Mariana Stråhlmann was born in Finland but Spanish culture runs through her veins. At the age of 18, she fell in love with both Spanish culture and flamenco when she saw the film ‘Carmen’ by the renowned Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura. At that time she travelled to Madrid full of expectations and barely speaking Spanish in order to learn flamenco. She fulfilled her dream and today she helps others to achieve it at the Peña Flamenca El Gallo in Las Lagunas with her dance lessons ‘Fiesta Flamenca’. 

“After finishing high school I took my backpack and went to Madrid, 30 years ago, there was no internet, I knew nothing about the country, but I went, it was the only thing I was determined to do”, said Mariana Stråhlmann. She arrived in Madrid as her reference in Spain  and soon realised that Andalusia was “the queen of flamenco”, she says, and “the best school to learn the rhythm”. “I didn’t know Andalusia and didn’t know that you had to go there to learn as you did to Jerez or Seville, but in Madrid it wasn’t so bad either”, Stråhlmann said.  

In the capital she visited the academy ‘Amor de Dios’, where they shot the film ‘Carmen’ and met those characters that made her fall in love with Spanish culture. According to Mariana, “it was a dream come true to see the characters of the film in person; I started the lessons and fell in love even more, and I stayed there for four years until I returned to Finland and started teaching flamenco there”.
That passion turned into work and she recreated her life through flamenco classes. Now she returns to Spain and brings her lessons to the Finnish community. “We are there on Tuesdays, where at 18 hours we start with sevillanas lessons for beginners, from 19 to 20 hours with sevillanas lessons among those who already know how to dance and then from 20 to 21 hours with flamenco lessons for beginners”, explained the teacher.

For 30 years Mariana has been teaching flamenco and transmitting Spanish culture mainly to foreigners who, like her, are captured by the rhythm. In Mijas she found the warmth of Andalusia to fuel her passion and share it with the many students who come to the flamenco club after the announcements of classes in Finnish.

For more information contact the Fiesta Flamenca school on 646 720 182.

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