Biography
The New York Times called the “purity and invention” of Meira's dancing “joyous, powerful." Widely recognized as a master teacher and performer, Meira began her training in her native Los Angeles with Luisa Triana, Roberto Amaral and Carmen Mora. In Madrid in the 80s she studied by day and performed by night in several of Madrid’s best tablaos (Flamenco clubs). Meira spent two years at Luisillo’s Los Cabales, two years at Manolo Caracol’s Los Canasteros, and for a year before returning to the U.S. was the solo attraction at the Arco de Cuchilleros. She has performed with many of the giants of Flamenco, including Antonio Canales, Tony “El Pelao” y “La Uchi,” Dolores Amaya “La Pescadilla,” Diego Carrasco, Manolo Soler, Juanito Habichuela "El Camborio" and Joselito Soto of “Ketama,” Enrique Soto, Ramón El Portugués, El Guadiana, El Indio Gitano, El Chato de la Isla, Pepe Montoya “Montoyita,” Arturo Pavón, Dolores de Córdoba, Tito and Diego Losada, Chuni Amaya, La Repompa de Málaga, Ampáro and Raquel Heredia, Alfredo Lagos, Antonio “de la Malena,” and Carmen Ledesma.
La Meira has been first dancer in Carlota Santana Flamenco Vivo, Fred Darsow Dance, and Elba Hévia y Vaca's Pasión y Arte, performing throughout North America in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Jacob's Pillow. Meira has been featured in several documentaries and has been awarded choreography grants from Pew Charitable Trusts, American Dance Festival, and the New York State Council on the Arts. She choreographed “Carmen” under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, and the first staging of the 1915 version of Manuel de Falla's “Amor Brujo” since Pastora Imperio performed it in that year, along with the rarely staged opera “La Vida Breve” for the Manhattan School of Music. The New York Times called the production “one of the more audacious, intriguing operatic undertakings to hit a New York stage this season.”
As a scholar, K. Meira Goldberg holds an MFA in choreography as well as an EdD in dance history from Temple University. She is currently working on a book titled Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco, forthcoming from Oxford University Press. She co-curated the exhibit "100 Years of Flamenco in New York" at the New York Public Library for the Performing Art at the Lincoln Center, and co-authored the catalog. She is co-editor of Flamenco on the Global Stage: Historical, Critical, and Theoretical Perspectives (McFarland, forthcoming 2015). Her article "Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco" is in Dance Chronicle 37:1. Meira’s doctoral dissertation on Carmen Amaya, Border Trespasses: The Gypsy Mask and Carmen Amaya's Flamenco Dance, is a widely-used resource within the English-speaking Flamenco community: it contains over thirty five interviews with figures such as Diego Castellon, Leo and Antonia Amaya. She teaches at and at the Fashion Institute of Technology; she has taught at and guest lectured at Sarah Lawrence College, Duke University, NYU, Flamenco Festival International in Albuquerque, Ballet Hispanico, Bryn Mawr, Princeton, and Smith College.
La Meira has been first dancer in Carlota Santana Flamenco Vivo, Fred Darsow Dance, and Elba Hévia y Vaca's Pasión y Arte, performing throughout North America in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Jacob's Pillow. Meira has been featured in several documentaries and has been awarded choreography grants from Pew Charitable Trusts, American Dance Festival, and the New York State Council on the Arts. She choreographed “Carmen” under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, and the first staging of the 1915 version of Manuel de Falla's “Amor Brujo” since Pastora Imperio performed it in that year, along with the rarely staged opera “La Vida Breve” for the Manhattan School of Music. The New York Times called the production “one of the more audacious, intriguing operatic undertakings to hit a New York stage this season.”
As a scholar, K. Meira Goldberg holds an MFA in choreography as well as an EdD in dance history from Temple University. She is currently working on a book titled Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco, forthcoming from Oxford University Press. She co-curated the exhibit "100 Years of Flamenco in New York" at the New York Public Library for the Performing Art at the Lincoln Center, and co-authored the catalog. She is co-editor of Flamenco on the Global Stage: Historical, Critical, and Theoretical Perspectives (McFarland, forthcoming 2015). Her article "Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco" is in Dance Chronicle 37:1. Meira’s doctoral dissertation on Carmen Amaya, Border Trespasses: The Gypsy Mask and Carmen Amaya's Flamenco Dance, is a widely-used resource within the English-speaking Flamenco community: it contains over thirty five interviews with figures such as Diego Castellon, Leo and Antonia Amaya. She teaches at and at the Fashion Institute of Technology; she has taught at and guest lectured at Sarah Lawrence College, Duke University, NYU, Flamenco Festival International in Albuquerque, Ballet Hispanico, Bryn Mawr, Princeton, and Smith College.