Tamara Adira Say
Literary Arts: Author/Writer, Poet; Media Arts: Filmmaker, Media/Visual Communications, New Media/Technology, Producer; Multi-Disciplinary: Multiple Art Forms, Performer and Writer; Performing Arts: Choreographer, Composer, Dancer, Director, Musician, Performance Art, Spoken Word Artist, Storyteller; Teaching Artist/Instructor; Visual Arts: Illustrator, Maker, Mixed Media Artist; Programs Manager
“Always remembering the masters of flamenco, Adira keeps a keen eye to the future. Bridging both the traditional and the new school, Adira proves to be one of the most creative visions in the South Texas flamenco scene.” – The Rivard Report Tamara Adira is a dancer, choreographer, and founder/ Artistic Director of Arte y Pasión, a company known for pushing the boundaries of flamenco and Spanish dance and one of the most contemporary Spanish dance companies in the United States. Arte y Pasión, founded in 2010, produces work that is at once avant-garde, interactive, classic, historical, informative, and playful. Every performance is a chance to build on a joyful and experimental approach while repeating and perfecting the work. Arte y Pasión experiments with media and specific subject matter, using flamenco as an artist uses paint to a canvas, making provocative work, to make the audience think and feel, and hopefully inspire to action. Tamara Adira was recognized in December 2020 by SA Monthly Magazine, September 2018 by Eleanora Magazine in Top 50 Women to Watch in Texas, and her work was featured in the July 2018 Issue of San Antonio Woman. Most recently, Tamara debuted her project Grito de los Árboles, “Scream of the Trees,” her first full-length flamenco film, in response to the pandemic. This project would mark a pivotal change in Tamara’s work, now with distanced performances presenting the opportunity to create film, and bring together artists from San Antonio, Spain, France, Los Angeles, and New York. Tamara Adira collaborated directly with San Antonio’s Poet Laureate Andrea Vocab Sanderson to conceived and direct Mantas de Luz “Blankets of Light,” a DreamWeek 2020 project. In 2018, Adira’s company Arte y Pasión was picked up by the San Antonio Tricentennial Commission as an official Event Partner for her yearlong project Siete Aguas, and the company was selected to perform in front of the King of Spain’s collection at the San Antonio Museum of Art. Arte y Pasion conceived and directed Sanctorum, a ceremony for the internment of a musical time capsule in honor of the San Antonio College Multicultural Conference honoring the San Antonio Tricentennial SA300. She has performed for such dignitaries as San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and First Lady Erika Prosper, Wendy Davis, Joaquin Castro, Julian Castro, the Vice President of Nicaragua and at a Presidential Rally for John Kerry. She has appeared in such programs as America’s Next Top Model. Tamara is known for her work across mediums bridging gaps between music, cultures and media, she was most recently seen in featured as soloist opening with Wayne Holtz for Big Freedia, in Oliver Rajamani’s Flamenco India, and Andrea Vocab Sanderson’s Bad Mama Jama Mixtape. She has also performed with such bands as Femina-X, Deer Vibes, and at the San Antonio Youth Orchestra’s Thriller, a tribute to Michael Jackson. She the is 2015 winner of the Artist Foundation of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture award for “Original Choreography” and 2010 winner of the Artist Foundation of San Antonio Bernard Lifshutz Award for “Original Theatrical Production.” She studied and shared the stage for ten years with her mentor the great master Teo Morca before he passed. The pandemic has given her the opportunity to study regularly with masters from Spain. She currently studies with Daniel Caballero, Belen Maya, Nino de los Reyes, Triana Maciel, Jose Cortes, and La Farruca. She gives back to her community, having choreographed for the City of San Antonio’s Parks and Recreation youth groups Fandango and Alamotion, the Say Si Allas Theater, and the North Independent School District. A graduate of MIT, her early performances and projects have been featured in Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program through the MIT Media Lab and Center for Advanced Visual Studies. Counterbalancing her studies in traditional flamenco, Adira leverages her experience in experimental and contemporary performance, influenced by her Harvard University residency in a John Cage production. Press Kit https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yv1uw2jgamhdncx/AACuwKHBQDQhFcAqWO2A8w2ra?dl=0