Flamenco Let’s Dance! Flamenco teachers at Battersea Spanish
Continuing a proud tradition of working with many of London’s finest Flamenco teachers, Battersea Spanish is proud to present our team of instructors from Autumn 2023.
Providing exposure to a variety of styles and performance experiences, our teachers will enthuse and motivate all levels of participants, from complete novices in our Foundation courses to much more experienced dancers in our Level 4 classes.
Lourdes Fernández
Lourdes has been dancing since she was five years old. From that moment on, her whole life developed through the learning of flamenco. She studied dance at the Madrid Conservatory, graduated at Rey Juan Carlos University and completed her Masters in Performing Arts. She also taught dance at the American Saint Louis University of Madrid and participated in the International Dance Gala for UNESCO.
Determined to step outside her comfort zone, Lourdes arrived in London in 2012. Since then, she has performed in renowned venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The Union Chapel, Richmix. In addition, Lourdes participated in various festivals throughout the UK like City of London Festival, Birmingham Jazz Festival, Brighton Festival, Latitude Festival, and Salisbury International Arts Festival. She was involved in different bands and art organisations - Alma Gitana, Ida y Vuelta Ensemble, Live & Local - as both dancer and choreographer.
In 2022, she was a dancer for the Scottish Opera in the production of Ainadamar. She is currently directing her own company, Lourdes Fernandez Flamenco. With this, she has created Flamenco Raices, which she took all over the United Kingdom; and Flamenco Origenes, which is a production supported by the Arts Council of England.
Magdalena Mannion
Magdalena is a flamenco dancer & dancemaker based between London and Madrid. She trained extensively in Madrid at Amor de Dios and Fundación Cada Patas before gaining a dance pedagogy degree from Conservatorio Superior de Danza María de Ávila, specialising in flamenco training. She also studied at Northern Contemporary Dance and Merce Cunningham Studio NYC & holds a MA in Flamencology from ESMUC, Barcelona.
Between 2013-2020 Magdalena was a regular soloist and resident dancer at some of Madrid’s top tablaos (traditional flamenco venues), including Corral de la Morería, Café de Chinitas and Casa Patas, among others. She has worked for different companies such as Compañía Rafaela Carrasco (Nacida Sombra 2017-2022, Nocturna 2022-) Compañía Miguel Angel Espino (2015) Riverdance (2021-2022) Keynote Opera (Bronte 2023 -) & Compañía Adriana Bilbao (Zarra 2022-) leading her to perform on different occasions at festivals such as Suma Flamenca, Bienal de Sevilla, Festival de Jerez, Fiesta la Buleria Jerez, Congreso Mundial del Flamenco Morocco, among others.
Since 2014, Magdalena has been Co-artistic Director of the contemporary flamenco company Luz & Mannion Dance (formerly Dotdotdot Dance), whose work has been commissioned and produced by Sadler’s Wells as well as featured in different festivals including Flamencos y Mestizos 2015, Sampled Festival 2017 (Sadler’s Wells, The Lowry), Buxton International Festival 2018, National Theatre Riverstage 2018 and Dans i Nord 2019 and featured on the online platforms BBC Arts and Spanish radio RTVE/Antena. For the company, Magdalena has co-choreographed No Frills, Los Nacimientos, In Body, Re Red, Blue Ghost & Dancin' Nation Window Shopping, . She choreographed the short piece When Viola Met Vargas for Dotdotdot Dance Wild Card at Lilian Baylis Theatre 2016.
Teaching is a big part of Magdalena's work. She teaches freelance around the UK and online as well as for academies Flamenco Academy London and Battersea Spanish. She was guest teacher on two occasions at Casa Flamenco, Beijing & teaches workshops for schools, universities & community groups
Juan Carlos Otero
An established instructor at Battersea Spanish, Juan Carlo is a London born multi-disciplined artist and producer working with a fusion of flamenco and contemporary art forms via dance, theatre, performance, visual design, video, music and sound. He graduated in 1994 with a BA (Hons) in fine art, specialising in performance art, but his professional practice has been mainly in flamenco dance. His work has evolved around the dichotomies of his dual nationality and cultural identity, always looking for new ways to integrate his background in Spanish folk disciplines with his education in contemporary fine art.
Hi specialisation has been in tablao or pure flamenco, an improvised form where the accompanists follow the live dance. His strong improvisational dance skills has led to many collaborations with folk, latin, jazz, pop and classical musicians as well as theatre companies. In 2004 he began working in contemporary dance, providing him with a link back to working with abstract movement and concepts. As a member of LamatDance he was a semi-finalist for The Place Price in 2006.
In 2008 he joined The Royal Opera House Creative Partnerships scheme and received intensive training in designing and delivering ambitious cross curricular arts projects in schools. During his six years as a Creative Agent for this organisation, he found a new vocation in teaching and finding ways to promote learning and creativity for children and adults.
Since 2013 he has been involved in devising experimental theatre, with recurring support from Arts Council England. His first theatre work was a take on the classic Don Quijote, which was selected by the British Council to be part of their Edinburgh Showcase in 2013, and featured in Tempo Festival, Rio De Janeiro. More recently he has been funded to produce his first self-penned works, Republica (on tour in 2019-2020)and Deconstructing Carmen (in development). Both are an original mix of autobiography, flamenco, punk and politics.
Juan Carlos continues to perform and teach flamenco to children and adults, whilst developing original theatre and cabaret work.