Artistic Statement and Bio

I create and dance feminist Flamenco.  My choreography and direction excavates the truths that I have always felt and resonated with as a woman- strength, passion, and determination. Historically, these attributes have centered on the male dancers, musicians and singers in the flamenco tradition.

I have chosen to use the flamenco language to unleash the feminist truth and peel away at these limits.  I draw upon my cultural experience (Bolivian-born, Spanish, Indian and American) and the lives of contemporary women to keep the art form relevant in the 21st Century. My work celebrates women as the protagonists of their own story and not just a form of seductress, sexual object or a love object.  I challenge all the historical roles that have been placed on women in this art form, and uncover the ever present truths.

Elba Hevia y Vaca – Artistic/Executive Director and Founder

Elba Hevia y Vaca was born in La Paz, Bolivia, where she studied classical Spanish dance from ages of five to thirteen, when she became enthralled by the power of flamenco.  She traveled to Spain to study flamenco for the first time at the age of 15. While attending college at Georgetown in Washington, D.C., Hevia y Vaca studied and danced with master dancer Ana Martinez of the Ana Martinez Flamenco Dance Company, including touring nationally. Later, Hevia y Vaca danced with Washington’s Raquel Peña Spanish Dance Company, appearing as a soloist at various venues throughout the U.S., most notably the Kennedy Center. Hevia y Vaca moved to Philadelphia where she continued her study of modern dance, jazz, contact improvisation from various Philadelphia artists.
In 2000, Hevia y Vaca founded Pasión y Arte out of a strong and intensely personal conviction that highly-stylized traditional Spanish flamenco dance is a perfect vessel to empower women. Through the art of flamenco – music, dance, song, as well as the visual arts and other related art forms – Pasión y Arte’s programs reflect the rich artistic heritage of the South of Spain and explore themes that extend beyond flamenco’s traditional repertoire. Her works explore specific themes relating to her own exploration as a Latina woman and her passion for the Flamenco language.
Hevia y Vaca has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Annenberg Performing Arts Center, the Kimmel Center, New York’s SummerStages, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Wilma Theater, Painted Bride Arts Center, the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Princeton University and New York’s Public Theater. As part of the educational and community-oriented components of its mission, Hevia y Vaca has performed and conducted workshops at Penn State University, Middlebury College, Dickinson University, Franklin & Marshall University, Muhlenberg College, the Walt Whitman Cultural Center, the CORA Summer Camp, the Latin American Guild for Arts, and Cumberland County College, and numerous community arts centers.
In 2008, Hevia y Vaca opened the Pasión y Arte Conservatory in order to provide a disciplined environment for preserving and teaching the formal structures of flamenco in Philadelphia. Hevia y Vaca has brought contemporary Spanish flamenco artists to the Conservatory, including Isabel Bayon, Rosario Toledo, Soledad Barrio, Alejandro Granados, and Omayra Amaya, to present workshops open to the public. Hevia y Vaca also continues to study flamenco through yearly professional development trips to Spain.
In its past 10 years, Pasión y Arte has demonstrated that it is a sustainable dance company that presents well-received, original work coupled with active educational and community engagements. The company has received grants from the Barra Foundation, Dance Advance, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the Independence Foundation, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Leeway Foundation, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, and the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation, and is a member of Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour. In 2007, Hevia y Vaca was selected as one of 11 Philadelphia artists chosen to participate in Artists U, a cooperative professional development program.

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© 2011 - Pasion y Arte Flamenco
This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.