Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. Featuring. Compañía Patricia Guerrero in the U.S. Premiere of UPCLOSE
SANTA BARBARA — “Join us for the 18th season of the Flamenco Arts Festival in the City of Santa Barbara, where breathtaking natural beauty meets a rich reflection of Spanish culture and tradition in the celebration of flamenco. We are proud to present the U.S. premiere of Patricia Guerrero’s UPCLOSE – an intimate and masterful production that will set the Lobero stage ablaze.”
Presenting Sponsor: Perry Ford
Highlights of the 2017 Festival:
- Sept. 28: Opening Night Film Presentation ~ Flamenco Flamenco, directed by Carlos Saura Lobero Theatre / 33 E. Canon Perdido / 7:00 PM / Tickets start at $10.50
- Sept. 29: Dance Workshops conducted by Patricia Guerrero Santa Barbara Dance Arts / 531 E. Cota Street / Tickets start at $25
- Sept. 30: Gala Performance ~ Compañía Patricia Guerrero in the U.S. Premiere of UPCLOSE Lobero Theatre / 33. E. Canon Perdido / 7:30 PM / Tickets start at $52
- Sept. 30: Award Presentation ~ As part of the gala performance David Asbell, Executive Director of the Lobero Theatre, will receive the Alberto Pizano Award for the Arts (ticket to the gala performance includes the award presentation).
- Sept. 30: After-Party Celebration with DJ Real
- Lobero Theatre Courtyard / 33 E. Canon Perdido / 9:30 PM / $14.50 / Only 200 tickets available to this event
- Oct. 1: Dance and Music Workshops conducted by Patricia Guerrero, Juan Jose Amador, Paco Iglesias, Kai Narezo, Clara Rodriguez and Joey Heredeia Santa Barbara Dance Arts / 531 E. Cota Street / Tickets start at $0 – $20
SANTA BARBARA — This September, Flamenco Arts Festival returns to proudly welcome Patricia Guerrero on the Lobero stage with the U.S. premier of UPCLOSE, Guerrero’s latest production.
Already considered a master at the age of 26, Patricia Guerrero’s performances are nothing short of pure exhilaration, and UPCLOSE will put her world-renowned dancing up front and center.
Based on the fundamental components of flamenco – baile (dance), cante (song), and toque (guitar) – UPCLOSE will feature Guerrero performing solo with her musicians. While seemingly simple in concept, the performance will be anything but, as Guerrero pays tribute to past flamenco traditions while embracing new concepts and expressions of her own. Showcasing the phenomenon that is Patricia Guerrero, UPCLOSE will surely set the stage ablaze.
“Patricia Guerrero is a woman with enormous abilities. Her choreography doesn’t flinch from difficulty.” – ABC, Marta Carrasco
While exhibiting exacting, classical grace, Patricia Guerrero’s dance style soars in its originality; her range of emotion and intense passion give her a level of maturity and sensuality well beyond her years.
Born in 1990 to a deeply rooted flamenco family in the Albayzin quarter, Patricia Guerrero’s extraordinary talent was apparent at a very early age.
Guerrero’s mother, Maria del Carmen Guerrero, immediately recognized her daughter’s potential at the age of three and enrolled her at the flamenco school established by legendary Priscilla Treviño Lozano “La Presy” where Guerrero studied from 1997 – 2000.
Her first performance was at Granada’s iconic Peña La Plateria at the age of eight.
International recognition followed when Guerrero was awarded the coveted El Desplante award at the Festival del Cante de Las Minas in 2007 at the age of 17.
In 2010, she was featured in celebrated filmmaker Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Flamenco dancing a guajira with Rafael Estévez and Valeriano (Nani) Paños and accompanied by singer Arcángel. She was also a featured dancer in Saura’s Flamenco Hoy.
In 2011, she became a principal dancer with the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía under the direction of Rúben Olmo. That year, she was also a special guest artist in flamenco singer Arcángel’s show Olor a Tierra.
Collaborating with Arcángel and the Academia del Piacere, Guerrero created Las Idas y Las Vueltas, a fusion between flamenco and baroque music. For this choreography, she won the Golden Giraldillo Award for Best Artist Revelation at the Bienal de Flamenco en Sevilla in 2012.
2013 marked the premiere of her production Latidos del Agua at Teatro Alhambra as well as Teatro Central as part of the Bienal de Flamenco en Sevilla, where the show received critical acclaim.
In 2014, Guerrero premiered Touche, a collaboration with violinist and composer Bruno Axel, who has performed with Guerrero in many of her important shows and festivals.
This June she won the Venecia Flamenca award at the Festival Flamenco de la Mistela in Sevilla, which recognizes a young flamenco musician, dancer or singer each year. The Festival said it chose to honor Guerrero for her “creativity, performance and contribution to new forms of expression that bind the traditional and contemporary.”
In 2016, Guerrero premiered her largest production to date, Catedral, at the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla and won the award for “Best Show” for her extraordinary work.
With her impressive accomplishments, the Flamenco Arts Festival is especially pleased to bring Patricia Guerrero to Santa Barbara to continue the tradition of showcasing the finest expression of Iberian culture to be found anywhere on the South Coast, if not the world.
About the Flamenco Arts Festival: Founded in 1999, the Flamenco Arts Festival was established with the goal of introducing Santa Barbara and the South Coast to a caliber of flamenco performance never before seen in the area. More than ten years before UNESCO declared flamenco one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the Flamenco Arts Festival recognized the importance of the art form, launching a groundbreaking endeavor that changed the cultural arts landscape forever. With unparalleled performances by leading stars and icons of Spanish flamenco, the Festival has become universally regarded by aficionados of the arts as one of the premier flamenco festivals in the United States, and is increasingly recognized in Mexico, South America, Europe and Asia.