Lindsey Bourassa, Flamenco Artist
Based in Maine, Lindsey Bourassa is a flamenco artist, choreographer, and teacher. She is the founding-director of FLOR, a flamenco nonprofit based in Maine and the driving force behind Maine’s first prominent and growing flamenco community.
Lindsey received her Master of Flamencology Degree from ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain) in 2019; her Bachelor of Arts in Performance, Dance History, and Creative Writing from Goddard College (USA) in 2009, with a specialization in flamenco and salsa; and her Certificate of Professionalization in Flamenco Arts at El Centro de Arte y Flamenco de Sevilla (Spain) in 2012.
She has dedicated herself to the study of flamenco since 2004, studying predominately in Sevilla, Spain with flamencos such as Miguel Vargas, Esperanza and Curro Fernandez, Carmen Ledesma, La Choni, Adela Campallo, Ursula Lopez, and Concha Jareño among many others. She has performed and taught in both Spain and the United States, through institutions such as Bates College, Mayo Street Arts, and El Centro de Arte y Flamenco de Sevilla.
Lindsey performs traditional flamenco with national and international flamenco artists. She also creates and performs contemporary-flamenco works that illustrate multimedia, multi-genre storytelling, often woven together with her own creative prose.
Lindsey co-founded and dances with Olas Music and Dance (founded in 2009). Olas has produced three albums, a full-length film, three videos, and has performed throughout New England (USA).
In 2017, Lindsey created and debuted a multimedia, contemporary-flamenco performance entitled El Lobo y La Paloma. Through all original flamenco dance, Arabic music and song, poetry, and projected imagery, El Lobo y La Paloma explores the loss of a loved one and the mystical connections between physical and spiritual worlds. This work is inspired by the loss of Bourassa's father in 2015. A full-length film of this performance was released in 2019, produced and directed by David Camlin and Scott Sutherland. The film is available in prisons across the country through the tablet-based educational outreach program Edovo. Through Edovo, incarcerated students can watch the film and complete a reflective course about grief, designed in collaboration with grief counselor Carol Schoneberg.
Flamenco is an art form, a cultural tradition, and a language. As a flamenco artist, Lindsey believes that there are no shortcuts to unfolding its wonders. It takes time, dedication, patience, and love; it reveals its spirit in magical proportion to how courageously we reveal our own. Her work on all fronts is inspired by the belief that art ignites magic, cultivates connection, uplifts diverse and uncensored stories, and fosters stewardship of each other and the earth.
Lindsey is the recipient of:
2020 Artist Grant from the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation
2020 & 2018 New England Dance Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts
2019 Mission Award, Mayo Street Arts
2018 Arts and Humanities Grant in Collaboration with Mayo Street Arts
2017 Continuing Education Grant, New Ventures Maine
2016 Project Grant, Maine Arts Commission
2013 Visibility Grant, Maine Arts Commission
2011 Good Idea Grant, Maine Arts Commission.
Lindsey is also NEST eligible through the New England Foundation for the Arts.
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