Sonia Olla
Hailed by The New York Times as “a furnace of earthy sensuality”, Sonia Olla was born and raised in Barcelona when she earned a degree in Spanish Dance and Flamenco at the esteemed “Instituto de Teatro y Danza” in Barcelona.
She has toured as company member and soloist with flamenco greats such as Antonio Canales, Eva la Yerbabuena, Rafaela Carrasco, Merche Esmeralda, María Pagés, La Farruca, among others.
Bailaora of international prestige, director and choreographer of her own shows, Sonia currently resides in New York, where she combines teaching with her performance and choreography career. Venues include The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, the Rose Nagelburg Theatre, Baruch Performing Arts Center (NY) and Instituto Cervantes (Chicago), and various Flamenco Festivals.
Together with the Flamenco singer Ismael Fernández, her partner on and off the stage, Sonia has created a wide range of shows such as Tablao Sevilla, Entretiempo, Por Los Caminos and Tiempo al Aire. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker, as well as Spanish newspapers such as ABC, El País, La Vanguardia.
Sonia has also made television and radio appearances on Tele 5, Cadena Cope, Radio Nacional de España, Punto Radio, Onda Cero, Cadena Ser, as well as the renowned Internet show “Flamenco TV.”
Sonia collaborated with the pop-icon Madonna to choreograph the worldwide “Rebel Heart Tour” 2015-2016, and 2017 worked with Ricky Martin providing Flamenco choreography for Lola Lola in his show “All In!” Sonia and Ismael are recipients of the CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI) Residency in both 2018 and 2019 and debuted their original piece “Ella” at CDI’s 5th Anniversary Fest. The duo have performed their own shows on tour in Asia along with New York Clubs including The Triad Theater and Joe’s Pub. 2019 highlights include the New York Flamenco Festival, the International Dance Festival in Havana, Cuba and the Edmonton Flamenco Festival. Recent performances have included a collaboration with Tedx Cambridge and the presentation of a new show, Gloria, presented by the Spanish Embassy of Trinidad & Tobago and Guyana. Sonia and Ismael are teaching artists at Berklee School of music, where the couple developed an ensemble exploring Flamenco and Jazz, creating workshops and performances for Berklee Performance Center. The Ensemble performed at the BPC in Boston in 2020, and they continues this collaboration in 2021.
