Hipolito (Tito) Rubio (born
1954 in Monsagro, Spain). In the early 1960s many Spaniards emigrated
to Australia, Tito's family among them. They settled in Melbourne where
he studied flamenco with Manolo Varela and others, and became active
as a performer in the Spanish community. He appeared on radio and TV in
Australia. In the mid-1980s he relocated to Spain, where he was
exposed to traditional flamenco families and studied with some of the
world's greatest guitarists. Tito appeared in the Festival de la Ville
in Madrid in 1989 as part of the company of Danza Espanola
Contemporanea of Juan Maya Marote and in the Royal Palace of Morocco
for Prince Felipe of Spain and King Hussein of Morocco. Tito performed
with companies from Spain in various cities in Asia and in Europe, also
making an extensive tour of the Middle East. In 1995 he toured the US
with Maria Benitez’ Teatro Flamenco in New Mexico. On this trip he met
his wife Anna. After a couple years living in Spain they moved to
Philadelphia and created Flamenco del Encuentro. Tito was awarded an
Artistic Fellowship by the PA Council for the Arts for 2004 and a Pew
Fellowship in the Arts for 2004.
Anna Arias Rubio began
her training in dance and music at age four. After training in ballet
at the Pennsylvania Academy of Ballet, she started studying modern
dance in her early teens with Joan Kerr and Susan Hess. Anna moved to
San Francisco in 1982, training with several teachers, including Lucas
Hoving and Ed Mock, and commencing flamenco studies with Rosa Montoya
and with the late Maestro Cruz Luna. By 1986 she was a member of Theatre
Flamenco of San Francisco, performing throughout the Bay Area. In 1991
she returned to Philadelphia and became a member of the Flamenco Ole
Company under the direction of Julia Lopez. Anna currently teaches
Spanish Dance/Flamenco at UArts. Anna was awarded an Artistic Fellowship
for the year 2001 from the Independence Foundation and a Leeway Grant
for 2004, Anna returns regularly to Spain continuing her studies with
La Chiqui de Jerez, Javier Latorre, Juan Polvillo and others. Anna also
writes for www.danceinsider.com.
Antonia
Cruz Arias' paternal grandmother was California born Spanish singer
Elena Acevedo. She was raised in the world of flamenco, but began music
and dance training in the classical tradition at age four. She had been
singing her entire life, but began formal training in technique at the
age of twelve, at the Catholic Institute with Damaris Thillet. She
studied Flamenco cante at the Fundación Cristina Heeren de Arte Flamenco
in Seville, Spain, and Flamenco dance in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain.
She has also studied intensely with Jesus Montoya, Gypsy singer from
Seville. Antonia spent the first five months of 2008 in Madrid studying
cante in private lessons with the legendary Talegón de Cordoba. Antonia
has accompanied many important artists such as Antonio Hidalgo, Nélida
Tirado, Inmaculada Ortega and Edwin Aparicio, and has shared the stage
with singers such as Rocio Soto from Jerez, Alfonso Cid from Seville,
and Marcos Marin, and accompanied classes of La Chiqui de Jerez. Antonio
travels regularly to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico to perform
with some of the U.S.’s most up-and-coming young Flamenco artists.
Amy Schofield began dancing at the age of three in her hometown of
Kenner, Louisiana. Studying
classical ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop at the Debby Dillehay Dance
Studio, she was a Dance America Dancer of the Year Semi-Finalist in 2008. Amy graduated with a Bachelor’s degree
in Ballet Performance from the University of the Arts in 2012, where she had
the opportunity to work with many choreographers, including Scott Jovovich,
Anastasia Babayeva, Sara Procopio, Anna Rubio, Helen Simoneau, and many
more. As a freshman at UArts, Amy
began her flamenco education with Anna Rubio and was on stage less than a year
later. In 2011, she performed with
Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers in collaboration with Hua Hua Zhang’s Visual Expressions. Amy traveled to Spain in 2012 to study
at the Fundación de Arte Flamenco Christina Hereen in Sevilla with maestras
Milagros Mengíbar, Maribel Ramos, and Pepa Sanchez. She then traveled to Jerez de la Frontera to attend the
professional level choreography courses with Javier Latorre and La Chiqui de
Jerez. She returned to Spain in 2013 to study at the Fundación de Arte Flamenco Christina Hereen once again and to attend the Miraflores Flamenco intensive in Madrid and study with Inmaculada and Domingo Ortega. Amy has also had the
pleasure of studying with Antonio Hidalgo, Maria Bermudez, La China, and Adrián
Galia, just to name a few. This is
her forth year as company member and soloist with Flamenco del Encuentro.
Hersjel “El Hache” Wehrens got to
Flamenco, and dancing in general, relatively late in life. When he was 20 his
then girlfriend dragged him into a ballet studio to dance “the” flamenco with
him. It was not hard, it was very
hard, but with a lot of work his teachers
Victoria Rosalen, Leo Molina, Brigitte Erdweg, and especially Marta
Flendrig managed to make him into a halfway decent flamenco dancer. A deep love
of the music and in particular the cante (to the great distress of family and friends
who had to listen to it) also helped; if you can’t feel it you can’t dance to
it.
