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Tomás’ generous teaching style is now well known and widely appreciated for its integrity, clarity and insight. He is gifted in his ability to teach both men and women, delivering a natural and powerful style to both, ensuring his students to connect with their emotions and the artistry of flamenco. His artful choreographies hit bone, fusing taste with integrity and conveying gritty flamenco nuance without the levity of commercialism. With invitations to conduct workshops at premier academies in Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, Lismore and Byron Bay, Mr Dietz is without a doubt one of Australia’s leading and most sought after teachers of flamenco dance.
The future is thus well grounded for this growing academy. Tomás has a vision, which is essentially to create by active participation the environment in which pure flamenco thrives as a mainstream art form in Australia, widely performed and managed by artists of knowledge and integrity, and enjoyed by large, discerning, informed audiences. Tomás emphasises his desire to see this effort result in convincing the Australian government to treasure and invest properly in the Arts as the ultimate mark of an emotionally mature and civilised nation.
In keeping with his vision, Tomás is striving to develop an elite academy to Spanish standards. Using a specific system to achieve optimum results and with regular input from a wide variety of qualified guest teachers Tomás hopes to see his academy serve as the platform for professional flamenco training in his community.
However, dancing in not all Tomás is passionate about; part of his vision is to enrich Australian culture through the systematic promotion in our community of Spain's rich and diverse artistic heritage. To this end he has established three new projects: a Spanish Renaissance choir (Voz Coro Español), a contemporary Spanish music band (Alquímia) and a flamenco music radio programme (Aire Flamenco). These initiatives are about active inclusion and involvement of ordinary Australians in the celebration of Spanish arts and culture.
Voz Coro Español focuses on the works of Tomás Luís de Victoria, one of the world's greatest Renaissance masters of sacred choral music. The choir is not professional but members are keen to share Tomás’ vision. Tomás recently incorporated Voz into his academy’s end of year concert. The coupling of these two art forms was a recent idea of his and it worked beautifully since they both tap into the same profound force that links humanity to the universe.
VOZ will also include in its repertoire 19th Century Romances, modern works, as well as regional Jotas and Isas. Tomás plans to develop VOZ to a degree where he can present a Misa Flamenca (Flamenco Mass) for Canberra's 100th anniversary.
Tomás’ other initiative, Alquímia, was presented at the National Folk Festival in 2005. Alquímia means 'alchemy'. It is an amateur group dedicated to performing Spanish contemporary music. As for VOZ, Tomás wants to make Alquímia accessible to ordinary Canberrans who want to be involved in modern Spanish music, whether it be as an instrumentalist, vocalist, percussionist or hand-clapping specialist. His newest member is a nine year-old guitarist, who demonstrates that his group is for everyone. Other members include three percussionists, two guitarists, and Tomás on vocals. Alquímia will be developed informally but carefully to tackle various Spanish musical genres, including rumbas, flamenco, coplas, boleros and the like.
The radio programme, Aire Flamenco, will focus on presenting flamenco music from Spain and Australia, showcasing local Australian talent as much as possible in an effort to help the community appreciate and understand how to listen to flamenco.
Anyone interested in finding out more about Tomás’ academy or his other activities should contact him via his website
www.tomasflamenco.com
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