What is “Puente Flamenco”?
“Puente” means “bridge” and we hope to be a bridge from flamenco to you, and from Spain to the Americas. The heart of what we play and dance is flamenco, but from time to time we’ll add in music and dance from various Latin American countries.
“Flamenco” refers to a style of music – singing, dancing, guitar-playing and lots of percussion – that originated in the gypsy communities of Spain. It is not “flamingo music”. Flamingos are tall pink birds. We are all humans.
Who are we?
We are a mix of people, some from the Syracuse area and some from quite far away. But we found each other in Syracuse because, well, nobody else is doing flamenco on a regular basis here!
David Chu began his music career as a teen playing piano and percussion, but soon switched to guitar. At SUNY Oswego he earned a Bachelor’s in Music while minoring in Spanish. He has been a well-known guitarist in Syracuse for many years, building his career first as a player of electric guitar in jazz and pop styles. About eight years ago he switched to the flamenco guitar, which has nylon strings and is similar to a classical guitar. He has delighted audiences with the variety of genres he plays on this guitar, including flamenco, jazz, Brazilian, and even Beatles tunes. He is largely self-taught but has taken some lessons in New York. An accomplished soloist, he provides accompaniment for the other Gringos Flamencos and is the group’s arranger and composer. David is an experienced programmer, works nowadays as a web developer and is the administrator for the group’s website.
Marisa Guzman has been a part of the Central New York dance community for many years. She teaches at Gúzman’s Dance Studio, Syracuse School of Dance and is an Adjunct Professor at Syracuse University. Her teaching credits include Flamenco, Jazz, Creative Movement, Modern, Stott Pilates and Ballet. She has performed with the Syracuse Contemporary Dance Company, Syracuse Opera Company and with the Syracuse Symphony. Marisa has choreographed for Fayetteville Manlius High School musicals, Flamenco for the Syracuse Symphony and for the Syracuse Contemporary Dance Company.
Andy Culpepper was born and raised near Ithaca, NY. He picked up the guitar at the age of 16 and began to devote himself to mastering all styles of guitar playing, from classical to the blues, before settling on Flamenco as his ideal mode of expression. While attending the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Andy studied with the master guitarist, Tito Rubio, a student of the great Juan Maya “Marote”. He has also studied in Seville, Spain with Francisco Morales “El Pulga”. Andy’s style incorporated elements of both modern and traditional Flamenco, while always striving to maintain the purity and depth of this beautiful art form. Among his greatest influences are Paco de Lucía, Moraito and Pape Habichuela, as well as the singers Camarón, Fernanda de Utrera, and Pastora Pavón. Andy also builds flamenco guitars.
Dionisio Cruz Lcsw-R is a Social Worker/ consultant with over 20 years experience in mental health and program development and implementation. Most of those years in NYC. He began playing conga drums when he returned to New York City from Vietnam in 1967. He studied jazz, Afro-Cuban, and Salsa-Latin conga drumming at the Drummers’ Collective with Frankie Malabe, and Haitian drumming independently with John Amira. He further developed playing music with visual artists and theatre artists as well as in Haitian dance classes with Serge St. Juste and in later years, Pat Hall. Dionisio can be heard on the CDs of the group, the Miserable Offenders.
Lonnie Chu, manager and web designer for the group, also plays palmas and sings. She studied music at SUNY New Paltz before taking off for Spain where she lived several times. Her degrees are in Spanish and Linguistics and she has been using music in her Spanish classes for the past 20 years. Currently teaching at Onondaga Community College, it was her students who inspired her to bring together these talented people so that students and lovers of all things Spanish could enjoy flamenco the way she and husband David do.
Joan Dear-Houseman has recently joined the troupe and will have more information for us soon!
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Rina Flatau is a physical therapist at University Hospital, working primarily with multiple trauma and neurosurgical patients. In addition to working and raising a family, she teaches art history classes to children, is almost finished with her doctorate in Physical Therapy, is passionate about art and enjoys studying many dance forms including ballet, modern, jazz and hip hop. She has been instrumental in organizing flamenco dance classes in the city of Syracuse and has partnered with Marisa Guzman for several projects. She is one of our dancers and also plays palmas (rhythmic hand-clapping).
Shander Bawden’s initial dance training began at the Boston Ballet. She soon branched out into jazz, and had a 10 year career as a freelance dancer in New York, appearing in several national tours, videos, musicals and cabarets. Her flamenco training began after that in Albuqueque, New Mexico with Eva Encinias-Sandoval and Pablo Rodarte, where she danced with the University of New Mexico’s student company. She continued training with Omayra Amaya in Boston and appeared with her company, Flamenco Sin Limites. (She also was the production manager for Omayra’s critically acclaimed, long running show at the Park Plaza Hotel.) While in Texas, Shander regularly appeared with Margo Dean’s Ballet Concerto working and studying with Luis Montero, as well as Teye’s Viva El Flamenco. She performed with Maria Benitez in the Dallas Opera’s production of La Vida Breve and has attended workshops by such flamenco greats as Antonio Canales, Manolete, Monica Bermudez and Antonio Hidalgo. Shander is currently immersed in graduate studies in library and information science and thus has limited her participation to teaching choreography to the dancers.
