My Flamenco Journey

     Ana María Barceló is a Puerto Rican flamenco bailaora (dancer) with a strong cultural identity as both a Hispanic and American. From an early age, Ana María felt a passion for dance. At the age of 3, she began to take ballet classes. At the age of 8, she began studying full time with the renowned Cuban dancers Miguel Campanería and Ana María Castañón. At the early age of 11, she was selected to be part of the San Juan Municipal Ballet Group. A few years later, Ana María was introduced to the world of Spanish Dance and started to take classes of Classic Spanish Dance.

​

     After moving to Valencia, Spain to study her master's degree in Cinematographic Screenplay, Ana María fell profoundly in love with the art of flamenco. She started taking full time classes with Lucila Duarte, and quickly became part of the advanced dance course. Once she returned to Puerto Rico in 2005, she began to take classes with Antonio Santaella, a renowned flamenco dancer from Granada, Spain, and was immediately chosen to start the flamenco company "Mosaico Almudéjar". In this company, Ana María had the opportunity to perform at the Francisco Arriví Theater and the Puerto Rico Art Museum Theater in presentations such as "El Crimen fue en Granada" , "Flamenco, Raíces Nuestras", among many others. In addition, she participated in several "tablaos", including the well- known El Chotis, La Guitarra, De Tapas con David to mention a few. In 2008, Ana María spent some months in Granada, Spain taking classes with talented flamenco artists such as Jara Heredia and Chua Alba. In 2009, she returned to Madrid, Spain to study at the renowned flamenco school "Amor de Dios", where she took classes with "La Truco" and Candela Soto. In 2010, she moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina to continue her flamenco studies full time with prestigious teachers and dancers such as Claudio Arias, Diego Ferreira, Silvana Perdomo and Lorena Di Prinzio.

The following year, Ana María returned to Puerto Rico and started her professional and soloist flamenco career as a teacher and dancer. Back in Puerto Rico, Ana María had the honor to  work, collaborate, and produce shows in different cities around the island by the side of the country's top flamenco singers and musicians.

 

     Ana María returned to Seville, Spain to deepen even more her flamenco knowledge and expertise with world-renowned dancers and teachers like Rafael Campallo, Angel Atienza, Manolo Marin, and Isabel Bayón. She was also part of the Veranos Flamencos en Amor de Dios, under the direction of famous flamenco dancers such as "La Lupi", Alfonso Losa and Maria Juncal. In addition to this, Ana María has always keep herself updated by taking classes with other distinguished dancers as Adela Campallo, "La Chiqui de Jerez", Leonor Leal, Ivan Vargas Heredia, Adrian Santana, Pedro Cordoba, Karen Lugo, "Carmen La Talegona", "El Farru", Alejandro Granados, Carmen Cortés, Nelida Tirado, Carmen González , Susana Casas,

" Juan Polvillo",  Manuela Barros , among many others.

 

     Ana María has recently relocated to Houston and now she calls it home. She continues to promote, educate students of all ages, levels and entertain audiences of different cultural backgrounds through the beautiful and powerful Art of Flamenco.