DANCER
DANCER
Hailed as a “dancer of distinction” by The NY Times, Marina Elana has spent the past fifteen years performing alongside the likes of Soledad Barrio, Alfonso Losa, Pastora Galván, and Alejandro Granados. Marina has been a company member of the renowned Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca since 2012 and has toured with them extensively both nationally and internationally. Marina has presented her choreography in the Inside/Out Festival at Jacob's Pillow, New York International Fringe Festival, the Queensboro Dance Festival, and Stanford University’s NEXT Performance Series. In 2019, Marina’s production Tattooed with Fanny Ara premiered at the historic Presidio Theatre in San Francisco to critical acclaim and was lauded by dance critic Rene Renouf as “one of the most effective flamenco performances I have ever seen.”
As an educator and community builder, Marina has taught masterclasses at Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, University of Southern California, UC Santa Barbara, University of Washington, Williams College, and New York University in NYC and Abu Dhabi. In the Bay Area, Marina has been an artist in residence at Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco and has dedicated the past five years and counting to The People’s Conservatory in Oakland, where she helps students connect flamenco to aspects of their own cultural identities and realize that they are active participants in the preservation and evolution of flamenco’s powerful legacy.
An avid film lover, Marina enjoys a multidisciplinary approach to flamenco often incorporating technology, theatrical vignettes, and film. She graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Film & Media Studies, specializing in “Avant-Garde Aesthetics and Performance.” In 2023, Marina collaborated and starred in the short film, “Yellow Wallpaper,” which premiered at the LA Shorts International Film Festival in Los Angeles and garnered her a Best Actress in a Short Film nomination at the Phoenix Rising International Film Festival (2023).
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press
press
“A perfect demonstration of classical Spanish coquetry, Elana performed the seductive dance with effortless charm. With each flick of her fan, undulation of her hips, and even the quirk of a smile or glance, she commanded the space. It was a lively celebration of what it means to be in the prime of life.”
“Marina Elana is dark and direct in her attack, yet soft at the same time.”
“Marina Elana dances a slow burn in a dark velvet dress, her exquisite hand movements offering hypnotic grace in opposition to the steps furiously marking complex beats below.”
“A dancer of distinction”
“Marina Elana, with her precise gaze and unfaltering yet impressionistic footwork, details a seductive yet inviting incarnation of flamenco.”
“Marina Elana, bailaora natural de San Francisco que parece que “sa criao” en el Tardón del arte que derrama...el momentazo de la noche llega con el tema P’atrás, unas seguiriyas donde cada uno de los componentes de este sugerente proyecto pone su granito de arena, destacando cada uno en su solo, para dar paso al más trabajado de los taconeos de Marina Elana, que sabe aunar con soltura el duende y la vanguardia en su particular estilo. ”
“Her solo in La Ronde was purely delightful as she moved with confidence and assertiveness. First, she danced with guitarist Eugenio Iglesias and it was flirtatious and romantic. Her arms were eloquently seductive. The second part of her dance was with bass guitarist Hamed Traore. I’ve never seen flamenco danced with just a bass guitar and it was terrific. I look forward to seeing more from Elana.”
“Dancer Marina Elana captivates in a sultry duet with her bata de cola. Emerging barebacked from beneath a pile of midnight blue ruffles, like a mermaid departing the sea, she oozes into the top of a shimmering floor-length gown. Cradling the trailing ruffles, she lays them down to rest like a child. Later she inflates them behind her head, invoking the virgin’s mandorla, then surrenders her body under the weight. In a closing duet with Barrio, the pair circle and face off, tussle like animals battling over prey. Modern attire—frame-hugging black leather pants and tanks—and the electric charge between the two women, signal flamenco’s female revolution and its opening to new narrative terrains.”
“We hear the ancient-sounding “scorched throat,” as Lorca would put it, of Manuel Heredia, an older, bardlike Gypsy singer, with a thick beard and long frizzy hair. In one number, he hurls his lament at the dancer Marina Elana, pulling her into his cavernous emotion. Then, there is Elana’s sensual duet with a blue satin dress. Elana begins on the floor, crumpled beneath a pile of ruffles. As she rises, her bare back to us, she pulls the lavish dress up onto her body, fitting herself into its curves and working its long train into a lyrical dance, an image recalling John Singer Sargent’s 1882 painting “El Jaleo.””