Dancers:
Our dancers and musicians bring life to our authentic flamenco performances. It is through their dedication to our art that we can share the rich history of Gypsy flamenco throughout the Denver-metro area and the Colorado front-range.
Diane Lapierre
La Diana began studying flamenco with René Heredia in 1996 after her sister returned from Seville and found the maestro living in Denver. In the years since, La Diana has come to love the depth and breadth of the music and dances, its complex rhythms, and the beauty of the flamenco art form. She has performed with René in California, Kansas City (the sister city of Seville) and throughout Colorado for close to twenty years. Before studying flamenco, La Diana spent many years dancing ballet, jazz and modern.
La Diana’s signature dance is the rumba flamenca. It is a fun and lively dance that is part of the flamenco repertoire that comes from the Caribbean islands. Spanish sailors would go to Cuba, Dominica and Puerto Rico and play flamenco rhythms and take back the musical influences from the African and indigenous cultures. The rumba flamenca is a perfect example of this form, known as cantes de ida y vuelta (roundtrip songs).
Monica Perez
Monica Perez became fascinated with flamenco dance and music the first time she saw a live performance in Seville, Spain. After completing her graduate degree in piano performance at the University of Colorado she turned her focus to flamenco. She researched all the flamenco teachers in Denver, and found René Heredia. Monica immediately joined his studio because she wanted to develop her musical and performance skills in the beautiful art form of flamenco dance from the best. After a few years of study, she joined the company in performing group dances and is now a featured soloist. She has been dancing with the Flamenco Fantasy Dance Theatre since 2006 and finds the technique, the emotion, and the passion expressed through flamenco dance is “absolutely captivating”.
Musicians:
Rick Pruitt
Rick Pruitt has taught and performed guitar for over twenty-five years. He was only sixteen when he first met Maestro René Heredia in Albuquerque, NM. In 1980, Rick moved to Colorado to study music at the University of Colorado, Boulder, as well as study privately with René. At his first lesson, René told Rick he could teach him all kinds of flamenco songs and falsetas, but that the proper way to study the guitar was to master technique. After putting in eight hours a day, the next week Rick could play everything René had given him during that first lesson. From then on, René taught and shared the cante jondo and gypsy techniques of Flamenco guitar with his young student.
Later, Rick moved to Florida to finish his degree in classical guitar performance. After moving back to Colorado, Rick has kept in contact with René for many years. Rick was honored to join the Flamenco Fantasy Dance Company as second guitarist. Rick says, “René is one of the great flamenco guitarist of our time, and playing in his dance company is the fulfillment of a dream I’ve had since I was a teenager.”
Andréana Cortés
Andréana Cortés (Cortés-Heredia) comes to us from Minneapolis, Minnesota where she was guitar accompanist for Zorongo Flamenco under Susana di Palma for nearly 20 years. She has also performed with with Anda Flamenco, and with various cuadros (flamenco group) at various popular venues in the Twin Cities area. It was during this time that Andréana continued immersive flamenco studies under flamenco masters like Pedro Cortés, David Serva, Tony Hauser under whom she earned her BA in Music for flamenco and classical guitar at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota, and Jose “Chuscales,” Valle
In the fall of 2018, her uncle, Rene Heredia, invited Andréana to be the cantaora (singer) for the Flamenco Fantasy Dance Theatre company.
Flamenco is a way of life. Like her aunt Sarita––the only woman in the flamenco world of her time to perform flamenco guitar, dance, and sing––Andréana has followed a similar path. Her stirring vocals, dynamic guitar performances and dancing, draws upon the generation of Spanish gypsies that evoke the soul, “el duende” of her ancestors.
Andréana recently established Colorado Institute of Flamenco to continue on the legacy of Maestro Heredia, her father, Enrique Cortés-Heredia, in the La Familia Heredia traditions, teaching authentic flamenco dance, guitar, and cante at Colorado Institute of Flamenco.
“For over 50 years, my uncle, René Heredia, has contributed so much to the community of Denver, Boulder, and surrounding areas with spectacular shows and great teaching that it seems an absolute shame not to preserve his legacy that will continue to inspire others in this beautiful art form of flamenco.”
