Featuring Mason Artist-in-Residence Soles of Duende artists Arielle Rosales and Okai Musik

This immersive workshop invites participants to explore the deep, ineffable force that Federico García Lorca famously called “duende”: the raw, earth-bound spirit that rises through the body when art becomes truth. Guided by Flamenco artist Arielle Rosales and percussionist-producer Okai Musik, this class centers vibration, presence, and expressive release as pathways to uncovering one’s inner duende, aatma, or soul-force. 

Rather than focusing on steps or technique, this workshop cultivates deep listening: within the body, within the music, and within the collective space. Okai’s live percussion sets an energetic landscape where intuition leads and rhythm becomes a channel. Arielle will guide participants through flamenco-informed explorations of emotion, embodiment, and grounded expression, helping movers tap into the darker, more elemental energies that fuel artistic honesty. 

Through guided improvisation, breath work, rhythmic call-and-response, and shared reflection, participants will learn to recognize the conditions in which duende emerges and how to invite it into their practice. The emphasis is on sensation, vulnerability, and resonance, allowing vibration to lead and expression to rise from a place beyond performance. 

Open to movers, musicians, and anyone curious about the spiritual undercurrents of artistic creation, this workshop offers a rare space to surrender, listen deeply, and meet the soul of your art. 

This workshop is free, but registration is required.

This residency is made possible through the generous support of the Hylton Performing Arts Center Endowment and the Hylton Center Education Initiative, supported in part by Amazon Web Services and BION.

This engagement of Soles of Duende is made possible in part through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Photo credit: Erin Patrice O'Brien, courtesy of Soles of Duende.

Don’t miss Soles of Duende in their performance Can We Dance Here on Saturday, February 21 at 8 p.m. Purchase tickets