Cristina Hall, Dancer
Cristina was born in San Francisco, California in 1981 and began her career as a flamenco dancer when she was 16 years old in San Francisco. In 2001 she moved to Seville, Spain to further her studies with flamenco artists such as Andres Marin, Israel Galvan, Antonio Canales, and Eva Yerbabuena and on and on... Since then she has had the opportunity to share the stage with Domingo Ortega, Pastora Galvan and Manuel de la Malena amongst others. In 2004 she participated in the show “Torero Al-lucinogeno” in the “Teatro Central” in Seville with the company of Israel Galvan. In 2005 she traveled to Canada to realize a tour in cities like Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver, the last of which she performed in the “Tercer Festival Anual de Flamenco” where she received great reviews from the press. In June of the same year she performed in Paris at “Planeta Andalucia” for week. In 2006 she performed as a soloist in “El Mes de Danza” in Sevilla, where she participated as part of the “II Encuentro Internacional de la Mujer en el Teatro” in the show “La Otra Mirada”. In 2007 she performed in various well known flamenco peñas in Sevilla during the “Penas de Guardia” circuit, also performing in various dance competitions where she became a finalist. Cristina travels to the United States, Canada, and Europe where she gives flamenco dance workshops. She currently resides in Sevilla where she works and lives.
Manuel Alejandro Montero, Guitarist
Manuel started his studies at the age of 15 with the University of Costa Rica. A year later he joined Guitar Orchestra of Costa Rica. With the Orchestra he participated in five recordings and preformed in major festivals in Costa Rica itself as well as toured several countries throughout the world.
In 1999, Manuel won First place in the national classical guitar competition. He was an honor student at the University of Costa Rica for 2001-2002 and graduated with distinction in 2003. At the same time, he became involved in the Flamenco community and worked towards becoming a Flamenco dance Accompanist. Since then he has been active in the flamenco community and has participated in various performances, national productions, and international instructions not only as a lead guitarist but also as a musical director. Early on in his career he became a solo guitarist for dance and collaborated in recording productions as a Flamenco guitarist.
In 2004, Manuel participated in the international classical guitar competition and became the semi- finalist amongst countries like Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain. He was the first Costa Rican to compete in a European competition. In 2005 he competed in several international festivals one of which saw him in the presence of Pepe Romero. He has received excellent reviews in “La Nacion” for his performance.
In 2006 he made his first recording as a soloist. The CD called “La Ida Vuelta” and featured eleven of his own compositions. It is a representation of the first recording of this style made by a Costa Rican musician. Its release took place during the 8th edition of the international guitar festival; sharing the stage with masters such as Enrique Granados, Pepe and Celin Romero and Canadian Remi Boucher.
In Oct 2006 “La Nacion” reported in a review that Manuel’s interpretation of the Balerias allowed people to appreciate his colossal talent. A few years prior to that he had moved to Seville and studied at the foundation of Cristiana Heeren. Through out all this he remained a professor of guitar and preformed inside and outside Spain as an accompanist. In the same year he won his second Sabicas compition, both as a concert guitarist and a singing accompanist in the city of Celasparra- Murcia.
David de Alcala, Singer
David started his career in the art of Flamenco at the age of 17 in the region of Mairena del Alcor, famous for its flamenco tradition, at the prestigious “Antonio Mairena National competition of deep song” where he performed for the first time as a second place winner of the new singers category. Since then he started his performance journey that provided him with the opportunity to perform all over Spain and then on stages of countries including Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
Inspite of his youth, David has always demonstrated, through his singing, the intrinsic wisdom that is possessed in this complex art and the intensity found in songs such as the Solea, the Siguiriya and the Maleguena; which when singing them he feels he is in his element. Aware of the difficulty embedded in the art, he has always tried to advance his knowledge through continued study of the technique of the singing and the roots of the different songs.
Since he was young, David has worked and shared the stage with great artists such as Calixto Sánchez, José de la Tomasa, manolo franco, ana Maria bueno, Fernando de la morena, nano de jerez, Jesús Heredia, tina Pavón, José Luis postigo y Paquiro amongst others.
Apart from his vocation as a soloist it is also worthy to highlight his experience as an accompanist to dance. Throughout his career he accompanied a multitude of dancers and worked in various tablaos including el Palacio Andaluz , El Patio Sevillanoy el arenal.