Ilisa Rosal - Dancer, Instructor, Choreographer
Founder and Artistic Director of
Ballet Flamenco La Rosa and PAN, Performing Arts Network
Ilisa Rosal is an innovator in this art form, having created more than one hundred pieces in the
pure Flamenco style, along with cross-cultural collaborations and dramatic Flamenco Ballets.
She has trained many of the Flamenco dancers in Miami, who have gone on to form their own
companies. Under her leadership, Ballet Flamenco La Rosa has become respected as one of
the best companies in the US, consistently performing to full houses with standing ovations and
rave reviews.Ilisa Rosal's training includes extensive study in Spain with Ciro, El Guito, La Tati, Azorin,
Manolete, Paco Fernandez, Mercedes and Albano, Jose Granero and Paco Romero. In 1981,
Rosal studied in New York with Jose Molina (Flamenco and Classical Spanish dance), Mariano
Parra (Escuela Bolera), Jeanne Brescianni (Isadora Duncan Technique), Rajika Puri ( Bharata
Natyam ) and Charles Moore ( African dance ). From 1975-1980, she studied Spanish Dance
with Luisita Sevilla and Jose Molina. She trained intensively in classical ballet with Susan
Stadler, David Howard and Nanette Charisse and Modern Jazz (Luigi technique) with Beatrice
LaVerne. She studied drama at the University of Miami and performed in community theatre
throughout South Florida, then toured New York, Spain, and France with many Spanish Ballets.
From 1980-85, Ms. Rosal toured in Spain and France with various Flamenco groups and in the U.S with the Spanish Ballets of Paco del Puerto and Paco Montes. She performed with Jose Molina in N.Y. and was a guest teacher at Fairmount Center for the Performing Arts in Ohio, choreographing six flamenco works for their Spanish Dance Company. During her time in Spain and N.Y., Miss Rosal was sought after as a coach for flamenco dancers and choreographed solos for many individual artists. Manolete, one of the most respected flamenco professionals in Spain, invited her to teach formal ballet technique to local gypsy artists at his school in Granada. From 1975-1980 she taught ballet and Spanish dance at Miami South Ridge Senior High (a magnet school for the artistically gifted), Temple Beth Shalom’s Fine Arts School, and the Susan Stadler Academy. Her earlier experience also included regular performances in community theatre, both as an actor and a dancer, where she was featured in lead roles in The Diary of Anne Frank, Milk and Honey and Fiddler on the Roof, as well as an apprenticeship with The Players Repertory Theatre, a professional acting company based in Miami. Ms. Rosal wrote original lyrics for a production of “Of Mice and Men” for The Ring Theater, and created an original dance version of Camelot for The Miami Beach High School Community Theater.
Ms. Rosal created and implemented an outreach program to schools and libraries with Lecture/Demonstrations and performances called “Dance Reach”. She also is the Founder and Executive Director of PAN, Performing Arts Network. Ms. Rosal has received four Florida State Choreographers Fellowships, and four Dance Miami Choreographers Fellowships from the Miami-Dade County Dept. of Cultural Affairs. She has spoken and performed at The National Dance Guild Conference. She choreographed and danced the lead role in The Palm Beach Opera production of Carmen and the Florida Shakespeare Festival production of “The Phantom Lady”. Ms. Rosal spent three years on the faculty of the Harid Conservatory.
In 1985 Ilisa Rosal founded and became the Artistic Director of Ballet Flamenco La Rosa. In addition to its regular concert season and national guest appearances, the company has been invited to perform at major local events such as Ocean Dance, Pow Wow, Arts a la Carte, Coconut Grove Orchid Festival, Miami Beach Arts Festival, The Miami Beach Dance Festival, the Miami Dance Festival and the Florida Dance Festival. In July 2000, Ilisa Rosal produced and performed in a pure flamenco concert with Flamenco legend Manolete and his musicians for a sold out house at the Jackie Gleason Theatre. The performance received standing ovations and three encores. This production was also presented in Vail, Colorado for the prestigious Vail International Dance Festival.
This successful collaboration with Manolete was followed by “Encuentro” in 2005. This Middle-Eastern/Flamenco collaboration premiered with great success at The Coconut Grove Playhouse. Another Middle Eastern/Flamenco Collaboration, “Herodias”, based on the novel by Gustave Flaubert, featured Venezuelan Flamenco sensation “Siudy”, Curillo de Bormujo, first dancer with the National Ballet of Spain, guitarist Diego Franco and singer Johana Jimenez from Sevilla. “Las Brujas de Salem” (The Witches of Salem), an original Flamenco Ballet inspired by Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, in collaboration with Manolete and an International cast of musicians and dancers for a ground breaking new work, premiered in April, 2007 at The Jackie Gleason Theater, “Celtic Callings”, an Irish music and dance/Flamenco collaboration debuted in 2008 at the Byron/Carlyle Theater. In 2009, Ms. Rosal’s original Flamenco Ballet, “Rey Lear” debuted at the Manuel Artime Theater for the Miami Dance Festival.
In 2010, Ms. Rosal created “La Dama Macbeth”, an original Flamenco Ballet inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, featuring special Guest Artists La Tati as Lady Macbeth and an international cast of 20 dancers and musicians, which had its world premiere at The Guzman Center for The Performing Arts. In 2011 Ms. Rosal presented “Cleopatra y Cesar”, a flamenco Ballet inspired by George Bernard Shaw’s play “Caesar and Cleopatra” which premiered at The Colony Theatre. Ms. Rosal created “Directo al Corazón”, inspired by Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler, which premiered in January, 2012 at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Also in 2012, Ms. Rosal produced the first Arte Flamenco Miami Festival which included the three premiere Flamenco companies in Florida. Her Flamenco Ballet entitled “Señorita Julia” inspired by Strindberg’s Miss Julie, premiered in January 2014 at the Koubek Center of Miami Dade College, and “El Padre”, inspired by Strindberg’s The Father, premiered in May, 2015 at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium. She created La Gaviota, inspired by Chekhov’s The Seagull and La Casa de la Muñeca, inspired by Ibsen’s A Doll’s House which premiered in May, 2016 and April, 2017 respectively, at The Colony Theatre in Miami Beach. Ms. Rosal created Verano y Humo, inspired by Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke premiered in April, 2018 The Colony Theatre in Miami Beach and most recently El Conde Dracula, inspired by Bram Stokers’ Dracula which premiered in November, 2018 at The Colony Theatre in Miami Beach.