Today we’d like to introduce you to Alessandra Torres.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Flamenco has been my life since I was a child in Venezuela, a country with rich Spanish roots and where I was introduced to the world of flamenco by the hand of 3 well-known teachers: “La China” Olga Marcioni, Siudy Quintero, and Azilde Henriquez.
At the age of seventeen, I became one of the principal dancers of Siudy Quintero’s flamenco company; with this professional company, I traveled and performed not only in the most important theaters in Venezuela, but in the Pittsburgh’s Opera under the director Tito Capobianco. The same year, I received my bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication at “Universidad Catolica Andres Bello”.
With a career spanning more than 40 years, my love for this passionate art has had me travel around Spain to take classes, and attend workshops at Flamenco Festivals with renowned teachers and dancers such as Ma. Magdalena, La China, Ciro, La Tati, Belen Maya, Carmela Greco, Domingo Ortega, Alfonso Losa, Maria Juncal, Rafaela Carrasco, Inmaculada Ortega, Manuel Reyes, Pilar Ortega, Úrsula Lopez, Marcos Flores José Ramos “El Oruco”, Juana Amaya Javier LaTorre, Rosario Toledo, Ana Morales, and Andrés Peña.
Once I moved to the USA, I had the urge to keep doing what I had been working for my whole live: Dancing, producing and directing Flamenco performances. So in 2008, I founded Luna Calé: a nonprofit organization created to no only promote Flamenco artists, but to offer education opportunities for flamenco aficionados as well.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s not an easy task to promote cultural events in Florida, Sometimes, I even feel I’m climbing a steep hill. The cost of renting theaters can be ravaging, it can account for 60 percent of the budget. Even though Luna Calé is a 501 C3 nonprofit organization, I’ve not been able to get access to grants making the production of these shows quite a challenge.
On the other hand, I’m a very ambitious producer. Every year my expectations, of not only The USA Flamenco Schools Festival annual edition but the professional performances I direct are higher. Always trying to give more to the audience and to the flamencos in Florida.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Luna Calé Compañía Flamenca story. Tell us more about the business.
Luna Calé is more than a flamenco company and more than a school, It’s a family of professional dancers, musicians, and students who gather together in order to make this art form known in South Florida and why not? In the whole East Coast!
One of my greater pride is have been created a space for flamenco amateurs and schools to perform and to share with professional artist their passion to dance on stage. The Flamenco Festival Escuelas Flamencas USA will hold its VI edition on April 14,15 2018.
These last 5 years producing the Festival have been full of pleasant surprises and much pride for the work that flamenco teaching centers in this part of the world accomplish. “Tierra 7,8,9,10. A tribute to Mother Earth” is our new project. Flamenco becoming an art with regards.
Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?
I can see Luna Calé growing exponentially in the next 5 to 10 years. So far I’ve been working without the support of any Broward cultural division or big private sponsors ( I have received some help from sponsors as Restaurant Madrid Tapas y Vinos and some other small business who generously had help with the Festival), a picture that will change once I find the Grants or sponsors that suits this beautiful community projects.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lunacaleusa.com
- Phone: (954) 2358221
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @lunacaleusa
- Facebook: @LunaCaleCompaniaFlamenca
- Twitter: @Alechonga
Image Credit:
Juan Silva, Ferney Garcia, Rodolfo Benitez, EPS
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