Marina Elana, BA '08, brings world-renowned flamenco artists to San Francisco

Hailed as a "dancer of distinction" by the New York Times, Stanford alumna Marina Elana launches Flamenco Arts International (FAI)— a women-founded, San Francisco-based nonprofit revolutionizing the way audiences experience flamenco. Tickets for their inaugural performance, Songs from a Sinking Ship, are available online at zspace.org/songs-from-a-sinking-ship. Performances are Friday, March 28, and Saturday, March 29, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 30, at 2 p.m.

As an educator and community builder, Marina has taught masterclasses at Lincoln Center, The Joyce Theater, University of Southern California, UC Santa Barbara, University of Washington, Williams College, and New York University in NYC and Abu Dhabi. In the Bay Area, Marina has been an artist in residence at Theatre Flamenco of San Francisco and has dedicated the past five years and counting to The People’s Conservatory in Oakland, where she helps students connect flamenco to aspects of their own cultural identities and realize that they are active participants in the preservation and evolution of flamenco’s powerful legacy.

An avid film lover, Marina enjoys a multidisciplinary approach to flamenco often incorporating technology, theatrical vignettes, and film. She graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Film & Media Studies, specializing in “Avant-Garde Aesthetics and Performance.” In 2023, Marina collaborated and starred in the short film, “Yellow Wallpaper,” which premiered at the LA Shorts International Film Festival in Los Angeles and garnered her a Best Actress in a Short Film nomination at the Phoenix Rising International Film Festival (2023).