FLOR Team
In flamenco, there are over 50 styles, called palos. Like the individuals who are a part of FLOR, each palo is celebrated and valued as an important part of flamenco’s family tree. In kind, members of FLOR’s team are given the name of a palo, chosen in alignment with their role, contributions, and uniqueness of being.
Executive and Artistic Director
Lindsey Bourassa
Our Tientos
Lindsey Bourassa is a flamenco dancer, choreographer, teacher, community builder and the founding-director of FLOR - the driving force behind Maine’s first prominent and growing flamenco community.
Lindsey received her Master of Flamencology Degree from ESMUC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain) in 2019; Bachelor of Arts in Performance, Dance History, and Creative Writing from Goddard College (USA) in 2009; Certificate of Professionalization in Flamenco Arts at El Centro de Arte y Flamenco de Sevilla (Spain) in 2012.
She has dedicated herself to the study of flamenco since 2004, studying predominately in Sevilla, Spain with flamencos such as Miguel Vargas, Esperanza and Curro Fernandez, Carmen Ledesma, La Choni, Ursula Lopez, and Concha Jareño among many others. She has performed and taught in both Spain and the United States, through institutions such as Bates College, Mayo Street Arts, and El Centro de Arte y Flamenco de Sevilla.
Lindsey performs traditional flamenco with national and international flamenco artists. She also creates and performs contemporary-flamenco works that illustrate multimedia, multi-genre storytelling, often woven together with her own creative prose.
Photo by Elizabeth Thomas
Prior to FLOR, Lindsey founded Lindsey Bourassa Flamenco (2013); co-founded Olas Music and Dance (2009); created and debuted a multimedia, contemporary-flamenco performance entitled El Lobo y La Paloma (2017); A full-length film of this performance was released in 2019, produced and directed by David Camlin and Scott Sutherland.
Flamenco is an art form, a cultural tradition, and a language. As a flamenco artist, Lindsey believes that there are no shortcuts to unfolding its wonders. It takes time, dedication, patience, and love; it reveals its spirit in magical proportion to how courageously we reveal our own. Her work on all fronts is inspired by the belief that art ignites magic, cultivates connection, uplifts diverse and uncensored stories, and fosters stewardship of each other.
Lindsey is the recipient of:
2020 Artist Grant, Ellis-Beauregard Foundation
2020 & 2018 New England Dance Fund, New England Foundation for the Arts
2019 Mission Award, Mayo Street Arts
2018 Arts and Humanities Grant in Collaboration with Mayo Street Arts, Maine Humanities Council
2017 Continuing Education Grant, New Ventures Maine
2016 Project Grant, Maine Arts Commission
2013 Visibility Grant, Maine Arts Commission
2011 Good Idea Grant, Maine Arts Commission.
See Full Resume
FLOR Board
María Mazorra
Our Seguiriya (Board Chair)
María was born in Cuba and began dancing flamenco at a young age. Her Spanish grandmother was an avid dancer and exposed her to flamenco music and dance. In NYC, she worked with numerous groups, studying with Mariquita Flores, Liliana Morales, and Bobby Lorca at the Harkness Ballet/School of Dance, later performing with Bobby Lorca as part of the Puerto Rican Dance Theater. In her late twenties, she pursued a different career path and became a physician. Now retired, she is back in school studying to be a Veterinary Technician at YCCC to enhance her volunteer work in Maine's animal shelters. She has also returned to flamenco in the past decade, studying with Lindsey Bourassa, and feels privileged to be part of a growing flamenco community in Maine.
Megan Keogh
Our Tango (Board Secretary)
Megan has performed throughout New England as a dancer with Olas Music and Dance since 2008 and with Lindsey Bourassa Flamenco since 2017. She is trained in ballet, modern, contemporary and flamenco and began dancing at age ten with Festival Ballet Providence through 1996. She is the co-founder and creative director at Pixels & Pulp, a graphic design company based in Maine and lives in Portland with her family and two pups. The minute you meet Megan you’ll feel like you’ve been dropped in an ocean full of energy drink. Not the sugary kind that makes you all jittery and nervous – but the all-natural, organic, vibrant kind that wakes up your senses and brings you wildly back to life. She’s a lickety-split problem solver, a speed of light designer, and a true expert of all things printed, papered, published or produced. On any given Sunday you’ll find her busy in her garden, cultivating, propagating and promoting a more beautiful world.
Photo by Arthur Fink
Brian J. Evans
Our Bulería (Vice-Chair)
Brian is a Citizen Artist, defined by the Aspen Institute Arts Program as:
Individuals who reimagine the traditional notions of art-making, and who contribute to society either through the transformative power of their artistic abilities, or through proactive social engagement with the arts in realms including education, community building, diplomacy and healthcare.
Mixing disciplines, mixing professions, and mixed race, Brian J. Evans unpacks the “moments of suspension” that reside in the spaces between spaces—convinced that connections exist between us all and it is the responsibility of the Arts to remind us to be holistically human, lest we forget. Courageous vulnerability and intentional equity keep him aloft as he finds ways to give back and add to the communities, mentors, and ancestors who blazed trails and continue to do so! Brian believes it is the responsibility of the Arts to rediscover existing connections within humanity.
Photo by Kari Mosel Photography
Randy Ferrell
Our Alegría (Board Treasurer)
Randy is one of Greater Portland’s most trusted real estate agents. After moving from Tennessee, Randy supported himself and his nephew in Portland’s outstanding food scene while attending the University of Southern Maine. After earning a B.A. in Communication, he began a career in advertising that included agency traffic management and new business development. During the purchase of his first home, Randy realized there was a need for a brokerage more centered around the client’s experiences. While many people have the gift of “gab,” Randy has the gift of “ear.” His ability not only to listen but also to hear what his clients are actually saying is a unique asset and skill. He is able to address concerns and is adept at presenting both dilemmas and solutions to his clients while also using his vast resources effectively and connecting networks to achieve the best outcomes for his clients. When he isn’t working, Randy can be found cooking in his kitchen preparing to feed a crowd, getting his hands dirty in his garden, planning his next travel adventure, or learning flamenco dance as one of Lindsey Bourassa’s students.
Andreea Bârsan
Our Soleá (Advisory Member)
Andreea’s connection to flamenco comes via their Romanian upbringing richly seeped in Roma valor and folklore. A Buddhist, Linguist, and Technologist with Jungian predilections, they rooted their Carpathian spirit on the beautiful coast of Maine in 2013.
As a community conduit, Andreea intercalates their various circles through advocacy, organizing, and uplifting minority voices.
FLOR is a principal medium for movement; a flamenco student since 2022, they further re-member and integrate a not-that-long-past echo of the *village* coming together at the table or in the field working, singing, overcoming.
FLOR Artists
Behzad Habibzai
Our Bulería de Jerez (Principal guitarist)
Behzad Habibzai is a music composer and flamenco guitarist who grew up in Portland, Maine. He began playing drums and classical percussion at 10, maintaining a busy schedule performing orchestral, jazz, and punk rock, at rock clubs and symphony halls. At 14 he discovered flamenco guitar, going on to perform with several international artists.
Behzad composes and produces flamenco and orchestral music for digital streaming, films, and documentaries. Behzad often collaborates with his wife, Meghan Pilar Habibzai.