Bringing Flamenco Vivo to the Latah County for Participation in the Greater Performance Series:

A Proposal to the Latah County Community Foundation

Submitted by the Festival Dance & Performing Arts

March 25, 2015

A. Organization Information
Festival Dance works to allow citizens of all ages the opportunity to experience cultural
influences in their rural communities. Across the Inland Northwest, we strive to provide dance
performances for education and community outreach to the children and adults in the area. In the
Fall 2015, we will be presenting Flamenco Vivo, a premier dance company specializing in
Flamenco dance. When brought to the Moscow area, Flamenco Vivo will take us one step closer
in bringing performance art to the residents of Latah county. Along with these large performance
series, we provide instruction to over 200 students at four dance schools as well as free
professional programs for over 5,000 students each year. As part of our program we provide
educational opportunities for children and adults in the community.
Our goal is to Bring the Arts to the People and the People to the Arts. We are able to bring
great performances and youth outreach programs as well as teaching classes and educational
services for area youth. Through our partnership with the University of Idaho, we can provide an
opportunity for teaching a wide variety of classes. The communities reached include: Deary,
Genesee, Kendrick, Julietta, Lapwai, Lewiston, Moscow, Orofino, Potlatch, Tensed, and Troy. In
Washington: Asotin, Clarkston, Colfax, Colton, Garfield, Palouse, Pullman, and Uniontown. We
have reached a total of 11,245 people including 3,809 youth.
Our programs include:
Great Performance Series presenting major feature performances by acclaimed ballet,
modern dance, jazz, musical theatre and ethnic dance companies.
Festival Dance Academy providing professional dance instruction in Moscow, Troy,
Genesee, and Lapwai. They are the premier provider of dance education in the region.
Festival ArtReach helping to build art programs in rural communities.
Festival YouthReach offering free performances for local schools by professional artists.
The most successful has been performing across the Inland Northwest reaching more than
15,000 people.
B. Purpose of Grant
The Flamenco Vivo company is one of the nations leading Spanish dance companies that has the
power to inspire audiences from a variety of backgrounds. The company is known largely for
powerful performances, energetic dancers, and its extensive community outreach. Flamenco
dancers center themselves around emotion and passion, showing viewers that expressing
themselves is an essential part of living. This proposal addresses the need to integrate and engage
youth in our local communities who have rare opportunities to experience professional artistic
events. The Moscow area is largely a rural community. Because of the lack of urbanization, its
hard to pull in professionally diverse and experienced performances into the community. This
situation leaves local kids with little exposure to dancing, musical, and artistic cultural styles. We

Bringing Flamenco Vivo to the Latah County for Participation in the Greater Performance Series:
A Proposal to the Latah County Community Foundation

work to bring dance companies into the community to allow kids to teach a wide variety of
artistic techniques from across the globe. Great Performance Series works in two parts:
1. We bring in dance companies to perform within the area
2. The dance companies go out to the schools to teach the kids about the styles they are
experts in.
These outreach programs give kids the ability to learn about a dance or musical style, to get up
and be active, to stretch their creative personalities, and to experience culture that is rarely within
the rural community. This proposal is aimed at funding Flamenco Vivo, a program that builds
the cultural outreach and activity within students education.
Each year, we bring in four widely known performing companies into the area to perform and
then participate in outreach programs. With the four large series performances, we get a wide
variety of different styles to expose the students and community to a larger cultural base. For the
next calendar year, we are bringing in: Kenny Endo, who performs contemporary Japanese
drumming; Eugene Ballet, who will showcase Sleeping Beauty; Flamenco Vivo, who will
present flamenco dancing; and Shokoto, who produces West African music.The kids get to
participate and be a part of the experience, learning about techniques that they might never have
heard of before.
Specific project goals are to
Bring Flamenco Vivo into the community so that the company can participate in an
outreach program for Moscow and the surrounding rural areas.
Expose the local youth to flamenco dancing
Engage the youth in active healthy activities that broaden their cultural knowledge
Support creativity within the youth
The specific activities that we are seeking funding from the Latah County Community
Foundation are for:
1. Hiring Flamenco Vivo to participate in the large performance series and outreach
2. Transportation and hotel cost to bring the performers from New York City to Moscow
The responsible persons who will complete the tasks are Festival Dances Executive Director
and Education Outreach Coordinator. The Festival Dance staff will communicate and coordinate
all the details for the arrival of Flamenco Vivo. Both staff members will be in charge of finding
transportation for the performers and be making sure that they have everything they need while
in Moscow.
The time line for the project has been set into place. The Executive Director has already talked
to the company and set up a tentative schedule for the performance. Upon the approval from the
Latah County Community Foundation, the official date for the performance and outreach will be
Fall 2015.
Long-term strategies for sustaining this effort are to:
Continue to advertise the large performance series so that people know about the event;
Seek further funding to support the next year of performance series;

Bringing Flamenco Vivo to the Latah County for Participation in the Greater Performance Series:
A Proposal to the Latah County Community Foundation

Foster and strengthen relationships with the University of Idaho, Washington State
University, and local associations in the area.
The community will benefit from the project because Flamenco Vivo is a multicultural dance
company that has the ability to strengthen the understanding and appreciation for different art
forms as well as inspire people from diverse backgrounds. The company strives at sharing music
and dance from traditional Spanish culture. Flamenco Vivo brings four different types of art:
traditional dress, dance, guitar, and voice. The dancers use all of these elements to illustrate the
unique qualities of their culture. The kids experience a tradition that is not present in their
everyday lives. In 2013, we reached out and brought artistic events to 2,743 members throughout
the Moscow area. We hope to continue to reach a larger number of people across the Inland
Northwest, and spread excitement for these culturally unique performances that strengthen the
creativity, energy, and activity of the community.
C. Evaluation
We have a set evaluation system that we use after every outreach program (We have attached
this to the application). After every outreach program we distribute evaluation forms to be filled
out by the teachers and answered by the students. The questions on the evaluation determine the
students reaction to our program. Many of the questions on the evaluations are answered on a
number scale. We also ask the educational values of the program as well as any suggestions that
they may have to better future programs.
Our evaluations are done through our board of directors, staff, and feedback from the audience.
We evaluate the input of the time spent conducting our program. We conduct online surveys and
collect evaluations from audience after the Great Performance Series. We take count of how
many people attend the performance. We take note of how many children enroll for the youth
outreach program, and learn how much they learn from the program. We also provide a budget
that demonstrates how we spend our resources.