The recent assessment by Richard Grenell, interim president of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, to Newsmax that the entertainment mecca is now “less elitist and more everyman” and that the arts are now “accessible to all” seemed to be borne out on Sept. 20.
That was National Dance Day, when the Kennedy Center drew an assortment of dancers of various ages, styles, and skills. Their common denominator, participants agreed, was their passion for music and dance.
“It’s a celebration of all things dance,” said Estela Vélez de Paredez, the Artistic Director of the award-winning dance company Furia Flamenca, “There’s nothing like going out there to the community and just sharing it outright on a day like today.”
Both amateur dancers as well as professionals long attuned to dance flocked the stages set up on the Kennedy Center’s Reach campus. These included Furia Flamenca, whose specialty is the passionate flamenco dance born in southern Spain.
“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with the Kennedy Center dating back to more than a decade,” recalled Vélez de Paredez, specifically citing performances dating back to 2010 in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, “To step on that stage and to look out at that atrium and to say, ‘My goodness, this is the grandiosity of the place that I’m at’ is like a national treasure.”
She added, “To be a part of that and contribute whatever little bit of art that I can bring to it and my dance to it is just an amazing opportunity.”
Furia Flamenca has since performed in some of the most prestigious venues throughout the Washington, D.C., metro area, including the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage and Terrace Theater, Lincoln Theatre, National Theatre, Wolf Trap, Baltimore Lyric Opera House, Publick Playhouse, and Alden Theatre.
Since President Donald Trump took over leadership of Kennedy Center and named Grenell as interim president, there have been resignations of some of its staff, refusal of seasoned patrons to contribute further, and calls for a boycott of the center and its performances.
But this talk of a boycott has fallen on deaf ears, at least when it came to National Dance Day. The celebration featured dancers from all walks of life — from belly dancers and flamenco dancers to Irish step dancers and powwow Zumba dancers. All told, the day brought together disparate communities through movement, music, and culture.
“What it means to me is being able to celebrate an art form and dance and bringing cultures together, the enrichment of life experiences from all over the world — from local artists to national artists bringing everybody together,” said Daniel Paredez, the assistant director of Furia Flamenca.
Last weekend, the Kennedy Center drew hundreds of mourners to attend a memorial service and prayer vigil to honor the late Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk. Lawmakers, Trump administration officials, and other dignitaries took the same stage as the dancers and grappled with the tragic assassination.
“It’s been a mixture of unspeakable sadness and grief and anger and even fear,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told a hushed audience, “It’s as if a dark shadow was cast over our country.”
His words were underscored by National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, who said, “Ultimately, for every one of us, the time that we have in this world is temporary. Our time will come sooner or later.
“And so the critical question that we have for ourselves is whatever time we have, what are we doing with it? How are we making the most of every day that we have?”
Reflecting on the points made by Johnson and Gabbard, Vélez de Paredez noted flamenco dancing itself was born from a time of oppression, much like the blues in the U.S., and was evidence that beauty can always be born from the raw expression of suffering.
“Life is tough,” she told us, “We all go through very difficult times in life, and it can throw some curveballs at you unexpected[ly]. And there is a dance, a rhythm, in flamenco that is made for that moment in your life, whether it’s the happiest moment to the deepest of sorrows to everything in between, you can channel it. You become a better dancer as you go through life.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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