Soledad Barrio (born 1964) is a Spanish

flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...

dancer. She founded the Noche Flamenca dance company where she performs and teaches, and has received critical acclaim for her performances.

Biography

From her birth in 1964, Barrio grew up in Madrid under the

Francoist dictatorship Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

which imprisoned her grandfather. She began dancing from four years of age and at 19, was inspired by the 1981 flamenco film ''Blood Wedding'' to leave university to pursue dancing flamenco professionally. She began to train to be a flamenco dancer in the studio Amor de Dios at Centro Nacional de Arte Flamenco and saved money to continue her training by dancing at hotels. Here, she would train under well-known flamenco performers including Paco Romero,

Manolete Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez (4 July 1917 – 29 August 1947), known as Manolete, was a Spanish bullfighter. Career Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez was the son of a bullfighter (who also went by the name Manolete) and his wife An ...

, El Güito, and María Magdalena. In 1992 while training at Amor de Dios, Barrio met her future husband, Martin Santangelo. Santangelo was an actor performing with El Teatro Campesino and a beginner in flamenco when they met. By 1993, they had moved together to New York City and founded a dance studio together, the Noche Flamenca.

Awards

Dance Magazine ''Dance Magazine'' is an American trade publication for dance. It was first published in June 1927 as ''The American Dancer''. ''Dance Magazine'' is currently part of Dance Media, led by longtime arts publisher Joanna Harp as president, and has mu ...

Exceptional Artist Award (2015) *

Bessie Award The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...

for Performer (2001) * Bessie Award for Performer (2022) * Vilek Prize for Dance (2022)

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * Spanish flamenco dancers Entertainers from Madrid 1964 births Living people Bessie Award winners {{Dance-bio-stub