Laura Sánchez Flamenco brought back to life Flamenco to Cambridge, MA after the pandemic. Flamenco at StarLight is the first Live Flamenco show since Covid-19 at Starlight in Central Square, Cambridge, Ma This show is funded by Central Square Business Improvement District and aims to bring the Flamenco Community back together. Local flamenco students and professional dancers will perform under the starts with live music.
Get to know our performers.
Laura Sánchez
Founder of LS Flamenco, expressive artist, flamenco dancer, choreographer and producer originally from Cádiz, Spain. She began her flamenco education as a child and received professional training from the Dance Conservatory of Madrid. Laura holds a Professional Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapies from Lesley University where she developed an emerging therapeutic dance practice, Expressive Flamenco©. She facilitates workshops, presents this work internationally and continues to serve annually as Guest Professor for the Lesley University Expressive Therapies Master’s Program. Her most recent paper was published at the Journal of the American Dance Therapy Association in 2021. Laura actively performs as soloist in flamenco venues in the Eastern U.S., and placed 3rd at the 2016 Flamenco Certamen USA, an international competition that takes place in NYC annually. She works as independent choreographer for organizations including Boston College of Fine Arts, Massachusetts Government, Bridgewater University, and Kingston Theater. In 2019 she choreographed and performed a multimodal piece combining contemporary flamenco with poetry and drama for the Yo Soy Lola annual gala at Oberon Theater. In 2015, she choreographed and performed the dance pieces of Quixote in Kabul, a play directed by Boston College of Fine Arts. Laura works as independent producer and has presented several flamenco shows, both individually and in collaboration with other local artists, over the past few years. Her most recent work is an award-winning short film called AFTER DARK she created during the pandemic to tell the resilience stories of a community affected by the Covid-19 global pandemic.
María Aliaga –
Mexican flamenco dancer. Creator of “Flamenco a la Mexicana”, artistic concept that fuses flamenco with mexican culture, producing dance shows, videodance (“La Catrina y La Llorona” and “Querida Remedios”) and flamenco fashion.
María´s mentor is Mercedes Amaya, but she has studied with many other important flamenco dancers such as Antonio Canales and Alfonso Losa, among others, in Mexico and in Spain (Amor de Dios in Madrid and Fundación Cristina Heeren in Sevilla). Since 2000 she has been working in tablaos en Mexico, Germany and USA. She was part of Adonays Flamenco Company in 2004 and worked with Isaac and Nino de los Reyes in 2007. In 2010 she presented “Mestizaje” that shows Mexico´s history. Flamenco a la Mexicana started in 2014 and the show has been presented in some of the most important theaters in Mexico City. Her videodance of “La Catrina and La Llorona” (Dir. Nur Rubio) participated in several international cinematographic festivals and won Near Nazareth Festival, Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards and NYC Indie Film Awards in 2016. In 2018 she presented the videodance “Querida Remedios” (Dir. Nur Rubio), tribute to Remedios Varo. As a flamenco teacher she has been teaching in several dance academies, in jails, in foundations and in the Graduate School of Education in Harvard. In 2020 she presented her first flamenco fashion coleccion in SIMOF, the most important international flamenco fashion Salon in Sevilla. She studied Art History.
Website: www.flamencoalamexicana.comInstagram: @mariaaliagaabad
Yu-Ling Hu
She was born and raised in Taiwan. When Yu-Ling moved to Chicago, she joined Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater (EESDT). She received training in Flamenco, Classical Spanish Dance and Folkroic Spanish Dance in EESDT. She also toured with EESDT in the United States and abroad from 2007 to 2016. In addition to being a dancer, Yu-Ling is also a board certified Dance Therapist.
Yu-Ling moved to Massachusetts and founded Heart.Dance.Space (HDS) in 2017. HDS has provided Classical Spanish Dance classes, Flamenco classes and Authentic Movement groups in Cambridge, Brookline and Arlington areas. HDS is honored to receive the invitation from LS Flamenco and to participate in Starlight. Yu-Ling and her dancers, Sandra Liu, Amy Magin, Bonnie Wong, wish every audience a wonderful night of Flamenco at Starlight!
Edmy Ortiz
Flamenco, Artistic Director of Flamenco Worcester
Architectural designer, fine artist and flamenco dancer. Edmy was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic surrounded by a family of artists. Edmy is the oldest daughter of the well known musician Eduardo Ortiz.
Edmy started studying flamenco at the Academy of Spaniard Dance “El Patio Andaluz” (2001), where she learned the basics of flamenco “Sevillanas, Castañuelas y Técnicas de Clásico Español” under the training of Paquita Acosta (Spanish dancer, bailaora). In 2003 she moved to Massachusetts where she continued to pursue dance under the training of the admired Maestro Ramon De Los Reyes. Ortiz has also integrated herself into workshops from Issac and Nino De Los Reyes, Soledad Barrio, La Lupi, Pastora Galvan, and more. She now leads the flamenco community in the city of Worcester by doing demonstrations, performances, teaching weekly classes & workshops.
Alfonso Cid
Flamenco singer and flute payer, was born and raised in Sevilla, the heartland of flamenco music. His mother, an amateur singer from Triana, a flamenco enclave in Seville, and his grandfather, an aficionado of flamenco, were his earliest influences. He also had the opportunity of attending the activities of one the
most significant flamenco clubs in Andalusia, the Peña Flamenca Torres-Macarena in Seville. He was awarded two scholarships to attend the intensive summer course at the Cristina Heeren Foundation for Flamenco Art on July 2007 and 2008. He had the honor
of recording backing vocals in the song titled “Mi Santa” by popular Latin artist Romeo Santos featuring the great flamenco guitarist Tomatito. Alfonso has toured extensively throughout the USA, Latin America, Israel and Europe, and has just toured Spain, France and Italy on 2017 and 2018 with the jazz/flamenco band New Bojaira by pianist
Jesús Hernández from Granada. This band has just released a new album titled “Zorongo Blu”. He released his first CD titled “Flamenco de vuelta e ida” on 2006 with the flamenco fusion project “Gazpacho Andalú”. He has also released an album with his own Spanish indie rock band “Dientes de Caramelo” titled “Pulpo” (Octopus) in March of2012 as well as three singles throughout the summer of 2015.
IG: @alfonsocidnyc
Website: alfonsocid.com
Adrián Alvarado
Adrian Alvarado, São Paulo, Brazil 1968. Spanish-Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger. (Monica Molina, Pastora Soler, Farhad Darya, Danilo Perez). Adrian Alvarado is a very versatile guitarist, with a solid career as a soloist, session musician, as well as a sideman for many artists in the Flamenco scene, Jazz, and Brazilian music.
Xianix Barrera
Xianix Barrera is a Bessie award nominated flamenco dancer, teacher, and choreographer based in New York City. Throughout her career she has shared the stage with revered artists such as Isabel Bayón, Raquel Heredia, Rosario Toledo, Soledad Barrio (Noche Flamenca) and Juan Ogalla on some of the most important stages in the world including The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, The Red Theater in Abu Dhabi and Cafe Silverio in Sevilla. Xianix has received ongoing recognition for her work including a scholarship to attend the Flamenco Program at the School of Jacob’s Pillow and as an Artist in Residence with Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana. Most recently she was nominated for a Bessie Award for Outstanding Performer for her role in “Latido” as part of the Emerging Choreographer Series at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center produced by Mare Nostrum Elements. Xianix is dedicated to the ongoing education of adults, children and elders throughout New York City.
IG: @XianixBarreraFlamenco
