GABRIELA GRANADOS (flamenco dancer/choreographer) began training at the age of four in her native Perú, studying a wide range of classical and regional Spanish dances, Flamenco, Classical Ballet, Character dance and Latin American folklore. She attended Universidad de Lima, in Perú, to study Communication Sciences. Ms. Granados performed extensively throughout her youth including productions at Teatro Municipal and Teatro Segura in Lima, Perú. While appearing in classical productions, she performed in full-length ballets such as Carmen, Giselle, Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker and Pugni’s Grand Pas de Quatre.

In 1980, she moved to New York where she continued her dance studies and performing career. She traveled to Spain in 1985 and made her debut at the legendary Tablao Flamenco Los Canasteros in Madrid. Ms. Granados also studied in Seville and performed in Madrid’s renowned tablaos flamencos Las Brujas and Zambra, where she had the opportunity to work alongside Spain’s top flamenco professionals. After returning to the U.S., she became a member of the flamenco dance companies of Maria Benítez, Andrea del Conte and Carlota Santana.

In 1996, Ms. Granados founded American Bolero Dance Company (ABDC), with a mission to present other aspects of Spanish music and dance, besides Flamenco. Her company received a Heritage and Preservation grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2002 and, since 2009, yearly consecutive grants from NYC-DCA and NYSCA through the Queens Council on the Arts. Her work for ABDC encompasses classical and folkloric Spanish dances, 18th Century Bolero, Zarzuela and Flamenco. In 2002, Ms. Granados established her company-affiliated Spanish Dance School, dedicated exclusively to the preservation of all these dance styles.

As artistic director, dancer and choreographer of ABDC, Ms. Granados has successfully presented her productions in New York City, the Mid-Atlantic States and Europe. She created and produced “Olé! Olé!” in 1998 at Intar Theater, “Olé! Olé! Fin de Siglo” in 1999 at The Kaye Playhouse, “Spanish Gems” in 2005 at Flushing Town Hall, “Tablao Flamenco” from 2008 to 2015, which ran in Astoria-NYC for eight seasons. In 2014 she presented her “Retrospectiva” at Tony Bennett Concert Hall at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts; and in 2016, 2017 and 2019, she produced “FlamencoLIC” at The Secret Theatre in Long Island City, NY.

Her choreographic credits include the creation of Spanish dances for Ballet Municipal de Lima in Perú, Cuadro Flamenco for New York’s Pancho Villa, La Traviata for Virginia Opera and Mannes Opera, Carmen for Orlando Opera, La Vida Breve for DiCapo Opera Theatre, Goyescas and La Vida Breve for Bronx Symphony, and the original version of El Amor Brujo for Wesleyan University’s Ensemble of the Americas, where she performed with flamenco singer Esperanza Fernández. She appeared as a guest soloist with various companies and music ensembles, such as Orchestra of St. Luke’s -in Carnegie Hall, Queens Symphony, Baltimore Opera, and in 2007, Ms. Granados toured with The Sherman Ensemble and the Saratoga String Players, dancing her newly created work Fandango by Luigi Boccherini; and in 2008, she performed at the Metropolitan Opera gala honoring Plácido Domingo.

Ms. Granados has been on the faculty of the Neubert Ballet Institute for over a decade, an artist in residence at LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, on the faculty of Broadway Dance Center, a freelance teacher at Fazil’s Times Circle Studios, and a guest teacher and lecturer for the Dance Department of New York University and Barnard College, plus Alvin Ailey and Joffrey Ballet. She currently teaches at Ballet Hispanico and American Bolero’s Spanish Dance School. She’s been featured on Oxygen TV Network and was selected by It’s Queens The Magazine in the “Top 15 Movers & Shakers 2011”, a list of the borough’s behind the scene entrepreneurs, artists and leaders. In 2017, she received a Certificate of Merit from the New York State Assembly in recognition of her achievements. The New York Times called her production Olé! Olé! “Exuberant and stylish”, and her solo work “stunning...a tour de force”. www.ambolero.com