Luisa Palicio
Who is Luisa Palicio?
Luisa Palicio Martín was born on April 20, 1984, in Estepona, Málaga. She began dancing at the age of four in academies in her hometown and made her public debut at ten, at the Congreso Internacional de Arte Flamenco de Estepona, a stage that marked the start of an early career within payo flamenco dance.
Career
She trained with leading masters such as Milagros Mengíbar, Rafael Campallo, Manolo Soler, Javier Barón, Hiniesta Cortés and Antonio Canales, and also took classes with Carmen Juan in 1998. She was a semifinalist on the children’s television program “Veo, Veo” in 1996, and from a very young age she racked up awards: third place at the Certamen Estepona Cantaora (1997), third national prize at the Alhaurín de la Torre competition (2000), and in 2002 the first national dance prize from the Fundación Cristina Heeren in Marbella together with the first prize for alegrías de Cádiz. In 1999 and 2000 she performed at the Teatro Cervantes in Málaga, and in 2002 she took part in “Homenaje a la Bata de Cola”. In 2008 the Asociación Nacional de Críticos de Flamenco honored her at the Congreso Internacional de Antequera, and that same year she received the Giraldillo for Best Newcomer at the Bienal de Sevilla, where she premiered “4 Noches”, directed by José Luis Ortiz Nuevo, with choreography inspired by the great classical bailaoras.
Style
Her dancing rests on refined footwork and a strict command of compás, with a repertoire spanning fandangos, alegrías, bulerías, peteneras and soleá, genres with which she has built an artistic identity centered on expressiveness rather than showmanship.