KARINA LEIRO

Flamenco Dance Teacher

Karina's bio

​Karina Leiro started her dance training in Ebateca (Salvador, Brazil). Karina was born in Brazil to Spanish parents . At age thirteen she took her first Sevillanas and Spanish folkloric dances intensive in Spain. She danced and taught for various schools including EDACE and was part of Mar Esmeralda Cia de Dança in her home town, she spent two years dancing in Portugal. Karina also studied in Flamenco Ados, Isabel Bayón's and Ángel Atienza's school, located in Sevilla, Spain. She taught flamenco in Escola 1001 Danças in Lisbon, Portugal. In 2008, returned to Brazil, she founded the flamenco group Aires and later Cia Karina Leiro. She taught  flamenco in an extension course at UFBA (the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil) and at the Instituto Cervantes Recife. After that, Karina went back to Spain to study in the center Flamenco Amor de Dios in Madrid. She won awards as dancer and choreographer, as best dancer in the international festival Janeiro de Grandes Espetaculos. Currently she resides in Orange County performing at Cafe Sevilla Long Beach & Costa Mesa and teaching and performing at Naranjita Flamenco. Karina enjoys working on creative projects, as a choreographer and performer, with the Southern California based music and dance group, Mestizaje Project.