Halloween Flamenco Fiesta featuring LoCura

Doors at 8:00 pm; 

Event from 8:30 pm - 2am

Tickets are $15 Early Bird (until 10/19)/$20 Advance / $25 Day of Show 

Music and dance performances start at 8:30, followed by sevillana/bulerias dance-off competition. Performances resume at 9:30pm, with LoCura at 10:30pm.

Buy Tickets Here 

The Halloween Flamenco Fiesta is Juerga style, featuring Flamenco artists from Spain and the Bay Area, coming together to share and showcase Spanish Flamenco traditions and Oakland Flamenco fusion, and celebrate Halloween with master performers, a sevillanas/bulerias dance-off, a costume contest, a Latin DJ and a celebration of the roots and branches of the incredible cultural heritage of Flamenco. 

Raffle prizes include workshops with Miguel and Senen, gift cards, show tickets, spa massage, and T-Shirts. 

MIGUEL INFANTE
Miguel Infante is a flamenco dancer, choreographer, and teacher from Málaga, Spain, located on the southern tip and Mediterranean coast of Andalusia. He began his professional career with mentors of the stature of Merche Esmeralda, José Ruíz, Manuel Reyes, Antonio Reyes, Paco Romero, Rafael del Carmen, Fran Espinos, and Andrés Peña.

He was most recently principal dancer of legendary Spanish guitarist Juan Martín’s Flamenco Dance Ensemble and has toured internationally all over Europe and North America.

Mr. Infante is described as, “...a festero to the core:  part percussionist, part singer, part dancer, and all artist, integrated and inseparable.  He is spontaneous and full of charisma, communicating passion through his music and dance wherever he finds himself, be it at a local bar, in the kitchen, at a private party, or on stage.”

MELISSA CRUZ
Melissa Cruz is a Bay Area-based flamenco professional and has been a full-time flamenco artist and instructor for the past 14 years. After being exposed to flamenco while studying Spanish at UC Berkeley, she began dancing with Rosa Montoya and soon thereafter, joined Ms. Montoya's professional company. Apart from frequently performing in theatrical presentations, she teaches a full weekly schedule of flamenco dance classes and presents consistently in the local flamenco cabaret circuit. Melissa is also the dancer and percussionist for the band, LoCura, with who she performs and tours. Recently, she served as Adjunct Dance Faculty at The University of San Francisco, as a guest instructor at the world dance youth program, Danceversity, and currently presents her own apprentice dance repertory group. Melissa has performed as a soloist in the San Francisco International Arts Festival in 2012 and 2016 and has presented in eight San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festivals; in 2010 and 2011, as a featured soloist. She was commissioned to present a solo representing the genre of flamenco in the 2013 San Francisco Isadora Duncan Awards Ceremony and was a featured artist in the 2014 Tucson Flamenco Festival. Currently, she is principal dancer and choreographer for the San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company which debuted the show, "Mares" in September 2016. As described by Rachel Howard of the SF Chronicle: "Any dancer could make pained faces. But Cruz is clearly possessed by the duende — the spirit that drives this deeply introspective art."

RICARDO DIAZ
San Francisco flamenco guitarist Ricardo Diaz is an internationally renowned artist who has worked with Flamenco Dance Companies in San Francisco, with Carola Zertuche and TeatroFlamenco, Caterina Costa in Rome, and Yjastros in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He performed in Seville, Spain, in Pena Torres Macarena, El Chozas and Cerro del Aguila and also played in several Festivals around the world, including Grenoble, Vancouver, Albuquerque, Avignon, Calgary and Mont de Marsan in France. Ricardo performed with world-renowned Flamenco artists La Tania, Alejandro Granados, Jesus Montoya, Jose Anillo, Juan Requena, Pastora Galvan, Canito, Alegria Suarez, Rafael Amargo, David Lagos and Andres Marin.

SENEN SENTIO
Born in Huelva, Andalucia in 1977, Senen began exploring Cante Jondo 30 years ago (traditional flamenco singing).  This takes him to the Academy of flamenco singer Esperanza Fernandez.  With her, he began to become fond of the sociocultural, gypsy and Andalusian expression. In each style of cante, there is an introduction, an explanation of the purpose for them.  This happens through personal anecdotes and stories and other expressions, which is intended to be a journey of the soul from where we can feel free from the social realities that affect us.

A fan of great latin american singers like Silvio Rivera, Pablo Milanes, Chavela Vargas, Mercedes Sosa and Victor Jara.  Esperanza Fernandez guides him into the passionate universe of the Cante Flamenco with the compas and ritmo (beat and rhythm).  In the process of making flamenco ‘his’, He studied history of flamenco.  His knowledge makes him great for workshops, teaching flamenco, as a historical and cultural legacy from Andalucia and the gypsies. 

During his 7 year residency in Barcelona, he had the opportunity to continue to learn and internalize the melody and the flamenco beat with Maestro Juan Miguel Cerro in Taller de Musica y del Esmuc. He is presently on tour, which began last February in California, later taking him to Mexico and Guatemala.

Senen has created several flamenco recitals with various artists (Ricardo Diaz, Juan Moro, Victor Rosell, Jose Juan Trespalacios, Alfredo Millan, Joselillo Campos, Phillip Adie, Anoush Saadat, Paul Boudauder, Steve Bertelli, Juanma “El Churrero”, etc). In other shows he has been accompanied by bailaoras (flamenco dancers) such as Rakel de Luna, Vanesa Galvez “La Lirio”, Ruth Quesada, etc.  These flamenco recitals and shows aim to take the audience in a voyage where the music and the diverse expression that comes from the innermost place of our being

LOCURA
Oakland-based LoCura has crafted their own unique musical identity: "Califas Mestizo Music," a blend of Latin American and Iberian rhythms such as rumba, cumbia, salsa and flamenco influenced by punk rock, ska, rap, dub, reggae, dancehall with local and global lyrical themes. The band's name ("it cures it") reflects their ethos of making music a remedy, a theme which permeates lyrics such as "la cultura cura la locura (culture cures the madness).” 

With three powerhouse women at the helm, their live shows are a soul-stirring punk-edged party mixing cajon-driven rhythms with mutilingual lyrics that reflect the unique intersection of cultures in the Bay Area. Ana Tijoux meets Manu Chao with a touch of Lhasa. 

Spanish-American vocalist Kata Miletich, expanding on the group's influences, notes "one big inspiration for the ways we consciously and unconsciously connect different music is this idea that styles and rhythms travel from Africa, Europe stretching across the Americas and mixing with indigenous sounds. Culture is alive in so many different ways, and shows up in different places to tell a story." 

LoCura has toured the U.S, Canada, Nicaragua, Mexico and Spain playing music festivals and sharing the stage with artists such as Bombino, La Cuneta Son Machin, Ziggy Marley, Beats Antique, Quetzal, and Nortec Collective. In the California Bay Area they have opened for Sergio Mendes, La Santa Cecilia, The Seshen & Bomba Estereo and have sold out The Great American Music Hall and The Independent in San Francisco. LoCura has released three full length albums and is currently writing and recording music for their fourth album.