Marija Temo remembers dozens of friends and family packing into her childhood home around holidays to sing, dance, strum and stump.
Some flamenco lovers traveled from as far as Spain to Bath Township for the juergas — lively parties or celebrations — while others walked from five houses down. The house was filled with all-day performances in the living room, front and backyard, Spanish recordings on repeat, and the aroma of paella, a Spanish rice dish usually served with saffron, meat, seafood and vegetables. When juergas wrapped up, guests rolled out sleeping bags on upstairs floors and pitched tents on the lawn.
“We had flamenco going on from morning ‘till night,” said Temo, 57, a classical and flamenco artist, flamenco teacher and dance coach. “And that was my big way of learning.”
Decades later, Temo is returning to her home region for an interactive performance at the Akron Civic Theatre. Flamenco Fiesta! Music, Dance, and Story for All Ages is scheduled for Sunday, March 1 at 3 p.m. The show promises striking costumes, call-and-response rhythms and on-stage lessons that show how flamenco tells stories without words.
The family-friendly performance is part of Temo’s Ohio flamenco tour, which begins Feb. 26 at Denison University. Other performances will take her collection of artists to Xenia (Feb. 27) and Cleveland (Feb. 28).
Alice Lawhorn, a Cleveland-based flamenco dancer who is preparing to perform with Temo for the second time in Akron, said audiences will witness something unique.
“So typically in flamenco, you specialize in one thing — dance or singing or guitar — but because she’s very good at all three, she can help bring out the best and help everything to gel together,” said Lawhorn, the executive director and artistic director of ABREPASO flamenco, a flamenco music and dance company.
The origins of flamenco mix with today’s traditions
This song, dance and percussion art is most prevalent in southern Spain. Developed by gitanos, or gypsies, many details surrounding the creation of flamenco were lost over time, but the roots of traditional performances continue to inspire new productions.
Customarily, flamenco performances have three components: flamenco singing, flamenco dance and stomping and palmas (hand claps). Modern-day performances have combined or replaced palmas with a cajon (a wooden box played similar to a drum with strings inside to manipulate volume), an acoustic guitar and castanets (small pieces of wood that clack together). On rare occasions, flamenco performances include a piano.
Regardless of percussion instruments, performers blend sounds to evoke emotion through their tones, costumes and Spanish lyrics.
“For every emotion that one has — sad, happy, in-between — there’s a flamenco repertoire piece for it,” said Temo, a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University and Peabody Conservatory at John Hopkins University.
Flamenco dancing at age 6
Temo was introduced to flamenco dancing by her mother, Joan, who chased flamenco in Miami before meeting Temo’s father, Larry, and settling in Ohio. Larry was the creator of Temo’s Candies, a decades-old candy and chocolate shop. (The West Hill business closed several years ago.)
At age 6, her mother asked if she wanted to attend a flamenco dance class at Fairmount Center for the Arts. Not knowing what she signed up for, Temo fell in love with its cultural expression.
“I think, as an adult, it’s so important to expose children and teens and other adults, couples, married couples, everybody, to different opportunities and different artistic expressions,” Temo said.
A decade later, Temo began to dominate stages, performing all three components of flamenco. This included singing in choirs, which made it easy for her to train herself — by ear — to sing flamenco.
In 1980, she started training under Bruce Catalano, a flamenco guitarist based in Cleveland. Catalano, who mentored her on the percussion component of flamenco, remembered Temo as a curious learner who continued to pose questions even after their sessions ended.
“So, she would get home and I’d be on the phone with her explaining some more and talking,” said Catalano, who studied flamenco in Spain. “So that’s her amazing appetite for learning … [it] was just incredible, and she could absorb it and she could take it very easily.”
After about a year, Temo’s focus turned to flamenco singing, which she now specializes in along with teaching the art of flamenco through online sessions and an annual three-day workshop.
Temo has performed with Martha Sidahmed and Karensa DeMars, singing and playing guitar, as well as with native flamenco artists. In 2020, she made an appearance on La Voz, the Spanish version of The Voice.
“I knew she would pass me up pretty quick,” Catalano said, laughing.
Flamenco student becomes the teacher
Temo’s flamenco teaching method includes basic charts and graphs that display the structure of songs, dance variations, singer notes and chords that accompany guitarists. She uses this coaching method to teach beginners as well as people who learned by ear, natives, international students and advanced flamenco performers. She also brings in professionals to provide additional perspectives.
“I decided to take these people that have been studying with me and give them an opportunity,” Temo said. “Put them together, and start helping another community in that area.”
She has held workshops in Cleveland, Milwaukee, Chicago and other cities for the last 12 years. Among the students is Catalano, her early mentor. He’s studied under Temo for the last decade, aiming to perfect his technique.
“It’s only the last couple years that I wanted her to give me technique,” Catalano said. “And that’s been absolutely mind blowing for me to learn that and how to do it correctly.”
Catalano plans to see Temo perform on Feb. 28 in Cleveland. And Temo, who now lives in Milwaukee, always looks forward to returning to the Buckeye State — and the Akron area — especially to perform and contribute to the flamenco community that cultivated the performer she is today.
Said Temo: “I like coming back to Ohio because it represents what home used to be.”