Yvette "La Sole"

Yvette Garcia "La Sole" Award-winning Flamenco Dancer, Instructor & Choreographer, from Andalucia, Spain. She is the artistic director of an extremely highly regarded Flamenco performance company: La Sole Flamenco. La Sole Flamenco is the only dance company in the greater L.A., O.C & I.E. under the direction of a true professional & internationally recognized award winning dancer, instructor, choreographer and performer from Andalucia, Spain. Yvette was a lecturer at the dance Dept. of the Cal Poly University and dance studio owner of International Arts Academy in Covina, then moved back to Spain and now recently returned in 2009 to teach and perform in Southern California.

Arleen Hurtado

Arleen Hurtado grew up in southern California. Early in life she began playing the drums and trained in ballet, jazz and tap.  As a child she discovered flamenco on a trip to Spain, which appealed to her passion for both dance and percussion.   Arleen pursued her study of flamenco in Seville and Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, New Mexico, New York and California with world-renowned artists.

For the last 18 years she has performed throughout the world including several tours in the United States at venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Red Rocks in Denver and the Greek Theater in Los Angeles.  Internationally she has toured and performed in United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, Spain, Italy, Croatia, China and India.  Arleen has been featured in music videos, commercials, television and print.  Based in Los Angeles, she teaches weekly flamenco dance classes and continues to perform and tour.

Marco Torres

Marco Torres is a Mexican-American flamenco guitarist. He is a regular on the YouTube channel, SoCal Frets and performs through out Southern California and Mexico. He has studied flamenco since he was a teenager.

Antonio Triana

Antonio Triana is the son of legendary Spanish choreographer Antonio Triana I. He has been featured at all the major artistic venues in the western United States, television appearances and performances as well as played  flamenco guitar for major symphonies and orchestras. Antonio has accompanied world renowned flamenco performers his entire life. Triana’s music is the purest expression of flamenco, with his own innovative arrangements and authenticity.

Gerardo Morales

Gerardo Morales is guitarist, percussionist, composer and recording artist from East Los Angeles who began playing guitar and percussion at 12 years old. He has traveled the world as a professional musician, including performing alongside such artists as Black Eyed Peas, Cristina Aguilera, Ozomatli, Kanye West, and with Nino and Isaac de los Reyes. In addition to studying Classical Guitar at the Conservatorio Profesional de Música Cristóbal de Morales in Sevilla, Spain, he also studied privately with Kenton Youngstrom of the Colburn School of Music, and highly regarded Spanish Flamenco guitarists El Entri, Kilino Jimenez, and Jesus de Rosario. Beyond Flamenco guitar, he has released two contemporary collaborative albums - Dreaming Awake (Morales.Lara), and Burning Star (Burning Star, artist collective). As part of Burning Star, Gerardo Morales has performed with many popular artists like Linkin Park, Blackalicious, Jurassic 5, Slum Village, Rakim, Raekwon, Cypress Hill, System of a Down, Saul Williams, Black Eyed Peas, Ozomatli, Mos Def, KRS One and numerous other worthy acts. He is an essential member of LA’s Subsuelo, and under his direction produces Flamenco, Latin, Hip Hop, R&B, and Pop shows throughout the country.  Gerardo Morales has worked on films including Toy Story 3, Little Fockers, and Think Like a Man.

Angélica Paz Vásquez​

Paz Angélica Gutiérrez de Vázquez was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico and began her studies in classical Spanish and Flamenco dance there at Las Cabales dance academy at the age of ten. She earned her title, Ejecutante de Danza Española, from Las Cabales and has been a professional Spanish and Flamenco dancer since the age of sixteen. She furthered her studies in Madrid at the Centro de Arte Flamenco y Danza Española “Amor de Dios” where she studied Classical Spanish dance with María Magdalena, Paco Romero, and Azorín, and Flamenco dance with Domingo Ortega, Joselillo Romero, Belén Fernández, Antonio Reyes, Ciro, Belén Maya, Alejandro Granados, Lola Greco, Manuel Reyes, Juana Amaya, “La chimi,” Yolanda Heredia, and “La Tati.” Angélica performed with the Compañía Nacional de Danza Las Cabales throughout Guadalajara and Mexico, and formed part of the group “Almoraima,” that was active in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico from 1994 to 1999. The group “Almoraima” performed throughout Mexico (Guadalajara, Celaya, Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz) and briefly in Costa Rica. She currently choreographs for the Paso de Oro Dance Company, and teaches Classical Spanish and Flamenco dance at Studio Danza in Uptown Whittier and the Esencia Flamenco Studio.

Jaime Padilla

Flamenco, for Jamie, provides the most beautiful container for connection and expression—connection to self, to the music, to the people you share the stage with, to the moment, and to your audience. There is no better experience of that than the traditional tablao. While having graced the stages in some elite venues, such as the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion with the LA Opera, Jamie brings the best of her earthy, highly improvised style she’s developed over the past 20 years in the context of the festive Art of Flamenco dinner show at Café Sevilla’s tablao, where she loves being a part of this amazing and diverse community of artists.

Aithne

Aithne has been performing and entertaining audiences since she was a child and has studied a variety of theatrical and dance forms. She began belly dancing with Nikkal Feyrouz of The Dancing Belly in 2010 and is a performer with Dangerous Elements Dance Company.

Wendy Castellanos

Wendy is a versatile dancer and choreographer with Classical, Modern/Contemporary, Jazz, Flamenco and Latin Dance training. She is a graduate of UCLA’s Department of World Arts and Cultures. Wendy has also studied in Spain at the legendary Amor de Dios studio in Madrid and in the South of Spain in Sevilla and Granada.

In Los Angeles, Wendy has performed in the most prominent venues in the city. From theater to the "Tablao," Wendy regularly graces the stages of El Cid, Cafe Sevilla Long Beach & Costa Mesa as well as Alegrias, she has danced in the legendary Forever Flamenco series at The Fountain Theater, danced for Los Angeles Opera at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion between 2006-2019, choreographed and danced for Opera Santa Barbara for their 2016-2017 season, has been a Flamenco showgirl at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, and toured with Flamenco Express aboard the Caribbean Princess.

Marcela Aguayo

Marcela Aguayo has been studying different dance forms for over 15 years including time spent in Seville, Spain. She has studied and performed with the top performers in the Los Angeles flamenco community.   For the last few years Marcela has been performing with Richard Chavez’ group at the close of the Santa Barbara Fiesta days at the El Paseo benefit show.  Marcela performs regularly in southern California flamenco tablaos: Alegria, El Cid, Tapas and Café Sevilla. Marcela feels it is an honor to be a part of the small flamenco community that transcends throughout southern California.

Ana Quintero

Ana Quintero comes from a family of musicians and has been singing all her life. She began studying flamenco in 1993, and has been performing professionally for over twenty years with many recognized flamenco dancers.

Ryan Rockmore

Ryan Rockmore is a flamenco performer, researcher, and educator in the Los Angeles area. Originally from New York, he began his flamenco studies with Victorio Korjhan, La Magdalena, and Maya de Silva, building upon extensive training in classical percussion. In 2011, Ryan lived in Sevilla for a year researching queerness in flamenco on a Fulbright grant and studied dance, singing, and percussion with Carmen Ledesma, Esperanza and Curro Fernández, La Choni, Miguel Vargas, Andrés Peña, and Jorge Pérez. He then moved to Madrid to study with Merche Esmeralda and Alfonso Losa, before getting his MA in Dance Anthropology at the University of Roehampton. In 2014, Rockmore returned to New York, where he co-founded Al Margen Flamenco as Teatro Círculo’s company-in-residence, inaugurated Flamenco Vivo’s artist-in-residence program, and performed around the Northeast, including Jacob’s Pillow, Dixon Place, Amore Opera, and Lincoln Center. In recent years, Ryan has received a Jerome Foundation Travel Study grant, published scholarly work, co-created four full-length flamenco productions, and choreographed solo and collaborative pieces. He moved to LA in 2019 to pursue further graduate study and now works in international higher education while maintaining his dance and research careers.

Rhea

Rhea Raqs is a multi-award winning belly dancer who specializes in the Egyptian style “Raqs Sharqi." She has been studying this dance style for 7 years and is very passionate about sharing the culture, history, and artform of this dance through performing at various showcases, festivals, events, and restaurants as a soloist and as a part of various troupes. She is the featured Al Andaluz dancer at Cafe Sevilla Costa Mesa for the Art of Flamenco dinner show under direction of Yvette La Sole. When not performing Rhea teaches this art form at various studios in Orange County. She also teaches at a local high school as a way to integrate and promote student wellness and cultural diversity into the school curriculum.

Karina Leiro

Karina Leiro started her dance training in Ebateca (Salvador, Brazil). Karina was born in Brazil to Spanish parents . At age thirteen she took her first Sevillanas and Spanish folklore dances intensive in Spain. She danced and taught for various schools including EDAC, Mar Esmeralda Cia de Dança, she spent two years dancing in Portugal. Karina also studied in Flamenco Ados, Isabel Bayón's school and Ángel Atienza's school, located in Sevilla, Spain. She taught flamenco in Escola 1001 Danças in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2008, returned to Brazil, she founded the flamenco group Aires, taught an extension course at UFBA (the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil) & flamenco at the Instituto Cervantes Recife. In 2014, Karina went back to Spain to study in the center Flamenco Amor de Dios in Madrid. Currently she resides in Orange County performing at Cafe Sevilla Long Beach & Costa Mesa and teaching dance classes.

Jason Ortiz “El Niño Bravo”

El Niño Bravo has been a dancer since the young age of 5. He is classically trained and a flamenco cajon player (percussionist/musician) as well. He has studied Flamenco under Yvette La Sole from Andalucia Spain for over 16 years. He has formed part of her dance company La Sole Flamenco since he started his studies and began his tablao dancing career at the former Cafe Sevilla of Riverside when he was 21. He has performed throughout Southern California at many prestigious Festivals, theaters and events and is now a regular at Cafe Sevilla Long Beach and Costa Mesa.

Kirsten Alonso “La Argentinita”

Kirsten La Argentinita daughter of Argentinian parents, grew up in SoCal. Graduated from UC Irvine, studied in Madrid at Universidad Carlos III Madrid and got her M.S at Cal State Dominguez Hills. She has been a student of Flamenco since she was 8 yrs old, has studied intensively with Yvette La Sole for over 14 years & has been a member of La Sole Flamenco for 10 years. She has performed throughout Southern California at Spanish restaurants, fairs and festivals. She performed for many years as a regular at the former Cafe sevilla of Riverside, and is a regular at Long Beach and Costa Mesa locations.

Evelyn Nacif brings her beautiful and energetic flamenco experience to several venues in the Los Angeles area for the past ten years and is featured in the music video, Boy with a Coin. "I want the crowd to be more than just observers, I want them to be swept into the mystery that is Flamenco!" - Evelyn

Bobby de Sofia

Bio coming soon...

Aya Usui

Aya was born in Japan and started learning flamenco when she lived in Boston. After moving to Southern California, Aya continued her flamenco journey.  Aya’s dance and performance is full of energy and passion that captures the essence of flamenco art.

Rosal Ortega

Rosal Ortega, a native of Santa Barbara, CA. comes from a long line of dancers beginning with her grandfather and mother.  Destined to dance,  Rosal began ballet lesson at the age of 6.  Her passion for Spanish Classical and Flamenco dance grew and she traveled to Seville, Spain.  At the age of 13 after studying for a year she began dancing professionally in Sevilla.  Rosal has studied and performed in Spanish Dance companies as a featured artist with La Sole Flamenco, Clarita Corona and Arte Flamenco, Roberto Amaral, Cruz Luna, Luisa Triana, Juan Talavera's Flamenco Bravo and Paco and Yolanda Arroyo’s Flamenco troupe.  She has starred in many Flamenco venues in California and across the Mexican border.  She has toured the United States performing in concert theaters.  Rosal headed her own dance company and toured Japan for 6 months. Rosal graced the stages in Reno, Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas as a featured member of the Spanish Dance company with Cuchi, cuchi girl, Charo. Rosal also sings Flamenco and teaches Flamenco dance

Shari Bonnin

Shari Bonnin has been dancing most of her life. She is a trained classical ballet and jazz dancer and danced in professional modern jazz and contemporary dance companies throughout the United States. The soulfulness and rhythms of flamenco drew her in over 20 years ago, and she’s been fortunate to find a flamenco home here in Southern California with great flamenco teachers from here as well as from Spain: Ricardo Chavez, Yvette Garcia, Justine Grover, Cihtli Ocampo, Lidón Patiño. She’s performed for many years at restaurants, festivals, stage shows, and private events but really loves the audience energy at Cafe Sevilla.

Astra Cueto

Astra Cueto, started dancing ballet at the age of six.  She then moved onto to tap and modern and continued to dance throughout college.  After an extensive trip to Spain where she fell in love with the fiery flamenco dance she returned to California and started studying extensively with Rina Orellana, Mizuho Sato and Briseyda Zarate as well as with visiting artists from Spain. Over the last six years she has danced with and is considered one of the principal dancers for the Naranjita Flamenco Dance Company. 

Astra has studied intensively in Spain in last 6 years with renowned artists Inmaculada Ortega, Domingo Ortega, Concha Jareno,  Lidon Patino, Vanessa Montero and David Córdoba. Astra performed at the opening of the Festival Flamenco Internacional de Albuquerque in 2015 and for the last six years she has performed regularly throughout Los Angeles and Orange County including Cafe Sevilla and at various events and festivals. Astra has been described as a “soulful and passionate” dancer who respects the vibrant cultural art form-flamenco.

Gabriela Martinez

She toured over 8 years with  Mexican singer/ songwriter, Joan Sebastian and has also performed and recorded with a variety of Latin artists including Alejandro Fernandez, Luis Enrique, Jenni Rivera, and Cristian Castro.

She began her flamenco studies as a young dancer, and later transitioned to cante, studying with renowned cantaor, Rafael De Utrera in Morón De La Frontera, Spain. She continues her flamenco studies in Sevilla and Granada with cantaores such as Alícia Morales and Sergio Gomez “El Colorao” as well as Portuguese Fado in Lisbon.

Assieh

Assieh “La Mora” born and raised in Iran. She started her flamenco dance training in Los Angeles and later in Spain at Amor de Dios Dance Academy in Madrid and in Sevilla, at Manolo Marine Dance Academy. She also studied under the private training of Angelita Vargas and Pepa Montes. She has been performing professionally with many flamenco dance companies and artists in California including tablaos like El Cid and Cafe Sevilla.

Yaelisa

During the last twelve years, Yaelisa has spent extensive periods of time living and performing in Spain, presenting her choreography there and in the U.S. Her choreographies have been commissoned by several modern dance companies, including John Malashock & Company, Rose Polsky and Collage Dance Theatre. In 1995 she was one of 11 choreographers in Spain invited to present a piece at the prestigious Certamen de Coreografia in Madrid, and the only American choreographer chosen among them. In 1996 she returned to the U.S. where she continues to choreograph, develop and train dancers for her company. Creating innovative theatrical presentations has established her as a choreographer of merit.

Jason McGuire

Jason McGuire "El Rubio" has become synonymous with flamenco despite his Irish/American heritage. With over 30 years playing experience and concerts from coast to coast he has been for many years the guitarist other professional players come to help learn and hone their craft. As Musical Director of the award winning flamenco dance company Caminos Flamencos as well as Musical Director for "The New World Flamenco Festival," Jason has shared the stage with some of the top flamenco artists in the world today as well as other legendary performers like Carlos Santana, Savion Glover and Wynton Marsalis to name a few. 

Along with his Emmy Award winning wife, flamenco dance extraordinaire Yaelisa, the two have forged the path for authentic as well as experimental flamenco through their groundbreaking productions. Jason's album "Distancias" has received much critical acclaim and his compositions have been compared to some of Spain's most important guitarists.  Jason is endorsed by D'Addario Strings, Stephen Faulk Guitars, Glenn Canin Guitars and Ethan Deutsch Guitars.

Jennifer Larson

Jennifer Larsen, La Yeni, began her dance training at the age of 4. Moving from ballet to modern, lyrical and hip-hop, it wasn’t until after college that she discovered flamenco. The complex rhythms and music captivated her attention and led her to study intensively in Sevilla for a year and a half. While there, she studied with flamenco greats such as Pastora Galvan, Adela Campallo, Javier Cruz and Manolo Marin. Upon returning to the states, she began performing with local artists at Spanish restaurants and in theaters shows with various flamenco companies. She opened the Santa Barbara Flamenco Arts Festival with La Tania and Company and has performed for numerous events for Operation USA and the Asia Society which included engagements hosted by Julie Andrews. Her dancing has been described as “cerebral and eloquent” by the LA Times. She currently performs at Café Sevilla and teaches flamenco dance classes.

Miguel Bernal

Miguel Bernal, Spanish and Flamenco dancer/singer/writer, started his professional dance career at Las Golondrinas Restaurant at Olvera Street in Los Angeles, performing with his sisters as Los Hermanos Bernal, dancing for many Latin and Hollywood celebrities. His focus on dance took him first to Mexico City for studies with The Ballet Folklorico of Mexico and private Flamenco classes with Joaquin Fajardo and Manolo Vargas as well as ascertaining various performances throughout Mexico City. A few years later Miguel embarked on extensive studies of Classical Spanish dance and Flamenco with Carmelita Maracci and Inesita in Los Angeles. In Madrid, Spain, Miguel studied extensively in private classes with renowned dance teachers Faico, Rosario, Martin Vargas, Eloy Pericet and his mentor and icon, Pilar Lopez.

Miguel has made many television appearances, the Latin Grammy’s, “The Passion of Flamenco” and the award-winning “The Spirit of Flamenco” filmed at Time Warner Studios in San Diego. Miguel and Company completed a film documentary of “Flamenco” for Pro-Vision TV for distribution in Japan and has been interviewed on Los Angeles talk shows for KNLA Latino TV Channel 27and USC Trojan University TV.

Aside from his acting/dance career, in recent years Miguel, aka Michael Bernal, has been a contributing writer for magazines such as “Films of the Golden Age” and “Classic Images” with biographies on Hollywood entertainers Desi Arnaz, Elsa Lanchester and his pen pal for many years, famed tap dancer Eleonar Powell. To this day Hollywood Celebrities continue to sing their praises of the talented dancing of Miguel Bernal.

Rocio

Rocio Ponce studied Flamenco dance at Amor De Dios with El Ciro, Maria Magadalena, amongst others in Madrid. In Sevilla, Jerez De La Frontera. Rocio performed in Jerez with the cuadro of guitarrist Antonio Fernandez in tablao El Pasaje & Vinyards in Cadiz. 

In California, Rocio Ponce has performed in venues such as Alegrias, El Cid, Cafe Sevilla, Costa Brava, The Fountain Theatre, Ford Theatre, amongst others. Rocio Ponce was also a cast-member in Cirque Du Soleil show KA in Las Vegas as a Flamenco Performer and also an acrobat. 

New Performer

Bio coming soon...