“BAILES DE REPERTORIO” de Olga Pericet

Olga Pericet, an international creator, dancer and choreographer, shares her vibrant art at the world’s biggest festivals and theatres. Drinking deep from tradition, she throws herself into the unknown, displaying what has never been seen before in shows in which a flamenco of opposites beats: dark and luminous, feminine and masculine, disturbing and beautiful.

In 2018, she received the National Dance Prize in the Interpretation category for “her ability to bring together the different disciplines of Spanish dance, updating them in an interpretive language with her own stamp” and for “her theatrical versatility and her meaningful capacity for communication”.

She began her career in her hometown of Cordoba. She graduated from the Conservatorio Profesional Luis del Río, and continued her studies at the Maica Moyano School. She trained in flamenco, folklore, bolero and classical dance with masters such as Matilde Coral, Manolo Marín, Concha Calero, Cristobal Reyes, Juanjo Linares, Pedro Azorín, Eloy Pericet, Julio Príncipe and José Granero, among others. She has been a soloist and guest artist with companies such as Rafaela Carrasco, Nuevo Ballet Español, Arrieritos, Miguel Ángel Berna, Teresa Nieto, Belén Maya and the National Ballet of Spain. She has shared the stage with Ana Laguna, Nacho Duato and Enrique Morente.

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Estela Zatania began playing folk guitar at the age of eleven, but soon switched to flamenco under the guidance of maestro Mario Escudero. At the same time, she began studying flamenco singing with a disciple of legendary singer Antonio el Chaqueta. At 18, she went on tour singing for the José Greco company, and worked in Canada and South America with other major flamenco groups of the era. In 1970 she moved to Spain and continued singing for dance groups and in tablaos.

In 1980 she formed her own group with which she worked non-stop through the year 2001 when the director of an on-line flamenco magazine, after reading some of her messages on an internet forum, asked her to join the staff as commentator, and in 2002 she was signed on as managing editor of the electronic magazine Deflamenco, where she continues to work and has published hundreds of articles.

In 2003 she received a research grant from the Cultural Ministry of the Andalusian government to study the development of flamenco among migrant gypsy field-workers in the area of the lower Guadalquivir river after the Spanish Civil War, a period and location now considered crucial in the preservation and cultivation of traditional flamenco. The result of that study, Flamencos de Gañanía (2007 Ediciones Giralda, Sevilla), has been hailed by Spanish experts as a seminal work, and was voted best flamenco book of 2007.

Contributing writer for numerous specialized books, and consultant for a number of flamenco documentaries, in 2014 she was named Honorary Consultant of the Fundación Carlos Ledermann para las Artes Musicales.

In 2004 she received the National Prize “Ciudad de La Unión” for Excellence in Flamenco Journalism. In 2005 the same prize was awarded to Deflamenco which also received the critic’s choice award “Flamenco Hoy” for best source of flamenco information.

Founding member of the Foro Cultural Flamenco “Morón 2004”, regular panel member of the weekly flamenco radio program “Los Caminos del Cante” since 2004 and bilingual speaker on flamenco in Europe, Canada and the United States.

Estela Zatania lives in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, and is a regular contributor to specialized magazines such as Acordes de Flamenco, Nueva Alboreá (official publication of the Spanish Cultural Ministry), Arco Flamenco, Sevilla Flamenca, Alma100, El Olivo, A Compás, La Flamenca, Al-Yazirat Sociedad de Cante Grande, official magazines of the Festival de Jerez and the Festival del Cante de las Minas de La Unión, and in summer writes a regular flamenco column for the newspaper La Voz de Cádiz.