Chicago Flamenco Festival 2015 - Paloma Gómez & Raquel Gómez "Of Women and Poems"

Paloma Gomez:
From the age of three she started a life devoted to dance in all its forms and studied at several renowned schools as the National Spanish Ballet School and Maria de Ávila Dance School in Madrid. Through her extensive formative years, she is taught by outstanding masters of dance including: Lola de Avila (Classical Ballet), José Antonio (current director of the National Ballet of Spain) with whom she will later share the stage as lead dancer, Azary Plisetsky (Classical Ballet), Jorge Esquivel (Classical Ballet), Victoria Eugenia “Beti” (Classical Spanish Dance), Paco Romero (Classical Spanish Dance), Goyo Montero (Jazz Dance), Carl París (Modern and Contemporary Dance) and Pedro Azorín (Spanish Folklore). She´s a graduate with the highest qualification for the Royal Professional Conservatory of Dance “Mariemma” at Madrid in Classical Spanish Dance, Escuela Bolera and Flamenco speciality. At the age of 17 she becomes a member of the National Ballet of Spain where she will stay for four and a half years. Always as lead dancer, she will later partake, amongst others, in companies such as ‘José Antonio and the Spanish Ballets' under direction of José Antonio and the ‘New Ballet of Spain' under direction of Angel Rojas and Carlos Rodríguez, where she's also costume designer of some of this company´s productions and assistant artistic director. With them she will dance in some of the most prestigious theatres around the world. In 2000 she found her own dance company and directs two shows: ‘De Lunares' and ‘De Tapas' touring at national and international level both as dancer, director and choreographer.  She has also recently taken part for the third time as guest dancer in the Chicago Spanish Dance Festival organized by the Northeastearn Illinois University of Chicago , where she also impart classes of Classical Spanish dance, Spanish Folklore and Flamenco.

Raquel Gomez:
She started studying dance at the age of three at her parent’s school, who were also dancers, Raquel Rodríguez and José Gómez.  When she was 16 years old she was already part of the National Ballet of Spain, where she remained for 10 years, even becoming the Associate Director under the orders of Aida Gómez.   After this, she collaborated with other companies always as prima ballerina and worked under the direction of great theatrical directors such as Miguel Narros and Adolfo Marsillach. 
She has also worked as a choreographer in many different works, such as the theatre piece “La visita a la vieja dama” (The Visit to the Old Dame) for the National Dramatic Center of Spain.  
Over the last few years she has balanced her work as a ballerina and choreographer with teaching, working on all these aspects at a national and also international level. 
Today she works with the company of Paloma Gómez in the present show of “Rotas”, where she plays one of the two main characters. 

Company: Paloma Gómez Spanish Dance
Dancers: Paloma Gómez y Raquel Gómez
Flamenco Singer: Chiara Mangiamelli
Flameno Guitar: Diego Alonso
Percussion: Javier Saume
Poetry reciter /Theatre director: Luis Lorente
Choreography: Paloma Gómez y Raquel Gómez

Instituto Cervantes members and students $20; Nonmembers $25.
Space is limited tickets at: http://palomagomez.bpt.me (MAKE SURE YOU SELECT THE DATE YOU WANT TO ATTEND)