SCHOLARSHIP PRIZE to FUNDACIÓN CRISTINA HEEREN

 

The Scholarship Prize


As part of last year’s Flamenco Festival, Fundación Cristina Heeren de Arte Flamenco in Seville, Spain generously donated a scholarship to attend their summer intensive program.

This prize will be offered again this year. Participants in the Master Classes are eligible to win this fantastic opportunity!

Francesca Nardi, age 15 and a promising young flamenco dancer, was the lucky winner of this valuable and enriching opportunity.


Francesca Nardi outside Fundacion Cristina Heeren in Seville, Spain
Francesca Nardi at Fundacion Cristina Heeren in Seville, Spain

She traveled to Spain with her parents to attend dance classes five days a week from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm for the month of July. She participated in classes taught in Spanish with live musical accompaniment, and with dancers from various countries. Her courses included flamenco dance technique, flamenco dance, “compás” and introduction to flamenco. Francesca gratefully acknowledges the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, which awarded her a 2010 scholarship to help towards her dance studies in Spain.

Fundación Cristina Heeren de Arte Flamenco is a private, non-profit foundation, created in 1993 by Cristina Heeren, a Hispanic-Macanese American citizen and a lover of flamenco.

Its objectives are the promotion, teaching and the conservation of Flamenco dance and music in Andalucía and the rest of Spain and in any other place that they think necessary. The Foundation is mostly privately financed and the benefactors are young students from all over the world, with special attention to the young promising artists from Andalucía.

 

Introducing Francesca Nardi

 

Francesca Nardi was the Fall for Flamenco Festival’s 2009 Winner of the Fundación Cristina Heeren de Arte Flamenco scholarship prize.

Francesca is one of Halifax’s most promising young flamenco dancers. She will perform at this year’s Fall for Flamenco Festival, during the Opening Night Celebration, on Saturday October 2, 2010.

Francesca has been a student with the Maria Osende Flamenco School since 2006 and has performed with other students at various events including the Multicultural Festival, the Flamenco Fiesta, and La Velada. She has taken master classes with visiting flamenco performers including Rafael Campallo and Maria Moreno.

Francesca is a well-rounded dancer who received early training in classical ballet with Clare Bader at Halifax Ballet Theatre and Mary Lou Martin at Halifax Dance, and is currently studying jazz with Kathryn Edgett at The Jazz Dance Centre. In addition to dancing, she studies piano, and plays trumpet in the Halifax All-City Intermediate Jazz Ensemble. In honour of her Italian heritage, she has been studying Italian since the age of five and actively participates in the activities of the Italian Canadian Cultural Association.