BIOGRAPHY
Melissa Cruz is a Bay Area-based flamenco professional and has been a full-time flamenco artist and instructor for the past 15 years. After being exposed to flamenco while studying 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 dancer/percussionist/drummer for the bands LoCura, Istanbul Connection and Soga.
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.
In January 2020, she produced her 7th annual student recital, currently continues as principal dancer and choreographer for the San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company, is a member of Portland-based Flamenco Pacifico and is Artistic Director of "The Flamenco Room" a monthly professional tablao show in San Francisco.
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."
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.
In January 2020, she produced her 7th annual student recital, currently continues as principal dancer and choreographer for the San Francisco Flamenco Dance Company, is a member of Portland-based Flamenco Pacifico and is Artistic Director of "The Flamenco Room" a monthly professional tablao show in San Francisco.
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."
DANCE REVIEW
"New stars in Caminos Flamencos"
Rachel Howard, Special to The San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
A Caminos Flamencos performance brings several guarantees: virtuosic music, striking lighting and a closing tour-de-force solo by artistic director Yaelisa to draw shouts of "olé!"
The sassy, mono-monikered Yaelisa is one of her form's most prolific local proponents and the
founder of the New World Flamenco Festival in Irvine. But she's also spent her last 14 years in the flamenco-crazy Bay Area training a new generation of dancers. And in the company's latest show, which played the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater over the weekend and repeats at San Jose's Mexican Heritage Plaza on Thursday, she hands the spotlight to a protege of dazzlingly soulful maturity.
Melissa Cruz takes the stage wrapped in a turquoise shawl for her soleares, fringe dripping dramatically from her arms with every commanding pause. Dark and defiant, she winces as her back arches, grimaces as her frenzy of crisp footwork climaxes. Any dancer could make pained faces. But Cruz is clearly possessed by the duende -- the spirit that drives this deeply introspective art.
Rachel Howard, Special to The San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
A Caminos Flamencos performance brings several guarantees: virtuosic music, striking lighting and a closing tour-de-force solo by artistic director Yaelisa to draw shouts of "olé!"
The sassy, mono-monikered Yaelisa is one of her form's most prolific local proponents and the
founder of the New World Flamenco Festival in Irvine. But she's also spent her last 14 years in the flamenco-crazy Bay Area training a new generation of dancers. And in the company's latest show, which played the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater over the weekend and repeats at San Jose's Mexican Heritage Plaza on Thursday, she hands the spotlight to a protege of dazzlingly soulful maturity.
Melissa Cruz takes the stage wrapped in a turquoise shawl for her soleares, fringe dripping dramatically from her arms with every commanding pause. Dark and defiant, she winces as her back arches, grimaces as her frenzy of crisp footwork climaxes. Any dancer could make pained faces. But Cruz is clearly possessed by the duende -- the spirit that drives this deeply introspective art.
