentoring program run by Myriam Allard and Hedi Graja of the contemporary flamenco company La Otra Orilla in Montreal. The following year, Lia was honoured to share the stage as a performer and choreographer with artists from a wide range of dance disciplines in “60x60”, a NextSteps production directed by Viv Moore at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre Theatre.
From 2015 to 2019, Lia lived full-time in Spain, first in Seville and later in Madrid, returning to Canada to perform and tour. In 2016 Lia was a headlining performer at All Over the Map, a festival celebrating international dance produced by Vancouver’s NextSteps. Lia was one of six North American flamenco dancers selected to compete in the 2017 CERTAMEN USA, a competition that takes place annually at Lincoln Center in New York City.
From 2013 to 2019, Lia devoted much of her creative energy to Fin de Fiesta Flamenco, an international flamenco dance and music ensemble she co-founded with Canadian guitarist Dennis Duffin. Lia spent much of each year choreographing new work in close consultation with the ensemble’s musicians in Seville and Madrid. Fin de Fiesta toured festivals and theatres across Canada each summer including HarbourFront Centre (Toronto), the Firehall Theatre (Vancouver), The Cultch (Vancouver), and Festival Traditions du Monde (Quebec), and in 2019 completed a 40-show tour of Canada and France.
In 2020, Lia cofounded the 7-piece global fusion band Qairo, which blends flamenco rhythms with Turkish and mediterranean influences to create a spectacle of original music and dance that is entirely unique. The ensemble was an official selection at Mundial Montreal in 2023, and has completed two international tours.
Lia now makes her home in Toronto. She receives support for her choreographic and performance work from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. She is the co-Artistic Director of F for Flamenco, an annual international flamenco music and dance festival in downtown Toronto.
press and quotes
“The Peggy Baker of Canadian Flamenco.” - Carmen Romero
“I am so grateful that I saw Lia Grainger’s La Forastera. She put all her cards on the table and danced us from Canada to Spain, lead by her love of flamenco. Perhaps expressing the pain of being an outsider is what flamenco expresses like no other.” - Jim Creegan, The Barenaked Ladies
“Like a Sade video, but 20 feet tall.” - Aurora Brown, Baroness Von Sketch
“Right now, Grainger is into pushing boundaries.” - The Hamilton Spectator
“[Grainger and her ensemble] have made a reputation for themselves with their energetic performances and skillful improvisations.” - The Dance Current
“Canadian dances her way to Spain on flamenco adventure.” - The Toronto Star
“Intense, passionate, emotional.” - The London Free Press