Juan Manuel Zurano

Juan Manuel Zurano

Sevilla, 1979. He begins in the world of dance in the school of Matilde Coral. In 1997 he starts his Spanish and contemporary dance training with teachers such as Victoria Eugenia “Betty”, Eloy Pericet, Juanjo Linares, Pedro Azorín, John King, among others. His training and perfection as a bailaor come from the hand of great masters such as Manolo Marín, Javier Latorre, Alejandro Granados, Manuel Betanzos, Rafael de Carmen, Andrés Peña, Israel Galván, Adela Campallo, Pili Ortega, Pastora Galván, Eva Yerbabuena, Rocío Molina and Rafaela Carrasco.
In 2002, he acted as bailaor soloist in the company of María Serrano in the work “Carmen” and later toured in Taiwan. The following year he is invited for the company Arte y Flamenco in Italy. From 2004 to 2009 he joined the Flamenco Ballet Eva Yerbabuena . He began touring France and Spain with the shows “Eva”, “5 Mujeres 5” and “Eva a cal y canto”. In that same year and coinciding with the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Seville Biennial, “A cuatro voces” premieres and in 2005 it is presented at the Festival de Jerez. That same year, he traveled to the London and New York Festivals with “Eva” and “5 Mujeres 5”. In 2006, he performed in Brazil and Paris with “A cuatro voces”. Until 2007 they continue touring in Morocco, Italy, Beijing, Austria, Japan, Finland, Lisbon, Holland, Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Colombia and Hungary with the shows mentioned above.
In 2006, the show “Huso de la memoria” was premiered at the Zarzuela Theater in Madrid and it was performed at the Jerez Festival, the Seville Biennial and the London Festival.
In 2007, they performed the show “Santo y seña” at the Maestranza theater in Seville, and they toured Mexico, France and Luxembourg. In that same year they take to London and Japan with “A cuatro voces” and in 2008 they travel to the Festival of Mont de Marsan (France).

From that year and until today, he combines his career as a dancer with his performances in tablaos in Seville and Madrid such as Los Gallos, El Arenal, Museo Flamenco, Casa del Flamenco, Casa de la Memoria and Casa Patas.
In 2008 he dances at the Festival de Jerez with the show “Santo y seña”; at the New York Film Festival and then tours the US, Canada, France, Brazil, Chile and Spain. In 2009, they travel through Germany, London, Japan and Italy. They celebrate the tenth anniversary of the company of Eva Yerbabuena in the Jardines del Generalife (Granada) sharing stage with artists such as Enrique Soto, El Extremeño, Miguel Poveda, Pepe de Pura, Segundo Falcón, Arcángel, Marina Heredia and Jeromo Segura.
In 2009 and 2010 he participates in the show “Cádiz de la frontera” of the Company Andrés Peña and Pilar Ogalla in the Festival de Jerez; being realized later in Béziers (France). He is part of the “Homenaje a Mario Maya”, presented at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Seville and at the Festival de Jerez sharing stage with the artists Ángel Atienza, Manuel Betanzos, Manuel Liñán, Diego Llori, Juan Andrés Maya, Marcos Vargas, Rafaela Carrasco, Isabel Bayón, Belén Maya, Patricia Guerrero, among others. He is choreographer and bailaor in the show “Matemáticas de lo jondo” with the company of Charo Cala in the Theater Lope de Vega of Seville. Bailaor at the Exhibition Fair in Milan with the Choni Flamenco Company.
In 2011 he premiered his first show, “En compañía”, as choreographer and dancer performing several times in Andalusia, the Flamenco Festival Chateauneuf (France) and in Lucerne (Switzerland).
He is invited to create a show based on “Una leyenda de Alanís de la Sierra” and to be presented in the Jornadas Medievales with the show titled “Amor y muerte en las Pilitas”.
He is a guest dancer at the company of Katalin Inhof in Budapest. He participates with the show “Cadiz de la frontera” at the Santa Barbara Flamenco Festival in California, in Amsterdam, Holland and at the Gran Teatro Falla in Cádiz.
In 2014 he premiered the show “Raíces y alas”, directed by Marisol Valderrama, in Brussels, where he is required as a guest artist and with whom he continues to this day touring Belgium. He is guest artist for the Udaipur World Music Festival in India, and in the Arte y Flamenco Company of Turin, directed by Monica Morra.
He continues her career as a dancer in the tablaos of Seville, La Casa del Flamenco, Los Gallos and Callejón del Embrujo.

“The first show I saw as a child was Mario Maya’s “Naranja y oliva”, and over time, when Mario died and the homage was paid, I was called to participate with them, with Rafaela Carrasco, with Belén Maya, with Manuel Betanzos … and choreographies of ” Naranja y oliva” were staged. It was quite symbolic for me since it was the first show I saw in a theater and then to participate in it and as a professional bailaor the truth is that it was a reward and I was quite proud.”

»Of my career I can highlight when I entered the company of Eva Yerbabuena in 2004, where I was until 2009, is where I have most rolled, the more I have known and the more I have done.
»Regarding tablao, it is one of the places where I like to work most. Theaters fill us all, of course, but the tablao is where I feel more free to be able to do what you want and express how you feel, and I also consider it important to be so close to the audience, to the comrades».

Jesús Fernández

Jesús Fernández

(Cádiz, 1982). He started his career from a very young age in his hometown always linked to flamenco peñas and Andalusian circuits. His artistic development grows already in Madrid where he is required by all the national tablaos.
He has collaborated in different productions such as Pepa Molina’s “Ni aquí ni allí”, “Tierra cantaora” by Manuel Morao, “El burlao de Sevilla” by Rafaela Carrasco, “Rew”, by Liñán and Doña, Olga Pericet’s “Rosa, metal y ceniza”, and he is invited as choreographer and first dancer by the Dutch national theater company The Nederlands Toonel in his work “Medea” He has directed the show “Tablao”, an order from the Association of Tablaos Madrileños, displayed in Suma Flamenca 2013 in the Teatros del Canal.
“Ataduras” is his first show of own production presented at various festivals like Jerez, Milan, Mexico.
He obtains in 2010 the prize the Desplante granted by the International Festival de las Minas.
HPe receives the prize to the best outstanding dancer in 2014 within the Contest of Choreography of Spanish Dance and Flamenco of the Community of Madrid. And in 2014 he launches his new proposal, “Gaditaneando, a tribute to Cadiz”, under the direction of Flamenco Edition UK, which completes a tour of different cities in the UK in May 2015.

«The tablao is essential in all aspects», says the bailaor from Cádiz
«I think tablao tablao is a key key to the evolution and development of any artist in relation to flamenco, not only in dance, but also In the toque or in the cante. For me the tablao is as if it were a laboratory, in the sense that it is the place where I put into practice all my knowledge, my own formulas and structures, and my foot mechanisms, etc. That is why I refer to tablao as a laboratory. It is also a place where you can accept your mistakes and learn from them to, little by little, give yourself time and perform for the benefit of oneself, in continuous search for your own identity. Being daily working gives you a great experience and, above all, a knowledge of your dance, a very important awareness of your dance. The fact of being with the public so close obviously is an enriching and very positive experience. There is no fourth wall that can exist in certain large theaters, tablao is a small place and that approach with the public is quite important. In short, I think it is a very important school for all the flamenco artists we have to go through. I think it is essential in all respects».

Irene La Sentío

Irene La Sentío

She approaches the dance together with Juan de los Reyes and Juana Amaya to continue training with the greats: Antonio Canales, the Farruco Family (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNLtNisZcMI ), Fuensanta La Moneta, Adela Campallo… and thanks to her tenacity, strength and natural ability to convey emotions, she soon gains the nickname of La Sentío (http://irenelasentio.com ) with which La Farruca named her.

From there, she began her professional career in the flamenco peñas of the Andalusian capital (http://irenelasentio.com/project/pena-flamenca-nino-la-alfalfa/ ) and managed to become a finalist of the International Festival of Cante de las Minas de La Unión in 2008.

With Farruca and Farruquito as artistic godparents, Irene participates in shows of great projection with which she attends festivals like the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla – where she performs for the first time in 2010 with “Sonerías” – and the best theaters in Spain and Latin America thanks to proposals like “Baile flamenco” (http://irenelasentio.com/project/baile-flamenco-video/ ).

Later, La Sentío debuts her show “De mi faldiquera” (http://irenelasentio.com/project/faldiquera-cerdena-video/ ) and starts an unstoppable international career until today, performing tours with dancers such as Farruco, Óscar de los Reyes, Sergio Aranda and Jairo Barrull, and forming part of the programming of the main festivals of the world in flamenco such as Mont de Marsan, the Flamenco Festival in Rome, the Biennial of Flamenco Art in Málaga or the Flamenco Festival in Ibiza.

With the eagerness to impregnate herself with new airs, she also collaborates in more open projects with Tito Losada, the Chekara Orchestra of Tetouan, Jaco Abel or the pianist Miriam Méndez. And she combines her artistic career with that of teaching, teaching courses both in Spain and abroad (Greece, Italy, France, New York or Canada).

In addition, La Sentío is a regular dancer of the best tablaos in Seville (El Arenal, Flamenco Dance Museum, Casa de la Memoria), Barcelona (Tablao Cordobés https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMDB8hpt2XU, Tablao de Carmen and Los Tarantos) and Madrid (Tablao Las Carboneras, Tablao Villa-Rosa, Casa Patas, Cardamomo).

“In the tablao you get in touch with the truth of each one,”

«At the training level, I would highlight the first years I arrived in Sevilla and began to study flamenco with Juan de los Reyes and Juana Amaya and, above all, later with the Farruco Family who are the ones who have marked my beginnings and especially, La Farruca (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBQEDKtcCeA ), who has been my teacher. Then I have received training from great professionals and, to this day, with all the companions with whom I continue studying not only in classes but in the daily work of tablao, where I am aware how much  I have learned.

»I would emphasize having been part of Farruquito’s company (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2idI4301Mc&list=RDQMP8OarzH4Vos ), which for me was a before and after, especially at the level of great experience, to act in a theater, in company and with such good artists as those who work with him. In addition, with the company of Farruco, the brother, we were in Colombia and in Turkey with a show called “Flamenconcierto”.

»Apart from all that, I love the tablao, you have to go through the tablao to really learn what it is to dance, because it is not the same to dance in a company where things are fixed than the tablao, where you arrive and no one knows what is going to happen. I compare it a little with a temple, a sanctuary where you can live a mystical experience due to improvisation, unexpected things happen that is when you really learn, in my case I have learned to dance in the tablao, apart from everywhere else. In the tablao one comes in contact with the truth of each one. I have a lot of respect for that factor of improvisation and magic that arises and, particularly in Las Carboneras (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr–wGuSuBQ ), I love to work there because it breathes exactly what I’m talking about: that improvisation factor, magic and to be aware of the comrades. And above all what it imposes on me is the wisdom of Uncle Angel, Tacha, Ana, they are people who know a lot and have a lot of experience in flamenco. This imposes to me from the appreciation and respect and, at the same time, it motivates me because I know that it is a place where you can enjoy all the good artists there are and the good atmosphere and good vibes that there is always».

Juan José Villar

Juan José Villar

Juan José Villar is a young bailaor of Cádiz, the most recent link in the Villar saga and the Jinetos, a lineage of Cádiz artists that began with his grandfather, singer Juanito Villar, and continued with his father, also singer Juan Villar Junior. His mother, Susana Gómez, is also an artist, being in his case bailaora.

He felt the call of the flamenco from very short age, and with only 8 years he already danced on the scene of the Peña Flamenca La Perla de Cádiz.

She has received a classical dance training. He has graduated from Seville’s professional dance conservatory Antonio Ruiz Soler, and has also taken courses with artists such as Concha Jareño, Juan Ogalla, Mercedes de Córdoba, Pepe Torres, La Lupi, Farruquito, Ángel Muñoz, David Paniagua, El Güito and also with Olga Pericet.

En 2006 se embarca en una gira por Japón acompañado por sus padres durante 45 días. Un año después entra en el Conservatorio Profesional de Danza Luis del Río, de Córdoba, y en 2009 participa en el conocido programa de Canal Sur llamado “Mi primer olé”.

In 2006 he embarked on a tour of Japan accompanied by his parents for 45 days. A year later he entered the Professional Conservatory of Dance Luis del Río, in Córdoba, and in 2009 he participated in the well-known program of Canal Sur called “Mi primer olé”.

During five summers, from 2010 to 2015, he returns to Japan to perform in Tokio, Osaka, Nagano and Okinawa.

In 2011 he is part of the company of Yolanda Osuna presenting “Vivencias flamencas” at the Gran Teatro de Córdoba. A year later he obtained the first prize of the Flamenco Dance Contest of Villa de Guillena (Seville).

In 2014 he worked in “Fitur por Córdoba flamenca” (Madrid) and in 2015 he received the third dance prize for alegrías of the National Contest of La Perla de Cádiz and presented his first show, “Es el momento”, at the Teatro Central Lechera (Cádiz) with great public and critical success.

In 2016, he won the first prize in the flamenco dance contest of of Tablao Las Carboneras (Madrid) That same year was chosen among many artists of Andalusia to act like invited artist in the spectacle “Improvisao”, of Farruquito, in Teatro Quintero (Seville), as well as in “Bailaores” along with Joni el Remache and El Carpeta.

He has made several tours, including one for Azerbaijan with the show “Chicuco” by Sergio Monroy, and has also participated in the Seville Biennial with the children’s show “La sirenita entre mares andaluces”, produced by Flamencos por el Mundo and where he starred the main character.

In 2017, he toured Japan for nine days.
He has performed in Tablao Cordobés and Los Tarantos, in Barcelona, and in El Arenal, in Sevilla.
Throughout his professional career he has shared stage with artists such as Carmen Ledesma, Pepe Torres, Almudena Serrano and Choro Molina, among many others.

«Tablao dance is a way of understanding flamenco»

«About tablao dancing I think it’s a professional stage in flamenco that makes people who are just starting out and also veterans to learn to unify each other, because dancing, singing and playing are intuitive and improvised. It is a way to understand flamenco and to show the audience what it used to be, that they simply sang to you and you danced what came out of your heart. There was no tutoring or assembly before. It’s really where I most like to dance because it’s that: you think of nothing else than dancing.»

Guadalupe Torres

Guadalupe Torres was born in Madrid in 1983 and is a rising value of the current flamenco. She is graduated in Spanish dance and flamenco by the Real Professional Conservatory of Dance of Madrid and in her formation emphasizes important masters of flamenco.

Her professional career began at Compañía Andaluza de Danza and then went on to other companies such as Maria Pagés or Marco Flores in “De flamencas” awarded the best show at the Festival de Jerez. That was followed by different solo projects highlighting “Acuérdate cuando entonces”, taken to the Biennial of Holland, Helsinki Festival or Festival de Jerez, and her latest proposal, “Roble” , with great acceptance, that has passed through the Milano Flamenco Festival, Jornadas Flamencas, Red de Teatros or the Flamenco Festival Madrid. Her personality makes artists of different generations like Marco Flores, El Güito or Montse Cortés count on her in different collaborations for her versatility and freshness.

She has been awarded twice in the prestigious Certamen Coreográfico de Madrid for the best choreography as a group piece with “A miedos, colores” and with the piece soloist “De los rincones”.

She combines her professional career with teaching classes and courses in Spain and countries like Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Italy or China. And being invited as teacher and choreographer in the Superior Conservatory of Dance of Madrid.

“The tablao is like eating,” says the Madrid artist

As for my training, one of the things that has given my dance openness and versatility is the fact of coming from a training in conservatory where I have studied classical and Spanish dance. All this, combined with the classes I took also in Amor de Dios with people from flamenco has been a base to give a little more amplitude to my dance. Also, having studied with teachers in Madrid and Seville has also defined my style, studying with many different teachers and different styles.

From the professional side, I also emphasize that I started working very young at companies such as Compañía Andaluza de Danza, María Pagés, Marco Flores and Manuel Liñán, and that path for me has been very important, working in companies and in teams, where there is a work of continuity and daily work.

“That also gave me the ability to then be able to perform my shows and my solo projects, which I currently have two: “Acuérdate cuando entonces” , which is a format of flamenco recital, a more traditional flamenco, say, and then we are also working with “Roble” , which is a more aesthetic proposal and theatrical, and it is still the flamenco that I do and that is already defining me. I have these two proposals, which are very different, apart from the first show I did with Jonathan Miró and David Coria, which was our first experiment as a company and with which we learned a lot and acquired maturity and gave us another vision of doing things and carry out the projects.

“De los rincones”, in which I took Marco Flores as a guest artist, was the first experiment I did in solo. And the two productions we have now are more powerful and have gone to important festivals such as the Biennale of Holland, the Festival de Jerez and the Helsinki Festival, etc.

“This I combine with the faculty, which is an increasingly important facet in my career with many courses outside, or as a guest teacher at the Conservatoire Superior, which I have been to recently.. ”

And then, the part of the tablao, which for me is totally imperative. It’s the part I don’t like the most, say, but it’s a necessary thing in my life. Just as the shows is something you do more sporadically, it takes a process to get to that day and make a bolo, tablao is like eating. The tablao is where I have learned the most, where the real language of flamenco arises between singing, guitar and dance, where improvisation arises, not knowing never what is going to happen and the appearance of wonderful evenings. Or not, too. For me it is the fundamental school of flamenco, if you really want to learn that language, which for me is what it is, and then have more freedom to do other things.

For me the tablao is enjoyment, it is daily learning because every day you learn more, even the worst day you have, too. And the best, enjoy it. In this case, in your house, in el Tablao Las Carboneras , and not for making the ball, is one of the places where perhaps I have learned more because of the concept that you have, by the musicians so good that there are always, like the treasure that you have there of Angel Gabarre, for example. And then, for your concept of how tablao is, how you do the palms, things that make us learn a lot, how you have to sing a jaleo, how you carry your dance and make it more round. And above all, the good atmosphere that there is always in that house. Of course there are also other incredible tablaos.

But to this I have a special affection because I have been going a long time, it was one of the first ones that I went to, but for me it was a wonderful school in the sense that I have learned a lot and I continue learning because every day is an adventure. I highlight the good mood that there is, that makes it possible to work much better, that people have freedom, within an order there is freedom, which for me is one of the most important things for dance, flamenco and music ‘.

Jose Maldonado

Exhibition of flamenco oils by José Maldonado

After the exhibition on tattoos and flamenco by Roberta Venere, some photographs and drawings that have now traveled to Italy, the artistic director of that exhibition, as well as dancer and painter, José Maldonado, brings us a collection of great flamenco-themed oils which will remain in our tablao until the end of August 2017.

José Maldonado, bailaor

Bailaor of Barcelonan origin that from an early age adopts flamenco and art in general as a way of life. Throughout his professional career he works with some of the greatest flamenco figures such as Javier Latorre, Antonio Canales, El Güito or María Pagés among many others. He is said to be a versatile artist, who is able to mix flamenco and dance in a natural way with a unique personality.

In 2013 he obtained the first prize in the Choreography Competition of Madrid for the choreography “Mojácar” and in 2015, for “Trigo limpio”. He currently combines the management of the company José Maldonado with the participation as guest dancer and choreographer in the companies of Manuel Liñán or Guadalupe Torres, among others.

His relationship with the plastic arts was born from an early age. From a young age, in his family nucleus he coexists with painting and design.

His training in this field goes hand in hand with Isabel Llovera and J. Florentí in Barcelona and later in the Academy of drawing and painting ARTIUM Peña of Madrid.
Maldonado focuses his pictorial work on portraiture, always playing with black and white and a dreamlike and fleeting treatment of color.

He navigates between different techniques and the use of various materials, giving his works a great freshness and expressiveness.

Tablao Las Carboneras Madrid

CON-FUSIÓN tattoos and flamenco

Roberta Venere enhances our look at a cross between tattoo and flamenco in the new show of Tablao Las Carboneras in Madrid

When Tablao Las Carboneras opened in October 2000, the trio of bailaoras who boosted this tablao located in the most castizo Madrid and located next to a cloistered convent from which they borrowed the name, they aspired to renew the flamenco art of tablao from their experience in those places inexorably decorated with typical Andalusian or rocieros elements and with an stiffed artistic offer in which they could not miss the typical sevillanas.

Skipping the norm has never been easy and fusion of the avant-garde with tradition was seen more than 15 years ago as a boldness that bordered blasphemy. But the spirit of these female entrepreneurs was framed in modernity, in the rupture within the canons and sometimes they were nourished of advanced tendencies of the dance joining contemporary and flamenco.

It was not long before that the musical fusion with bands in which Latin American, African and flamenco sounds were mixed (what was known as Nuevo Flamenco) was popularized or that of masters like Enrique Morente that had questioned the orthodoxy next to Lagartija Nick in “Omega”, a milestone which has already turned 20 years.
Fruit of that atmosphere of aesthetic and artistic search, Tablao Las Carboneras not only wanted to enrich flamenco from its stage, but also from its walls. An example is the latest exhibition we have opened, “CON-FUSIÓN, Tattoos and Flamenco”, an original idea by Roberta Venere, an internationally recognized creator of the tattoo scene who has allied with the photography of Alberto Romo and the artistic direction by José Maldonado to hang in our space a series of photographs and drawings that intersect two disciplines untold in the world of art.

Roberta Venere, from Rívoli (Italy), settled in Madrid moved by her fascination with flamenco and began to tattoo dancers and musicians attracted by her technique and aesthetics. That mixture caught the attention of our co-founder Ana Romero and Roberta, at her suggestion, meditated for some time the type of photography suitable to shape that fusion.

“The idea of the Tablao Las Carboneras is that if there is the possibility of mixing, from the most underground to the most sophisticated, with a connection with flamenco, we try to take it into account to host it in our space and accommodate people with desire to do new things,” explains Ana.

“Tattoos and flamenco are disparate arts, old ones, two arts that have traveled along parallel roads but sometimes have touched and enjoyed themselves,” says Roberta. “Young flamenco artists start breaking unwritten rules that made it very difficult to see a tattooed flamenco artist on stage. Perhaps the solemnity of flamenco weighed too much, perhaps breaking with that purity was risky, but without a doubt this wonderful art listens, feels, breathes and evolves. Flamenco and tattoos go hand in hand, tighten the siege and offer me the opportunity to be part of it,” adds the artist.

Artists such as José Maldonado, Guadalupe Torres, Pino Losada, Nino de los Reyes, Triana Maciel, Julia Gimeno, Juan Debel, Francisco Vinuesa, David Carpio, Cheyenne, among others, many of whom are regulars of our Tablao Las Carboneras, have shared with her their deepest thoughts to make them indelible in their skins and in their lives through their tattoos.

The present is linked to the past, the ephemeral to the eternal, the authentic to the profane and this confusion, in which everything flows and goes in a specific direction, my proposal is born: “CON-FUSIÓN, tatuajes y flamenco”, says Roberta in the synopsis of her show.

The exhibition aims to break old themes, to remove the tattoo from the marginal and definitively position it as an artistic expression.
It shows a series of pictures of the photographer Alberto Romo, with the artistic direction of José Maldonado and, through that work, manifests the coexistence of two disciplines that relate to each other in an elegant and wonderful way.
It also shows a series of drawings of own creation, made with different techniques and that evoke an imaginary universe of great flamenco figures tattooed from her perspective.

“Thanks to those who have believed in me and have supported me in this project by offering me their confidence and time.»

Grateful to Life, Tattoo and, of course, to Flamenco».
Thanks to you, Roberta Venere, for choosing Tablao Las Carboneras to present this revolutionary proposal that strengthens our gaze on flamenco.