Passion, precision and swagger: join an Oscar®-winning flamenco masterclass

Winner of the 1984 Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject), Flamenco at 5:15 takes us inside the flamenco classes masterfully taught by the married duo Susana Audeoud and Antonio Robledo at the National Ballet School of Canada. With Susana covering the steps and Antonio accompanying on piano and palmas, the classes impart the history, styles and rhythms of flamenco. While its origins are complex and difficult to pin down precisely, flamenco was in large part a melding of working-class southern Spanish and Romani cultures – a history that Antonio tells in almost mythical language, describing the rhythms of gypsy blacksmiths at work. Between the passion of the teachers and the talents of the students performing the hypnotic, percussive dance, the film makes it impossible to avoid becoming swept away by what Susana calls the ‘emotional avalanche’ of flamenco.