“La forastera”
In 2020, Lia Grainger turned her attention to solo work with the creation “La Forastera,” a multidisciplinary full-length dance, music, textual and multi-media work. With the support of a Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation grant and subsequent production grant, Lia spent the first half of 2020 working with Canadian flamenco maestros and mentors Carmen Romero (Toronto) and Oscar Nieto (Vancouver) to create this work. “La Forastera” is a narrative theatrical work that tells the story of a woman who attempts tears up her own cultural roots in the hopes of adopting the culture of another country and people, and what happens when things don’t go as she plans. Lia collaborated with Canadian poets Linda Besner and Katherine Leyton and traveled Spain with filmmaker David Grimes to film productions, interview artists, and collaborate with the musicians who accompanied the work. She performed accompanied by French flamenco singer Alejandro Mendia and Dora Mavor Moore- award-winning guitarist Nicolas Hernandez.
“La Forastera” premiered in 2022 and was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award in the category of Outstanding Individual Performance - Dance.
“when i return home”
In the summer of 2020, Lia was awarded a Canada Council Digital Originals grant to create the short dance film “When I Return Home,” with Iraqi filmmaker Ramzi Maroof and sound designer Justin Gray. The film explores the experience of practicing a foreign art form in a foreign land, and then bringing that art home to Canada. How does it fit? The film will be published here on September 1, 2020, and will also be available on the CBC Digital Originals portal.
Qairo
Lia is the co-founder and artistic director of Qairo, an 7-person ensemble that combines the emotional charged vocals and pulsing rhythms of flamenco with the infectious melodies and ear-popping tonalities of the Mediterranean diaspora. From Spain to Turkey to India (with stops along the way), Qairo is music for dancing — no matter where you’re from. It’s Turkish micro-tones played on an Indian bansuri flute, original flamenco verses “sung” by a clarinet, Balkan rhythms punctuated by Andalucian guitar, and flamenco footwork pounded out like improvised jazz. Qairo is guitar, oud, clarinet, bansuri, saxophone, cajon, electric bass, cante (flamenco song) and baile (flamenco dance) acting like they belong on stage together — and pulling it off. Qairo will embark on their second Canadian tour in September 2023.
QAIROMUSIC.COM
FIN DE FIESTA FLAMENCO
Lia was the co-founder and artistic director of Fin de Fiesta Flamenco, a vibrant music and dance ensemble comprised of award-winning artists from Canada, France and Cuba. For seven years, Fin de Fiesta brought together flamenco dance, song, guitar, flute, and percussion in an explosive, stage-ready celebration of this passionate Andalusian art form. Its members have toured the world, (Japan, China, Mexico, Ecuador, the U.S.), and the group toured internationally each summer (outdoor festival venues and theatres - full performance history here) from 2012 to 2019.