Leonor Leal’s Contemporary Flamenco

Leonor Leal, Jose Luis Rodriguez, and Francisco Orozco present contemporary flamenco during the John Hope Franklin Center’s Wednesdays at the Center series. Leonor Leal is considered one of the best flamenco dancers in Spain today. She began her dance education in Jerez de la Frontera in classical and Spanish dance. Later she also took up flamenco, studying with several prominent teachers both in Jerez and Seville. Her first professional engagements were in the companies of Antonio El Pipa, Andrès Marin, Javier Baron and in the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia conducted by Cristina Hoyos. She performed in the well-known productions such as “Femenino Plural”, “Alicia” , “El Pais de las Maravillas”, “Serenata Andaluza”, “Jovenes Valores del Flamenco” and “Viva Jerez.” In 2008 she presented her first choreography “Leoleole” at the festival of Jerez 2008. It was a performance which allowed her to break through both in Spain and abroad. That same year she was also awarded a recognition for being the m