Leonor Leal (Jerez de la Frontera, 1980)

A unique flamenco dancer with solid training in Classical and Spanish dance, she found Flamenco to be the right vehicle for developing her talent. Her versatility enables her to adapt to very different contexts and tackle challenges that open up doors for her to continue to grow as an artist.

She began her journey as part of important flamenco companies such as those of Antonio “El Pipa”, Andrés Marín, Javier Barón, and the Flamenco Ballet of Andalusia, directed at the time by Cristina Hoyos. In 2008, she presented her first show “Leoleolé”, which was followed by others in different formats, “eLe eLe” (2011), “Mosaicos” (2012), “La mujer habitada” (2012), “El Verbo en tu boca” (2014), “Naranja amarga” (2013), “Frágil”

(2015), “J.R.T. pintor y flamenco” (2016), “Nocturno” (2018), and “En talleres” (2019), productions that she combines with greatly varied projects and initiatives, whether for theatre, educational pieces, video-dances, or pieces formed by different musical frameworks, from baroque to contemporary music.

“J.R.T.”, was an essential piece in Leonor’s career. That is where she began, under the musical direction of the multifaceted Pedro G. Romero, the journey with Alfredo Lagos and Antonio Moreno and met Mónica Valenciano and María Muñoz, the founder of Mal Pelo. She (says Leonor) “helped us to understand the concept of space and how it begins where you want to open it up”

Following that, she had two fertile years working on concepts with residencies in Linz (Austria), at “L’Animal a l’Esquena” Creation Centre in Celrá (Girona), in Toulouse (France), in Düsseldorf (Germany)…A wealth of experiences led to “Nocturno”, which, in addition to being a show, is above all, work of stage research.

The next derivative of that creative process is “En talleres” (In workshops, initially called “Se Prohibe el Cante”), a project that premiered in 2019 as a duo with Antonio Moreno, a percussionist and performer in which it is possible to clearly appreciate what is referred to as the “internal rhythm.”

And the most recent, and the most ambitious at a staging and musical level, is “LOXA, estampas y bailes a partir de los experimentos radiofónicos de Juan de Loxa” (LOXA, prints and dances based on the radio experiments of Juan de Loxa), presented at the XXI Seville Flamenco Biennial 2020.

Her trajectory as a soloist is endorsed by different awards such as the ‘Outstanding Dancer’ at the Spanish and Flamenco Dance Choreographic Contest in Madrid in 2008, and the ‘Best New Artist’ Award’ at the 2011 Jerez Festival, and, specifically for “Nocturno”, the ‘Special Mention from the Jury’ at the 2019 Teatro en el Sur Festival, the ‘Best Dance Show Award’ at the 2019 Seville Stage Awards and Nominations for the Best Female Dance Performer and the best Dance Show at the XXIII Max Awards for the Performing Arts 2020.

She stages her pieces at many of the main European and American exhibitions such as the Biennials of Seville and Holland and the festivals of Jerez, Düsseldorf, Esch-Luxembourg, Nîmes, Mont de Marsan, Toulouse, London and New York.

She has combined her artistic trajectory with university studies on ‘Stage practice and visual culture’, as part of the Masters offered by the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid in 2015/16, with her work as a researcher, presented at the danced conferences “Ahora Bailo yo” (Now I dance) (2016) and “El lenguaje de las líneas” (The language of lines) (2019) and with her forays as a writer for the books “Catalina sin pamplinas” with drawings by the illustrator Raul Guridi (Ediciones La fragatina, 2017) and “Bailar” (Editorial Avenauta, 2019).

She undertook university studies in Musical Education, and since the outset, she has combined her artistic career with teaching. She is continuously sought-after as a teacher at schools and international flamenco festivals around the world.