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AURIEL DELL PHOTOS It was a flamenco fiesta at the Odd Fellows Hall in Riverport last Saturday night. The hall, built in 1929, has been transformed into a cultural community venue, where owners Auriel Dell and painter Craig Rubadoux want to host cultural events like dance workshops, films, performances and art shows.

By JOANNE JEFFERSON / South Shore Arts

EVERY COMMUNITY has the potential to imagine it is someplace else, if only for a few hours, thanks to a cinema or a theatre or a dance hall.

At the Flamenco Fiesta in Riverport on Saturday night I overheard people reminiscing about Barcelona and Spanish clubs in Montreal. I knew it was one of those rare, transformative occasions.

"The event renewed the old soul of the hall," says Auriel Dell, co-owner of the former Odd Fellows Hall and organizer of the Flamenco Fiesta.

She was delighted with the turnout for the party and the excitement generated by the performances of dancer Maria Osende and the Fiesta Four (Joey Latta, Enrique Rojo, Lynn Gallant, and Dan MacNeill).

On Saturday, the atmosphere didn't take long to develop into a festive mood as everyone was treated to plates of tapas (traditional Spanish party food) and some enjoyed sangria or bottles of Spanish wine from the bar.

The music of the Fiesta Four accelerated the tempo until Osende's arrival on the newly installed dance platform rocketed the audience into another dimension.

Osende started dancing at the age of six in Madrid, Spain and has been a solo flamenco performer since 1999.

Her training and career as a ballet dancer (with the National Ballet of Spain and the Deutsche Oper Berlin Ballet) have influenced her interpretation of the traditional flamenco forms.

Since 2003, she has been living in Nova Scotia, teaching and performing flamenco as a contemporary, evolving art.

Guitars, percussion, and passionate vocals are the other vital elements of flamenco and Osende has found them in her collaboration with the Fiesta Four.

Rojo's voice has a classic intensity matching Latta's dazzling fret work. MacNeill's drumming and Gallant's hand work provide the sensual rhythms that underscore and play off against the dancer's pounding feet.

Raucous ovations followed both sets on Saturday night, then people stayed on their feet to try a little dancing of their own.

That's something Dell is intending to see more of in the near future in the space now known as Tango y Tapas.

Dell and painter Craig Rubadoux purchased the Riverport I.O.O.F. Hall three years ago, after much dreaming and worry that if someone else bought it first the building's character would be lost.

The spacious hall was built in 1929 as a theatre with a balcony, and meeting space on the upper floor. A stage with dressing rooms was removed in recent years to make a large, open room used mostly for wedding receptions and dances.

Now that the Odd Fellows hold their events at the local community centre, Rubadoux and Dell have ambitious plans.

Next on the calendar is an exhibit, called Artists Who Tango, including creations by Rubadoux, Jose Valverde, John Neville, Kate Church and others.

According to Dell, many of the exhibiting artists dance regularly at classes at the Mahone Bay Centre and at workshops and milongas (social dances) at the hall in Riverport.

"Some tango literally and some tango figuratively with sculpture and paint," she says.

A public reception will open the exhibit on Saturday from (2 to 4 p.m.) and after that, it's by appointment (call 766-4569 or 766-4768).

Dance workshops, films, performances, and art shows are all possibilities for the new Tango y Tapas space.

It's a gracious building that has been part of the village's culture for 75 years, as a venue for imaginative journeying

Now, thanks to a couple of dancing dreamers, the journey will continue.

Joanne Jefferson is a freelance writer in West LaHave and Spotlight's voice for the arts on the South Shore.