Company History
Ballet Flamenco La Rosa (BFLR) is an International professional company dedicated to Flamenco as an ever-evolving art form. The innovative and creative artists of BFLR, under the Artistic Direction of founder Ilisa Rosal, present Flamenco dance in a theatrical setting - expanding the art form beyond traditional limits to reach and enlighten students and audiences with its beauty and magic.
The dancers and musicians of BFLR are creators. The combination of sophisticated theatre, traditional Flamenco and original choreography allows the company to present a consummate theatre experience. Their continuing quest to create new artistic forms is furthered by intricate collaborative works. This ground breaking approach traces the connection between Flamenco and other styles of dance and music, exploring the common elements and developing new dance forms.
These collaborations, from
Jazz, Tap,
Blues and American Country Music,
to Middle Eastern,
Afro-Cuban,
Afro-Haitian, African,Sefardic,
Indian Dance and Celtic Music and Dance,
offer the community the opportunity to see different cultures' art forms taken to new heights.
A Miami-based dance company, made up of artists from the United States, Latin America and Spain, BFLR has performed to sell-out crowds and received critical acclaim in both the artistic mainstream and
in the "Tablaos" (Flamenco Clubs) of South Florida since 1985. BFLR enthralls and educates audiences with performances and workshops
throughout its concert season.
The private and public sectors
as well as National, State
County and implementing an outreach program of classes and performances at inner city schools, they are committed to educating the community to create more sensivity and cultural awareness. With unique cross-cultural collaborations, International Guest Artists and a superb Flamenco repertory, this is one of the only U.S. professional companies dedicated to the development and presentation of the Art of Flamenco.
A non-profit organization, BFLR implements programs to increase public awareness of this art form from Lecture/Demonstrations in public schools, libraries and community centers, to performances at festivals and all types of public and private events.
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In addition to its regular concert season and national guest appearances such as at The Vail International Dance Festival, the company has been invited to perform at major local events such as Ocean Dance, Pow Wow, Arts a la Carte, Miami Dance Sampler, Coconut Grove Orchid Festival, Miami Beach Arts Festival, The Miami Beach Dance Festival, The Miami Dance Festival and The Florida Dance Festival.
BFLR is devoted to enhancing the dance community through work with internationally renowned Guest Artists.
The symbiotic relationship between these dancers and musicians acts as a catalyst for creativity. The company develops its repertory and style and provides these Guest Artists with a vehicle on which to create new work.
Workshops give audiences and students a hands-on perspective of this work and allow the community to participate in this exciting art form. In its dramatic Flamenco Ballets, interpreting classic universal themes, Ballet Flamenco La Rosa joins drama and dance. Intense, intriguing, and inspired works use Flamenco as an idiom to express ideas that are not necessarily part of the Flamenco tradition. The result is extraordinary.
Full length dramatic Flamenco ballets include Las Mujeres de Troya (The Trojan Women), inspired by Euripides’ great tragic play, Herodias, a powerful dramatic Ballet inspired by Flaubert’s novel of the same name, incorporating Middle Eastern music and dance and Flamenco, with Guest Artists Siudy Garrido from Venezuela and Curillo De Bormujo, first dancer with The National Ballet of Spain, and Encuentro, a spectacular Middle Eastern and Flamenco Ballet featuring the legendary Manolete.
​"Las Brujas de Salem", a Flamenco Ballet inspired by "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, also featured Manolete along with forty dancers and musicians from the U. S., Latin America and Spain, and had its premiere in 2007 at The Jackie Gleason Theatre.
In 2008, the company presented "Celtic Callings", in collaboration with the Breffni Irish Dancers, for The Miami Beach Dance Festival,
and in 2009, "Rey Lear", inspired by Shakespeare's King Lear, at The Colony Theatre.
In 2010, the company produced another world premiere original Flamenco Ballet, La Dama Macbeth, inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth, with La Tati as Lady Macbeth, at The Olympia Theatre.
In 2011 presented "Cleopatra y Cesar", a Flamenco Ballet inspired by George Bernard Shaw's play "Caesar and Cleopatra" which premiered at The Colony Theatre, with Leonor Leal as Cleopatra.
January 7-15, 2012, BFLR presented the Arte Flamenco Miami Festival, including “Suma Flamenca” with three of Miami’s best flamenco companies: Ballet Flamenco La Rosa, Clarita Filgueiras - Flamenco Puro, and Siempre Flamenco.
They created a festival that included four original programs – all world premieres – that showcased flamenco dance, guitar, and singing.
As a part of this festival, BFLR also presented "Directo al Corazón", an original Flamenco Ballet by Ilisa Rosal inspired by Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, with Special Guest Artists "La Truco" and a group of some of Spain's best musicians and dancers, with its World Premiere at The Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Carnival Theater.
Dancers Nella Madarro and Eloy Aguilar, guitarist Manuel Montero and singer Nieves Hidalgo, at The Koubek Center of Miami Dade College.
In 2014 BFLR presented "Señorita Julia" a World Premiere Flamenco Ballet by Ilisa Rosal inspired by Strindberg's Miss Julie with Guest Artists from Spain.
The World Premiere of "El Padre", at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium in May of 2015, was created and directed by Ilisa Rosal, inspired by Strindberg’s "The Father".
With music and lyrics created, arranged and performed live by Antonio Gabarri, and Nieves Díaz, and featuring from Spain Special Guest Artists Carmela Greco and dancer Eloy Aguilar, and from Sweden dancer Josefine Chiacchiero and guitarist Manantial.
The World Premiere of Al Grano! in May, 2016 featured Guest Artists from Spain Pepe Flores, La Popi, Eloy Aguilar and Lucía la Rusa from Russia accompanied by singer Alicia Morales and guitarist Israel Heredia from Sacromonte, Spain.
This work reached the heart of Flamenco in a rich and mesmerizing evening of pure Flamenco music and dance in a range of rhythms and styles that took audiences through dramatic, soulful, joyous, sensual and passionate moods with exquisite vocals, electrifying footwork, and all of the grace and beauty that has made Flamenco so loved by audiences throughout the world.
In 2016, BFLR presented "La Gaviota" inspired by Chekhov's The Seagull, which explored the romantic and artistic conflicts between four main characters: the famous writer Boris Trigorin, danced by Eloy Aguilar, the ingénue Nina, danced by La Popi, the fading actress, Irina Arkadina, danced by Lucia la Rusa, and her son, the symbolist young playwright, Konstantin Treplev, danced by Pepe Flores.
Collaborating with Guitarist Israel Heredia and Singer Alicia Morales, Artistic Director Ilisa Rosal created an original Flamenco Ballet with live music, inspired
by this great work by one of Russia's most important writers.
Bringing in a Flamenco dancer from Russia brought another layer of international collaboration to this mesmerizing and engaging work.
The ensemble cast of diverse and fully developed characters, included eight more dancers from the U.S., Latin America and Spain, provided a wealth of opportunity for the choreographers to develop the intricate and universal themes of the piece.
In 2017, BFLR presented "La Casa de la Muñeca" inspired by the classic Ibsen play A Doll’s House, at Lincoln Road’s Colony Theatre.
Originally a three-act prose play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, "La Casa de la Muñeca" was conceived and created by Ballet Flamenco La Rosa’s renowned artistic director Ilisa Rosal, with distinguished guest dancers from Spain Irene La Sentío, Oscar De Los Reyes and Eloy Aguilar. Singer Alicia Morales and guitarist Israel Heredia composed, arranged and performed the live music that created the canvas to paint the characters, conflicts and drama of this magnificent work.
Ballet Flamenco La Rosa presented Fuerza Flamenca, with Guest Artist Pepe Flores direct from Spain, on Saturday, May 6 and Sunday, May 7, 2017 at the Gleason Room at the Fillmore on Miami Beach. This pure flamenco work was a showcase for the best of Flamenco.
Flamenco sensation Pepe Flores joined Ballet Flamenco La Rosa's magnificent company of some of the finest local professional Flamenco artists from Spain, Latin America and the U.S. to collaborate as principle dancer and guest choreographer for this powerful presentation.
Artists included dancers Mayelu Perez, Maria Mercedes Perez, Sandra Bara and Miguel Tellez. Guitarist Israel Heredia, from Sacromonte, Granada, Spain, and singers Yanela Gomez and Salvador de Angela composed and arranged original and traditional music played and sung live for this rich and powerful work.
Verano y Humo, an original Flamenco Ballet, inspired by Tennessee William's Summer and Smoke, blends the traditional art form of flamenco with a classic American play. Created and choreographed by Artistic Director Ilisa Rosal, along with 16 dancers and musicians, the World Premiere performances took place on Saturday, June 9 and Sunday, June 10, 2018 at the historic Colony Theatre on Miami Beach.
A collaboration between Rosal and Spanish master dancers/choreographers Raquel Lamadrid and Eloy Aguilar, dancer Fran Bas, guitarist Jesus Nunez and singer Alicia Morales, along with ten dancers from Ballet Flamenco La Rosa who are from the U.S., Venezuela, Cuba and Spain, this work uses flamenco as a language to interpret Tennessee Williams’ spiritual/physical romance, and complex characters and emotions.
By the end of the play, Buchanan and Alma have traded places philosophically. She is ready for a physical relationship with him, but he, after a fling with Rosa, the daughter of Gonzales who owns the Moonlake Casino, is now engaged to a respectable, younger girl.
The story centers around Alma Winemiller, a highly strung unmarried minister's daughter, and a romance that nearly blossoms between her and John Buchanan Jr., a wild and undisciplined doctor who grew up next door to her. Her nature is true to her name, Alma, which means "soul" in Spanish, while the doctor, a sensualist, repeatedly defies her beliefs with his anatomy chart.
Set in Glorious Hill, Mississippi, from the turn of the century through 1916, the setting and themes provide ample opportunity to explore common elements of Spanish and American cultures.
This work shows the universality of the art form of Flamenco and creates a spellbinding and dynamic interpretation of this poignant play, and a once in a lifetime theater experience.
With a range of beautifully drawn characters, from Alma's father, the minister, her eccentric and nervous mother, Mrs Winemiller, John Buchanan's father, a doctor and pillar of the community, to the friends in Alma's "intellectual circle" and the group surrounding Gonzales and his daughter Rosa at the Moonlake Casino, there is ample opportunity to explore Flamenco's many moods and styles as they relate to the people and plot of this deep and mesmerizing story.
The World Premiere of El Conde Dracula was created and choreographed by Artistic Director of BFLR, Ilisa Rosal. The work was inspired by Bram Stokers’ Dracula, creating a potent and vivid Flamenco Ballet, connecting with this timeless material to create a new incarnation of what is probably the most definitive work in this genre. The World Premiere of this work took place on Saturday, November 24 and Sunday, November 25, 2018 at at the historic Colony Theatre on Miami Beach.
This production featured14 dancers and musicians, including six top artists, brought directly from Spain and led by Special Guest Artist Pepe Flores, one of the most important Flamenco dancers of this generation, in the role of Count Dracula. He was joined by dancers Juan Mateo, Fran Bas and gustin Barajas along with singer Luis Moreno and guitarist Miguel Aguilera, who created and performed original vocals and lyrics for the work. The story and characters draw audiences into this world, so that they relate to what is being expressed by the music and dance, which becomes a universal language.
In the play, a young lawyer (Jonathan Harker) is assigned to a gloomy village in the midst of Eastern Europe. Harker is captured and imprisoned by the undead vampire Dracula, who travels to London, inspired by a photograph of Harker's betrothed, Mina Murray. In Britain, Dracula begins a reign of seduction and terror, draining the life from Mina's closest friend, Lucy Westenra. Abraham Van Helsing, the archenemy of Count Dracula, provides a dramatic foil for the villain, and Rensfield adds a special twist to the story, as Lucy's friends gather together to try to drive Dracula away.
With its earthy strength, spellbinding athleticism, subtle nuances and explosive energy, Flamencol tells this story in a new and mesmerizing way. The themes provide ample opportunity to explore Flamenco’s range and power and resonates deeply with audiences.
“Count Dracula is a figure of intense strength and a reflection of something that is inside each of us. We embrace this story as a fable of identity, making it our own,” remarked Rosal. “Audiences will be intrigued by the lure of this great novel, its characters and the connection with the plethora of vampire stories and tales that are so familiar.”
Generations of audiences have been enthralled by this quintessential myth of terror and temptation and the struggle between good and evil. It speaks to our search to understand the essence of strength, love, passion, seduction, loyalty, honor, heroism, the supernatural, the spiritual and the profane.
En el Abismo, an original ‘flamenco ballet’ inspired by Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. The work was created and choregraphed by world-renowned master teacher, choreographer, soloist and BFLR Artistic Director Ilisa Rosal, in collaboration with special Guest Artists direct from Spain.
was inspired by what many consider the greatest gothic novel, creating a potent and vivid flamenco ballet, connecting with the timeless material to produce a new incarnation of the greatest tragic love story after Romeo and Juliet. The World Premiere of this work took place on Saturday, May 14 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, May 15 at 3:00 p.m. at Miami Dade College’s Koubek Center in Miami.
This production features 20 dancers and musicians,
including six topartists directly from Spain.
Celebrated musicians will create and perform
original vocals and lyrics for the work.
The story and characters expressed
by the music and dance will come alive
in a new and breathtaking way,
adding another layerto this iconic work.
With its earthy strength, hypnotic athleticism, subtle nuances and explosive energy, flamenco will tell this story in a new and mesmerizing way. Generations of audiences have been enthralled by this work as it speaks to our search to understand the essence of love, loss, life, and death.
In the story of love, loyalty, betrayal, passion, cruelty, hatred, revenge, empathy, despair, two young lovers struggle against society and circumstance in a gothic tale that has held universal appeal since 1847.
