Who we are

Carlos Menchaca is a Chicanx dancer/choreographer who blends traditional, avant-garde, and quotidian modalities to defy gender norms and convention in flamenco. Touring with esteemed flamenco companies, Carlos has performed throughout the U.S. at such venues as The Joyce Theater, Z Space, and The Public Theater (NYC), and internationally in cities such as Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), Vancouver (Chan Centre) and Sölden, Austria.

In 2023, Carlos broke barriers performing as a Principal Dancer of Yjastros’ Xicano Power at the Festival de Jerez (Spain)— the first U.S.-based company to be featured at the esteemed festival. Most recently, Carlos was selected by the City of Albuquerque’s Urban Enhancement Trust Fund to choreograph a series focusing on collaboration between local, intergenerational artists.

Jamel Robinson is a multidisciplinary artist working in the mediums of abstract expressionist painting, assemblage, sculpture, installation, poetry, and performance. His work serves as a time stamp of the experiences shaping his own life and creative processes and grounds itself in the use of materials and themes associated with the historic and present grief surrounding the Black experience in America.

Robinson’s works have gained him notoriety throughout the United States and abroad, attracting a variety of prominent collectors, curators, gallerists and institutions, which have led to acquisitions for the permanent collections at the Hudson River Museum in New York and the Bunker Artspace Museum in West Palm Beach.

Robinson was celebrated in the New York Times and CBS News for his solo exhibition, “Beauty from Ashes”, at the Hudson River Museum in New York. This body of work was curated in response to “African American Art in the 20th Century”, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s traveling exhibition of selected works from the permanent collection, which opened at the Hudson River Museum in 2021. Robinson was also the Hudson River Museum’s 2022 Gala Honoree and had June 17th declared as “Jamel Robinson Day” by the Office of the Mayor of the City of Yonkers and the Westchester County Board of Legislators for his work with the museum and the city’s youth. Jamel most recently completed the 2022-23 inaugural tenure at the Long Meadow Art Residency in the Berkshires of Massachusetts where he spent four months creating an extensive body of work including assemblage, abstract paintings and sculpture.

Robinson lives and works in Harlem, New York, where he was born and raised.

Tania Arabelle Flores (she/ella/ela) is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University. Her research examines questions of race, gender, and empire in the Hispanophone world from the nineteenth century to the present. She specializes in the literature of flamenco, (al-)Andalusian literary imaginaries, and the circulation and production of Black internationalist thought in the Hispanophone world.

Her dissertation is a cultural history of Afro-Orientalist genealogies of gitanidad, or Spanish Romani-ness, in literature, music, and dance produced in and beyond Spain's changing borders at the turn of the twentieth century. In particular, she examines the performative and creative acts through which Spanish Romani flamenco artists of that period claimed Egyptian ancestry.

During her time at Stanford, she has served as a founding graduate coordinator of three research groups: New Flamencologías: A Collaborative Research Group on Critical Flamenco Studies, Generaciones: A Collaborative Research Group on Diasporic Mexicanidades, and Race and Gender in the Global Hispanophone. Tania is also the co-founder and president of Flamenco Cardenal, a student group that organizes flamenco dance classes and events at Stanford.

Currently, Tania is a DARE Doctoral Research Fellow. Previously, her work has been funded by a Fulbright Research Grant and the Ric Weiland Graduate Fellowship. She also served as Graduate Scholar-in-Residence at Stanford's El Centro Chicano y Latino between 2022 and 2024.

Recent Publications:

Flores, Tania Arabelle. "Rosalía's Cante: (Non-)Gitanidad, Gender, and Anti-Carceral Flamenco Tradition in 'Juro Que.'" Romance Notes, vol. 63, no. 2, 2023, pp. 309-320. https://doi.org/10.1353/rmc.2023.a919724

Flores, Tania Arabelle. "El grano de arena de Bobby Seale: hacia un análisis del internacionalismo negro en 2666." Revista Chilena de Literatura, no. 108, 2023, pp. 195-222. https://revistaliteratura.uchile.cl/index.php/RCL/article/view/69468

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Yvonne is a British-Chinese director and writer based in London. Her narrative short CARRION was the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Production Grant and has screened at festivals worldwide including SFFILM, CAA Moebius, PÖFF Shorts and Tampere Film Festival, where it was awarded Best Genre Film. Her most recent short, SWEETWATER AQUARIUM, was executive produced by Caviar and premiered at Vienna Shorts in 2024.
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Her multi-channel film BETTER RAINFALL, created with regular collaborator Lizzie Watts, was selected for solo exhibition at CCA Glasgow’s Intermedia Gallery.Yvonne completed an MFA in Directing at the American Film Institute where she was awarded fellowships from BAFTA, Fulbright, AFI, AAUW and P.E.O. International.She is currently Filmmaker-in-Residence at Somerset House, London.

Eugenio Iglesias is a Romani guitarist, descendant of a long lineage of artists who helped create and preserve flamenco. His great uncle, El Mechor de Marchena, played with La Niña de los Peines, Manuel Torre, Manolo Caracol, and Antonio Mairena, and is considered one of the best accompanists in flamenco history.

Eugenio began playing professionally at a very young age, working in all the important tablaos of Sevilla. He has toured with various companies, sharing the stage with Antonio Canales, Farruco, Farruquito, El Güito, La Tona, Javier Baron, Sara Baras, Manuela Carrasco, Israel Galvan, Mario Maya, and Angelita Vargas. He has also accompanied many of the greatest flamenco singers in Spain including Lole Montoya, La Negra, Chiquetete, La Susi, Carmen Montoya, Juan Villar, and El Potito among many others.

José Suarez “El Torombo” is a Romani educator, activist, and living flamenco legend. He began his career at the age of seven, training with the masters Pepe Ríos, Isidro Vargas, Farruco, and Mario Maya. It was Farruco who gave him the nickname “El Torombo.” His fame as a dancer is only matched by the impact he has had as an educator and community activist. Torombo is a trailblazer, one of the first artists to bring flamenco into prisons, and to introduce the art form to students with disabilities in Spain.

He is also the founder of the “Fuera de serie” Project that provides new pathways of empowerment and artistic expression to adolescents and young people from blighted communities.

Elena Andújar is an Afro-Andalusian flamenco dancer and singer born and raised in Seville, Spain. She grew up alongside many flamenco greats in the renowned Romani enclave of Triana, where flamenco was more than just an art form but a way of life. Elena has toured the world, performing in North and South America, Japan, South Korea, Ghana and across Europe with artists such as Antonio Canales, Ketama, and Joaquín Cortés.

Elena made her film debut in The Devil's Advocate, starring Al Pacino. She also appeared in the documentary Flamenco Women, featuring Eva la Yerbabuena and Sara Baras. Elena was a featured singer in the Pata Negra album “El Blues de la Frontera” and has collaborated with Diego Carrasco, Niña Pastori, and Esperanza Fernández, to name a few. In 2004, Elena opened her own school in Madrid, where she continues to teach the next generation of flamenco artists and aficionados.

Reyes Martín Figuereo was born in Cadiz. At the age of 14, she began her solo career, moving to Madrid where she performed alongside flamenco icons such as Antonio Canales and Güito. Later she joined various flamenco companies, including: Ballet Rafael Aguilar’s opera Carmen (Germany, Italy), Joaquín Cortes “LIVE” (Mexico, Panama, Austria, England, Germany, Sweden), and the Flamenco Ballet of Andalucía under the direction of Cristina Hoyos (New York, Poland, China, Chile, Cuba, London), to name a few.

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For the past 11 years, Reyes has worked as a singer with El Barrio on all its tours and productions. El Barrio is the only artist to date that has filled the Palau Deportes de Madrid 17 times in a row. They have also sold out the Palau Sant Jordi de Barcelona 11 times over.

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Alfonso Cid is a flamenco singer, flute player, and independent scholar from Seville, Spain. His mother, an amateur singer from Triana (a renowned flamenco enclave in Seville) and his grandfather, a great aficionado of flamenco, were his earliest influences. Alfonso also grew up frequenting one the most significant flamenco clubs in Spain, the Peña Flamenca Torres-Macarena. Alfonso formalized his studies at the Fundación Cristina Heeren, where he was awarded scholarships in both July 2007 and 2008, and at the Universidad de Córdoba as part of the Cátedra de Flamencología in 2022 and 2023.

As a professional artist, Alfonso has recorded and performed with multi-platinum Billboard sensation Romeo Santos— backing vocals in the hit song titled “Mi Santa” that features the great flamenco guitarist Tomatito. On tour with Romeo, Alfonso performed at sold out stadiums throughout the U.S. and Latin America, including New York City's iconic Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, and the Barclays Center.

Alfonso released his first album in 2006 with flamenco fusion project Gazpacho Andalú and went on to create the Spanish Indie Rock band “Dientes de Caramelo,” releasing the album “Pulpo” in 2012, as well as three singles throughout the summer of 2015. Alfonso’s current passion is collaborating with pianist Jesus Hernández as part of the jazz/flamenco band New Bojaira. Their 2018 “Zorongo Blu” album featured the legendary trumpetist Randy Brecker, and since 2017, New Bojaira has toured Spain, France, Italy, and the United States. Most recently, Alfonso collaborated as a Flamenco singing consultant in Indiana University’s Bloomington’s production of the opera “Ainadamar-Fountain of Tears” by Osvaldo Golijov, which premiered in 2023.

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Ana María Cornejo Silva was born in Denver, CO and as a child received an expansive artistic education. She began taking flamenco classes at 11 years old while also studying creative writing at Denver School of the Arts. At 15 she began performing in local tablaos and at 17 she debuted in Flamenco Denver Danco Cia. At 18 she started a Comparative Literature degree at Stanford University, and at 20 she decided to move to Madrid to enter a dance conservatory studying Spanish dance.

This same year she was awarded first place in Flamenco Vivo’s Certamen in the advanced Tablao category. She currently resides in Madrid, where she is finishing her conservatory degree at the Real Conservatorio Profesional de Danza “Mariemma” and beginning to work professionally as a dancer in tablaos and companies.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Jeanne began studying Spanish Dance and classical ballet at age three, and later Flamenco and Contemporary Dance. She holds a BA in Humanities from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and a MFA in Dance from the University of New Mexico.

Jeanne has performed across the country and Spain as a soloist and choreographer with renowned companies including Soledad Barrio y Noche Flamenca in NYC, Arte y Pasion in Philadelphia, and Zorongo Flamenco in Minnesota. In March 2020, Casas moved to Spain to start her doctoral studies in Contemporary History at the University of Carlos III in Madrid.

PTNera creates innovative cultural dissemination projects focused on making visible socially and culturally relevant issues in Latin America, with special attention to Mexico and Spain. We address everything from the impact of music on society to the social, political and cultural phenomena that have shaped our history, seeking to inspire a critical dialogue that connects people with their cultural heritage.

PTNera was founded in 2017 by Lénica Reyes Zúñiga and José Miguel Hernández Jaramillo, both doctors in Ethnomusicology from UNAM (Mexico). José Miguel is also a Computer Engineer from the University of Seville (Spain).

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Sara Moncada (Yaqui/Irish), M.A., is a dancer, educator, filmmaker, author, Native scholar and cultural arts advocate. Her work centers Indigenous knowledge systems, cultural arts, Native religious/spiritual systems, traditional ecological knowledge, and biocultural diversity.

Sara began her studies in dance and theatrical performance at the age of five including classical ballet and modern dance. In 2001, she began her study of Flamenco, traveling to Spain to study with such artists as Farruquito, La Farruca, Pastora Galván, Andrés Marín, and Rafaela Carrasco. In 2003, she performed as a company member and soloist with La Monica and Pasion Flamenca and has since had the opportunity to present with San Francisco’s Theater Flamenco and Caminos Flamencos. In 2006, she joined La Tania Baile Flamenco and has worked as a company member and soloist since, including for La Tania’s 2012 Despertar es Un Color which was nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award for outstanding achievement in performance as an ensemble. As her dance career evolved, her involvement in her Native American culture and heritage merged with her performance and professional dance training. She began presenting Native American culture, arts, and dance with Eddie Madril in 2008 and formally joined Sewam American Indian Dance as a dancer, educator, and program director in 2012.

Sara presents nationally/internationally on Native/Indigenous traditional arts and culture, Native Foodways, and traditional land practice/ecological systems. She has been honored to serve as a panelist for Dance/Arts for San Francisco Arts Commission and National Endowment for the Arts. Sara is co-author of The Dance of Caring, a book exploring Native American Hoop Dance as a model for wellness, producer of the internationally successful documentary film NURSES If Florence Could See Us Now, and executive producer of The Cultural Conservancy’s The Native Seed Pod, a new podcast series that explores and celebrates traditional seeds, Native Foodways, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, the American Indian Cultural District San Francisco, and the Indigenous Partnership Advisory Council of Dominican University. In 2021, she was honored to serve as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Sara is an adjunct professor of American Indian Studies at San Francisco State University and is CEO of The Cultural Conservancy, a native-led non-profit organization working in Indigenous rights and revitalization across the nation and internationally. Sara received her Master Arts Humanities from Dominican University of California summa cum laude, with an emphasis in religion, ecology, and traditional arts.

Sara Erde is a Director and Choreographer for opera, theatre, and film. She is a frequent collaborator with the Metropolitan Opera and a longtime member of their directing staff. At the Met, she has staged a multitude of operas including Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly, Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Boris Godunov, Rigoletto, Porgy and Bess, Peter Grimes, and Falstaff both as a revival Stage Director and Assistant Director.

As a Choreographer at the Metropolitan Opera, Erde's work includes Sir Richard Eyre's productions of Le Nozze di Figaro, Manon Lescaut, and Werther, Sir David McVicar's Fedora, Ivo van Hove's Don Giovanni, and Simon Stone's Lucia di Lammermoor. She assisted Christopher Wheeldon in choreographing the dances for Eyre's Carmen, and created flamenco choreography for Diana Damrau in Bartlett Sher's Il Barbiere di Siviglia.

Born in New York City, Erde trained in theater at LaGuardia High School and The British American Drama Academy at Oxford University. She studied dance at Ballet Hispánico under the tutelage of Tina Ramírez, and in Seville, Spain, with Juana Amaya and El Torombo. Her music studies were at Mannes School of Music in both voice and piano. In Seville, Erde founded and directed the flamenco/theater company Abolengo produced by Dodger Stage Holding which toured both in Spain and North America.

Quinn Dombrowski (non-binary, any pronouns are fine) is the Academic Technology Specialist in the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, and in the Library, at Stanford University. Prior to coming to Stanford in 2018, Quinn’s many Digital Humanity adventures included supporting the high-performance computing cluster at UC Berkeley, running the DiRT tool directory with support from the Mellon Foundation.

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Quinn has a BA/MA in Slavic Linguistics from the University of Chicago, and an MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since coming to Stanford, Quinn has supported numerous non-English DH projects, taught courses on non-English DH, started a Textile Makerspace, developed a tabletop roleplaying game to teach DH project management, explored trends in multilingual Harry Potter fanfic, and started the Data-Sitters Club, a feminist DH pedagogy and research group focused on Ann M. Martin’s 90’s girls series “The Baby-Sitters Club”. Quinn is currently co-VP of the Association for Computers and the Humanities along with Roopika Risam, and advocates for better support for DH in languages other than English.

Teresa Hernández Pérez is a flamenco singer, guitarist, and composer from La Linea de la Concepción, Spain. Among her works as a composer is her first single "El día que me quiste," released in May 2022 and recorded live at the Tablao Torres Bermejas. In addition to her solo work as a musician, Teresa Hernández collaborates with renowned dance and music figures such as Alfonso Losa, Eduardo Guerrero, Sara Jiménez, María Moreno, and Joaquín Cortés, among others. The SGAE Fundación (created by Spain's General Society of Authors and Publishers) has highlighted the originality of Teresa’s voice. "In addition to her playing guitar with exquisite taste, (Hernández) is a connoisseur of old and traditional flamenco singing, to which she incorporates her seal of identity and modernity."

Juan José Amador was born in Sevilla, into a family with a rich flamenco tradition. From a very early age, he began working in the well-known tablaos Los Gallos and El Arenal, which allowed him to acquire considerable experience and establish himself as one of the most respected and prolific singers for dance in the flamenco field. Throughout his career, he has had the honor of accompanying emblematic flamenco figures such as Mario Maya, Manuela Carrasco, Farruco, Matilde Coral, and Cristina Hoyos, among others. In addition, he is a cousin of the Amador brothers, known for their group Pata Negra, with whom he collaborated on their second album, contributing his voice and artistry. He has also left his mark on various recordings with renowned guitarists such as Rafael Riqueni and Paco Cepero. Juan José continues to be one of the most sought-after singers for flamenco dance accompaniment, solidifying his position as an icon of flamenco.

Born in Barcelona, José Maldonado connected with flamenco at an early age as both an art form and a way of life. Throughout his professional career José has worked with some of the greatest flamenco figures, such as Javier Latorre, Antonio Canales, El Güito, Rafaela Carrasco, Rocío Molina, and María Pagés among many others.

José is considered a versatile and multifaceted artist, capable of mixing flamenco and dance in a natural way and with a unique personality. In 2013, he won first prize at the Madrid Choreographic Contest for the choreography “Mojacar” and in 2015 for “Trigo Limpio.” Maldonado has worked with Guadalupe Torres and Manuel Liñan, acting as assistant to direction and choreography. He produced his first full work “Andrea” in 2014. In 2016, he collaborated with Antonio Canales and Carmen Angulo to produce “Bodegón,” fusing dance, baroque music, and painting with flamenco. “Bodegón” has toured France and México. José is also a painter and visual artist, and has been commissioned to create posters and program covers for performances as well as costume designs for several companies.