“Gabriela Granados’ breadth of
experience was evident in Olé! Olé!, an
exuberant and stylish program…a vivid, slyly observed overview of Spanish
dance. Ms. Granados’ stunning Soleá was a tour de force of shifting, building dynamics
for this very musical dancer.”
Jennifer Dunning,
The New York Times January 1998
New York, New
York
“Gabriela Granados is astonishing. An extremely attractive flamenco
dancer, she also has impeccable classical technique, a wonderful comedic sense,
and the ambition, energy and skill to guide the American Bolero Dance
Company...Enviable versatility…
Granados brought down the house with her Soleá.”
Nancy Heller, Flamenco
International Magazine January/March 2000
London, England
“...Besides being a virtuoso performer
and a choreographer with an authenticity that is clearly evident, [Gabriela
Granados] has conceived a production that is in extraordinarily good
taste--beginning with the costumes she designed....”
Phyllis Goldman, Back
Stage November 26/December 2, 1999
New York, New
York
“No one in the fourteen-member cast
outshined Gabriela Granados’ own radiance, beauty and easy command of craft and
space. She is a rare example these
days, of a dancer whose elegant yet devilish femininity is heightened by her
strong, emotional attack.”
Deirdre Towers, Dance
Films Association, Inc. November 1999
New York, New
York
“The most familiar tune from Manuel de
Falla’s La Vida Breve, is a dance…in the
small center of the stage Ms. Granados manages large movements, some balletic
in style. She is flirtatious and
determined, using the sound of her footwork as her voice. Later…with complicated castanet rhythms
she added more language to her song, from sweet to sultry, charming to
challenging, using the music well.
Ms. Granados had about fifteen minutes of stage time in this
hour-or-so-long production. She
has the talent to have outshone and the feet to have outsounded the production,
but she is a gracious performer, and was the pearl in the center of an
appealing evening.”
Madeleine Dale, Attitude Spring 2001
New York, New
York
“Olé! Olé! to the American Bolero
Dance Company! Another Spanish
dance company hits the New York stage with gusto! Gabriela Granados’ production...was nothing less than
spectacular...[Her] fiery Soleá was the
height of daring theatricality.
Glorious in its outpouring of energetic dancing, Granados stage presence
resonates with power and intricate detail...”
Eva Lopez, Attitude Spring/Summer 1998
New York, New
York
“The American Bolero Dance Company,
produced a gem of a show. Spanish
Gems began with Isaac Albéniz’s Sevilla.
The piece engagingly introduced classical and flamenco
dance. For Siete
Canciones Populares Españolas by Manuel de Falla, Ms. Granados devised a series of
playlets…effectively expressing the excruciating pain of love. No one dances rage better than she…In Romeras, Ms. Granados was elegant and determined. Her arms
were long and strong. She showed off her zapateo with clear tonality and increasing complexity. Ms. Granados and Mr. Márquez…in…Viva
Navarra!...was everything a jota should be -upbeat, lilting…Ms. Granados was sweet,
even cute. The show concluded with
the company performing to Agustín Lara’s Granada. These
costumes could compete with anything Versaci creates for Joaquín Cortés. Indeed, the piece had his kind of pace
and pacing with everyone’s getting to show off.”
Madeleine Dale, Attitude Winter 2006
New York, New
York
“Olé
Olé Fin de Siglo…certainly
made it tempting to shout ‘Olé’.
One of the virtues of this group is a desire to show the variety of
Spanish dance. A generous
assortment of premieres revealed the company’s range. The exquisite bolero styles of the late 18th and
early 19th centuries, were presented by Ms. Granados’ Bolero a solo for herself, and Sevillanas Boleras, a group work. Both were buoyant, and the dancers’ deft castanet playing
had the polish of civilized epigrams.”
Jack
Anderson, The New York Times November 1999
New York,
New York
“La
Vida Breve at Dicapo
Opera…included dancer Gabriela Granados, who raised the temperature of the show
about twenty degrees, and she never sang at all. Her authenticity, passion and costumes were the best part of
the opera.”
Susan Razavi, Alta Classica December 2000
Opera-L
archives online
“...Gabriela is one of the most
significant representatives of this dance genre, she preserves all the
traditional styles of the Spanish dance while at the same time, opening new
avenues with her creative choreographies in the world of contemporary
flamenco.”
Athinorama (newspaper) January 1999
Athens, Greece
“Granados
puts pizzazz in Carmen. Act II opened with Gabriela Granados
and Andres Estevez doing a Spanish dance on top of a table in a tavern. Everyone’s attention was drawn to these
dancers. Granados looked so young
and beautiful -- perfect for the part.
Granados and Estevez were very precise and smooth in their movement,
their partnership fitting together like puzzle pieces. [In] Act III…Granados and Estevez
opened with dancing that was more lyrical this time. It was slow dancing, and I’ve never seen Spanish dancing
like this before. The pair was
beautiful, and once again their interaction with each other appeared
effortless. It was like they were
ice-skating. This scene was my
favorite. Act IV opened with
Granados performing a solo. The
music and dance grabbed my attention immediately; it had me moving in my
seat. There was a lot of energy
again with those rhythmic taps of the feet and the castanets. No doubt that it was Spanish, and it
was dynamic!”
Melissa
King, The Dance Insider March 2001
The Dance
Insider Online, Flash Review
“The Sherman Chamber Ensemble once again outdid
themselves…A few special guests usually join
in…and dancer/choreographer Gabriela Granados basically stole the show with
castanets, fan, and a straight back chair. The anonymous flamenco folk tune Olé de la Curra featured Wiley performing a romantic guitar
solo, with a cool crisp castanet accompaniment by Granados. But this was just a teaser for her Fandango routine in Quintet in D Major by Luigi Boccherini. My attention has never been so diverted from the SCE music,
as the dance dominatrix captured the spotlight in the closing number. From head to toe, her every movement
was measured and magnificent. OLE!”
Jan
Stribula, News-Times October 2007
Pawling,
Connecticut
“The
party scenes inTraviata...glitter
with visual effect and throb with well-choreographed activity. Dancer Gabriela Granados’ stylized
flamenco and the bawdy cancan of Flora Bervoix...stand out in the whirl of
movement and swirl of color in...superbly staged choral scenes.”
Clark
Bustard, Richmond Times-Dispatch 1994
Richmond,
Virginia
“Gabriela
Granados vibrates with dance. Her
body molded by infinite interpretations, is all rhythm from the fingers that
draws figures in the air to the feet that pull up tapping, pirouettes, turns
and steps. The audience turned mad
asking for more and more.”
Elvira de Gálvez, El Comercio (newspaper) 1989
Lima,
Perú
“The
best dance segments are Taranto, performed by Marisol Moreno, and Soleá, performed by Gabriela Granados. In each of these dances, the focus is
on the wonderful, intricate footwork that characterizes good flamenco. OLE! OLE! Fin de Siglo is a marvelous showcase for American Bolero
Dance Company. A spirited,
energetic troupe, led by the marvelous dancer, Gabriela Granados, they will not
dissapoint.”
Kessa De
Santis, Electronic Link Journey November 1999
New York,
New York
“The
Sevillanas Boleras…a
courtly Goyesque cartoon…and the Bolero, choreographed by Ms. Granados, were visual treats in magnificent
jeweltone costumes…The leaping, lilting Bolero was deftly performed with
castanets by a coquettish Ms. Granados…Her years of ballet training were
apparent…[In] Soleá, by La
Tati, it showed how well Ms. Granados executes, rhythm and the timing of
holds. Her footwork was dynamic
and her markings unusually sexy.
She ended with what may become her trademark pose, one arm up with the
bata curled around her.”
Madeleine
Dale, Attitude Summer
2000
New York,
New York
“Local
Flamenco artists have been knocking audiences out of their sillas this season in New York. Gabriela Granados inaugurated a first
Friday of the month “Tablao Flamenco” in Astoria (Queens) at the Centro
Español…The pieces to die for were two.
One was the Granaína
by Alfonso Mogaburo Cid…The second was the star’s Soleá…I’ve seen this La Tati choreography before,
and on Ms. Granados it works perfectly - or rather she works it perfectly. From earlier wistfully romantic stormy
interpretations …Ms. Granados has moved on. This evening we witnessed her maturity, expressed in a
furiously raging thunderstorm of intention with an ever more deeply pained
face, as she squirreled into the ground in weighted curls…”
Madeleine
Dale, Attitude Winter 2009
New York,
New York
