Cristina Hoyos

Cristina Hoyos Panadero (Seville, Spain 13 June 1946) is a Spanish flamenco dancer, choreographer, and actress. After a successful worldwide career, she opened her own dance company in 1988 that premiered at the Rex Theatre in Paris. She played an important role during the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Hoyos started dancing at the age of twelve in the children's show Galas Juveniles. In 1969, she joined the ballet company of Antonio Gades where she continued her work for more than two decades. During this time, she toured the world demonstrating her art and starred in the film trilogy Blood Wedding, Carmen, and El amor brujo. In 1983, Hoyos played Carmen in the Antonio Gades ballet interpretation of Carmen in Paris. Her performance received rave reviews. Cristina Hoyos has taken flamenco to all corners of the world, using it as a beautiful tool that has crossed borders and with which she has united different and distant peoples and cultures, just using the tail of the gown and her heels.