FESTIVAL DANCERS

NATIONAL/ETHNIC IDENTITY: Spanish
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Yaelisa
First Appearance in SF EDF: 1996
Website: www.caminosflamencos.com

Once considered the most prosperous and cosmopolitan region from Europe to Damascus, Andalucia, the birthplace of flamenco in the south of Spain, has experienced many transformations. During the Moorish Empire, from 711 to 1492, it was a celebrated center of culture, science, and the arts. Over the years of the Reconquest, it became a turbulent land. The prior period of tolerance rescinded, and remaining Moors and Jews were forced into conversion. Gypsies, who had already arrived in Spain, were also persecuted. By the 16th century, Andalucia became one of the most impoverished areas of Europe where extreme destitution, famine and illiteracy prevailed. It was out of these extreme conditions that flamenco was first born.

The cante (song) was the first aspect of the art to emerge. It was the soulful expression of destitute communities of Gypsies and other lower class Andalusians in post-Inquisition Spain. Flamenco became a way to express and transform suffering and maintain dignity in the face of oppression. Capturing the attention of the ruling-class bourgeois, this unabashed form of expression began to emerge from the ghettos. As the art progressed, flamenco moved from intimate nightclubs into large theaters, eventually becoming an international phenomenon.

As a second generation American flamenca, Yaelisa has dedicated herself to creating and presenting both traditional and contemporary flamenco works. Training a new generation of dancers, she and her company, which was established in 1990, perform at distinguished venues throughout the Bay Area. She was the director of the New World Flamenco Festival in Irvine and she has received numerous awards for her choreography and performance.