Azahar Dance Foundation Presents

LA VIDA FLAMENCA

with Melissa Cruz, artistic director, dancer Fanny Ara, guitarist
Jason McGuire, singer Felix de Lola, and percussionist Sudhi Rajagopal.

This collection of pieces demonstrates our individual personalities,
strengths, and life circumstances - solitude, joy, sadness, change, human
sentiments and occurrences that embody and enrich us. Flamenco drives us to
flourish and to survive as artists, as it vivifies, revivifies, and renews
us.

Cowell Theatre, Fort Mason, Saturday, September 8, 8PM Tickets $29, $25,
$18

Box Office 415-345-7575 (11-5 Tue-Sat) or
http://www.fortmason.org/boxoffice/index.shtml

Presented by: Azahar Dance Foundation, www.azahardance.org, 650-493-6314
http://www.myspace.com/lavidaflamenca

Artist Biographies

MELISSA CRUZ
As reviewed by Rachel Howard of the San Francisco Chronicle -
"Any dancer could make pained faces. But [Melissa] Cruz is clearly possessed
by the duende -- the spirit that drives this deeply introspective art."
Melissa began pursuing dance under the guidance of Rosa Montoya, with whom
she trained intensively in flamenco and Classical Spanish Dance. As a member
of Ms. Montoya's professional company, Bailes Flamencos, she worked in the
Bay Area's best venues with flamenco's premiere artists. Her continued
studies took her to Spain, where trained under Manuela Rios, Pastora Galvan,
Alegria Suarez, and Andres Marin. Upon returning to the US, she toured and
performed with several companies including most notably Madrid's acclaimed
Noche Flamenca, with whom she performed at the Hollywood Bowl in Los
Angeles. As a company member of San Francisco-based Caminos Flamencos,
Melissa has shared the theater stage with Domingo Ortega, Juan Ogalla,
Manuel de la Malena, and Antonio de la Malena. In March 2007, she debuted
her first company performance as a part of the series, "Flamenco en Vivo" at
the Hobby Centre in Houston, Texas with a cast the best flamenco artists in
the United States.


FANNY ARA
Fanny Ara began her dance studies at age three, studying ballet
and Contemporary dance at the Irene Popard school located in St. Jean de Luz
in the French Basque country. In 1991 she began training in Spanish
classical dance and for the next ten years she traveled regularly to Madrid
to study with maestros Isabel Quintero and Antonio Najarro. In addition to
her studies in dance, she studied piano at the Bayonne School of Art for 11
years. She attained a BA in literature with a specialty in music. After
graduating from the Bayonne School of Art, she relocated to Sevilla and
Madrid. Over the next two years there, she pursued intensive flamenco
studies with Juana Amaya, El Torombo, Manolo Soler, Hiniesta Cortes. While
in Spain, she was also accepted into the prestigious academy of Mario Maya,
and worked in tablaos in Madrid ("Al Andalus" and "El Juglar"). Fanny has
become an established and important performer in the Bay Area. As a company
member of Caminos Flamencos, she has shared the theater stage with artists
such as Antonio de la Malena, Manuel de la Malena, Juan Ogalla, and Domingo
Ortega. Fanny has been recently nominated in the category of Most
Outstanding Individual Dancer (2006) from the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards.
In June, she presented her program "Magia Flamenca" in Washington DC with
critical acclaim.

SUDHI RAJAGOPAL
B. Madras , India (1979). Sudhi began his studies in
percussion at an early age with tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. He completed
his Bachelor Degree in Music Recording at the University of Southern
California . After graduating, he began touring in the US and Europe as a
sound engineer. Sudhi began his performing career as a flamenco
percussionist in 1998 with Yaelisa & Caminos Flamencos under the tutorship
of Jason McGuire. In 2001 he moved to Madrid , Spain . In 2002 Sudhi
performed with the Compania Rafaela Carrasco in the prestigious “XI Certamen
Coreográfico de Flamenco”, where they won all prizes including Best
Choreography and Best Musical Composition. Sudhi received the award for
Outstanding Musician. Since then he has collaborated with many of flamenco's
top artists, and has toured and recorded in various venues throughout
Europe, Asia, and the US . He has regularly worked with artists such as
Rafaela Carrasco, Belen Maya, El Nuevo Ballet Espanol, Domingo Ortega,
Manuel Reyes, Rafael Amargo, and many others in various tours and festivals,
including three consecutive years at the Festival De Jerez (2003-2005).
Sudhi moved back to the United States in 2005 and has since embarked on a
variety of creative projects in the areas of music, film, and writing. Now
completing his graduate studies at the University of Southern California ,
Sudhi continues to perform, compose, teach, and record in the US and abroad.

FELIX DE LOLA
Flamenco singer Felix de Lola from Sevilla, Spain, began his
flamenco singing with the Campallo family and went on to study with the
renowned flamenco singers, Jesus Heredia and Naranjito de Triana. His
recent, extensive touring schedule has brought him to the world stages
throughout Western and Eastern Europe, Costa Rica, South Africa and the
United States, singing for a list of illustrious artists such as dancers
Juan Polvillo, Bel--n Maya, Angel Atienza, Pastora Galvan, Carmela Greco,
Maria Benitez and guitarists Jos-- Lu--s Postigo and the prestigious
guitarist and composer Jos-- Lu--s Rodriguez, musical director of the famed
Cristina Hoyos Flamenco Company. Along with his superb singing talent, Felix
composes music and verses for flamenco song, composes theatrical works and
musical adaptations for flamenco theater. In Costa Rica he is recognized as
a leading exponent of Flamenco. Recent projects include composing musical
adaptations of Costa Rican writer, Cristy Van de Laat--s --The Red Book of
Black Haiku-- and the play --Moureliana-- based on the poetic works of
writer, Jos-- N--stor Mourelo Aguilar.

JASON MCGUIRE
Flamenco guitarist Jason McGuire El Rubio began playing at the
age of nine. He received formal training in Dallas, Texas from the Booker T.
Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. While in high
school he was given the prestigious "DEE-BEE" award from Down Beat magazine
in the category of "Instrumental Jazz Soloist" and later was one of four
finalists in the 1988 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) National
Classic Guitar Competition. He began performing as a flamenco guitarist in
New York playing alongside the legendary Pedro Cortes Jr. In 1995 Jason
recorded with famed Gypsy guitarist Carlos Heredia on his CD "Gypsy
Flamenco," and released a recording of his own composition "Distancias" in
2005, which has received unanimous critical praise. He has accompanied and
collaborated with many great artists, including Savion Glover, Yaelisa,
Alejandro Granados, Antonio El Pipa, Enrique El Extremeno, Carmela Greco,
Manuel and Antonio Malena, among others. Jason has been awarded a California
Arts Council Music Fellowship and has been nominated twice for an Isadora
Duncan Dance Award. Jason currently serves as music director for both
Yaelisa & Caminos Flamencos and The New World Flamenco Festival. He is also
an accomplished recording engineer and producer. He shares producer/engineer
credits with David Schiffman (Nine Inch Nails, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny
Cash etc.) on the latest Powerslave Records CD release "What's In Your Mind"
from the band Zeromind.

www.azahardance.org, information 650-493-6314