Almería dancer awarded with the first solo choreography prize in the XXI Choreography Contest of Spanish Dance and Flamenco of Madrid with the choreography “El cuervo y el reloj” by Kaari Martin (2012). Second prize for flamenco dance at the II International Dance Festival of Almería (2011). Creates and choreographies with Carlos Chamorro her first show “Vecinos” at the Flamenco Festival of Madrid (2016), with a great reception from critics and audiences; taking her on tour through the Stuttgart Flamenco Festival; 9th Casa Del Lago Festival (Mexico City); XV International Flamenco Festival of Moscow, among others. And in September of 2017, “Vecinos y la comunidad”, the second show of creation and joint management.

Stage director of the “Bodegón” shows, by the dancer and choreographer José Maldonado, premiered at Les Nuits FIamencas de Chateauvallon 2016 with the participation of Antonio Canales and Carmen Angulo as guest artists; “Ver, oír y bailar” by bailaor Francisco Hidalgo, premiered in 2017 and “La decisión”, by bailaora Laura González, also premiered that year.

Guest artist at the IV International Dance Festival of Almería in the Tres a compás Conference (2015). Soloist at the First International Flamenco Festival in Mexico, Flamenco Fest UNAM 2014 with the piece “El terreno del engaño“; at the Flamingo – Contemporary Flamenco Festival of Helsinki with the piece “Lady’s Circus” (2011).

Under the direction of Carlos Chamorro she is part of the company Malucos Danza working as a choreographer and dancer, participating in the shows “Lorca

Reloaded “(2012),” Sed “(2013) and in the choreographic pieces “María Ácida y Niño La Traca” and “Seres dormidos”(2013) as assistant director are part of the latest productions of the company, “Mujeres de Jacinto” (2016) and “La caja del gusano”(2017).

Participates as a soloist in the show “Dressed to Dance” at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow (2012) and in The Israel Festival in Jerusalem (2013) directed by Carlos Chamorro and produced by Margaret Jova.

Member of the Roni & Kaari Martin Company, she is a creator and soloist in the shows “Pippi Long Stockings”, “Flamenco trilogía” and “Kill Carmen” and the solos “El cuervo y el reloj” and “La femme rouge” from 2009 to the present.

In collaboration with the Casa Patas Foundation creates the show “Berimbol” (2013) at the Cultural Festival of Assilah and “Flamenco(s) de plomo y cobre” (2014) in Miami, Washington, Seattle and Olympia with the special collaboration of the choreographer and dancer Carlos Chamorro.

Jury at the XII International Flamenco Festival of Moscow (2013) together with Carlos Chamorro, Karen Lugo, Natalia Zaikova and Urbano Millán.

Participates in the XIII Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla (2004), with the Andalusian Dance Center under the direction of Cristina Hoyos in the show “Los caminos de Lorca”.

She has done photography studies in:

• Course of a photojournalist.
• Course of studio photography and portraits.
• Private Superior School of photography, diploma in artistic photography.
• Upper course of nature photography.

After starting her professional career as a press photographer in Hungary in 1997, she combines it with several aerial photographs jobs, nature photography and photography of the theater and the scene, where she falls in love with flamenco and moves to Spain in 2005 to dedicate herself to making photographs and videos of flamenco art.

During those years she works with several important artists of this art: Antonio Canales, La Lupi, Daniel Doña Cía, Jesús Carmona, Manuel Liñán, Rafaela Carrasco Estévez/ Paños Cía, José Porcel, La Talegona, Eduardo Guerrero, Pol Vaquero, Mónica Fernández, Adela and Rafael Campallo, María Juncal, María Moreno, Alejandro Rodríguez and a long etc.
She also works at international flamenco festivals in Spain and outside our borders.

She began her training with the teacher Matilde Coral at the age of 5 years and then she deepen in the Sevillian school with the teacher Manolo Marín in a long apprenticeship. At the age of 15 she continued her training at the Alicia Márquez academy, and between 2010 and 2012 she completed the professional training at the Art Center and Flamenco of Esperanza Fernández and Miguel Vargas.

From that stage she began to make a solo path looking for the definition of her personal style and taking as reference her teachers. Her career combines it with her aesthetic and artistic criteria. These are her teachers: Juana Amaya, Carmen Ledesma, Juan Montoya “Farruquito”, Jose Manuel “El Oruco”, La Farruca, Luis Peña, among others. In the 2014-2015 season, she collaborated as a solo dancer in the shows of the company Mudanza Flamenca, where she presented her work in Andújar (Jaén) and Rute (Córdoba).

The summer of the same year, with the format “Cuarteto del coral”, she toured the Greek islands and taught a course at the Arroyo Nuevo Academy in Athens. In December 2014, in the city of Tokyo, she performed flamenco recitals and courses with the dancer Ayasa Kajiyama. At the end of 2015 she toured Israel and Palestine. As of 2016, she moved to Madrid and began her work with tablaos Café de Chinitas, Café Zyriab, Cortijo, Mr. Pinkleton and Las Carboneras. She was finalist of tablao Villa Rosa in 2017.

“For me, the tablao is the best school there is and where you manage to be yourself,” she says.

Born in 1989 in Málaga. She began her studies in the flamenco school of Susana Lupiáñez “La Lupi” (2001-2013). She has a degree in Choreography and Interpretation of flamenco dancing at the Superior Dance Conservatory of Málaga in 2011. She continues as a student of the Flamenco Cante School of the Federation of Peñas Flamencas de Málaga for three years (2008-2011), with the teachers Virginia Gámez (cante), Curro de María (toque) and Susana Lupiáñez “La Lupi” (dance).

She also trained in various flamenco dance courses with artists such as: Soraya Clavijo, Pastora Galván, Torombo, Rafael Campallo, Juan de Juan, Óscar de los Reyes, Rafael de Carmen, Domingo Ortega, Fran Espinosa, Andrés Peña, Lidón Patiño “La Telera ”, Carmen “La Talegona” (in the flamenco school of Susana Lupiáñez “La Lupi”), Alfonso Losa, Nino de los Reyes, Javier Latorre, Marco Flores, Jesús Carmona, Pedro Córdoba, Manuel Liñán, Belén de la Quintana, Belén López (at the flamenco school Amor de Dios), Rocío Molina and Fuensanta “La Moneta” (at the Superior Dance Conservatory of Malaga).

She received the first prize in the competition for young flamencos of the Federation of Peñas Flamencas of Málaga (2011).

She was awarded the second prize in the Tablao Villa Rosa competition, Madrid (July 2012).

She was semifinalist of the prestigious contest of the Festival de Cante de Las Minas de la Unión.

She was a member of the flamenco company Susana Lupiáñez “La Lupi”, performing in various galas in Europe with the shows “7 historias hacen una vida” and “Carmen” by Bizet (2009-2011).

She was also a component of the Cía. Juan de Juan in the show “Sones negros” at the Festival Veranos de la Villa in the Jardines de Sabatini, Madrid (July 2014).

She was part of the Cía. José Porcel in the show “Moralejas” in Tel Aviv (September 2014) and in the tour of the United States with the show “Flamenco Fire” (September, October and November 2015).

She has been a flamenco dancer of the tablao Garlochí, Tokyo (Japan) (May-August 2017). At the moment she is a component of the flamenco picture of diverse tablaos of the capital like Villa Rosa, Las Carboneras, Cardamomo, Cantares, Las Tablas, La Estación de los Porches.

.

.

Marina Perea interview

«For me, dancing in a tablao is the truest way to express yourself»

«About my training, I’d like to tell an anecdote that happened when I was four years old. I went to live with my grandmother and I as a girl was very hyperactive, very nervous. Then there was a dance academy in the neighborhood and my grandmother inscribed me to burn a little energy and therefore to go to sleep more calmly. There I was like three years or something like that, until seven. At that time we moved to other neighborhood and my mother inscribed me to the extracurricular dance activity in my school. There I met a boy who was at school too and he also danced, and the years went by and we danced together at school and in different places. At 10 or 11 years old he had started his training at the conservatory, since he was two years older than me. He appeared himself one day in my house and talked with my mother, as if he were a big boy, a man. He told my mother that he saw that I had a lot of talent and that he wanted me to go to the dance with him at the conservatory and at another academy where he had taken classes. My mother spoke with his and inscribed me in the new academy and in the conservatory. When I arrived at the academy, it was the one where I was at four years old, but now ran by Susana Lupiáñez, “La Lupi”, who has always been my teacher. Let’s say that I went back to the same place where as a girl my grandmother inscribed me by chance. And there I followed all my training until I came to Madrid.

»I will tell you the first thing I did at a professional level. The first time I went to a tablao was in my land, in Málaga, at 16 or 17 years old. My teacher called me because they needed a girl in one place, and I showed up at the tablao. I had no idea what the move was, I arrived with a super nice dress, very neat, with my hairstyle very well done, my hair bun with hairnet, all very well, as if I were going to do a test of conservatory. I did not have much idea. Then I was in the dressing room and the girls who were there, who were not so small and were rather ladies, 30 or 40 years old, had the feeling with me of this girl who she is and where she comes from? It was super funny because one of the dancers came into the dressing room and, without even saying hello, looked me up and down and asked me “who are you?”. And I was very shy, very embarrassed, and said “Hi, I’m Marina Perea and I’m a student of Lupi, who has spoken with the head of the tablao”. And directly, without saying a word, the first thing he does is give me rhythm by bulerías with her palms and she says: “Let’s see what you can do!”. Obviously, I was doing a test access to the tablao, I was doing a test to see how far I could go, to see if I danced on rhythm or not, if I had no idea or had a little. Antway that, when I saw myself in that position, with that girl touching me palms and I with the face unhinged, my first day with my hair netting on, thank goodness I had a little bit of lucidity and I pop up and said: “Yes, make me palms that I want to see if I have well squared a little step for bulerías that I have made up this morning. ” I got the best kick I had, my best resource, the one I had sound and firm, and I made it in the dressing room. He told me: “Okay, okay, it’s okay.” He gave me the consent to sit on the stool next to her. That would be my anecdote.

»For me, dancing in a tablao means being able to dance in the freest way you can feel, since there is no established choreography, you do not know what is going to happen and there are many factors that influence you and the rest of the group. First, the emotional factor, how you are emotionally and also how your partners are. So, for me to dance in a tablao is the truest way to express yourself. For me that it actually means everything because I like to move in life with the absolute truth at the level of emotions and express yourself as you feel and tell who you are and how you see life through your way of dancing, truer and with total freedom. Obviously, there are some codes and we all have some resources, but improvisation and intuition help you to take that path. And then also, in an artistic way, taking aside the emotional and existential part of what it means to dance, in an artistic way the tablao wears you, makes you put your batteries and wake up. There, too, one draws from himself all the capacity he has to adapt quickly to things, to all the changes that arise, from the support of colleagues, to work and control one’s energy … Then, in artistic matter, that puts you batteries and makes you grow a lot. I, since I arrived in Madrid eight years ago, it was something that I wanted and yearned (in a beautiful way) to be able to dance in a tablao. Because I knew that it was really where I was going to know what flamenco was, the flamenco dance, from its origin. Obviously everything has evolved, but that remains the absolute truth and what flamenco really is. For me it is essential in the career of a flamenco artist to go through the tablao, of course. Going through the tablao and not to pass by but living in the tablao although you do many other things, but live in the tablao and keep it in mind throughout your career, of course”.