“Dance is a journey within,
an exploration, and endless discovery. Flamenco gives me the freedom to express depths within me through its rhythms and movement.”
- Ela Razon, Flamenco Dancer and Choreographer
Born in Manila, Philippines, Ela Razon began training in modern dance at age 10. She became fascinated with rhythms in her early teens, when she first encountered indigenous tribes, and soon after, witnessed their dance and culture in the northern mountains of the Philippines.
She was later drawn to flamenco upon discovering the art form’s driving rhythms, which sparked the same primal energy that stirred within her in the presence of indigenous people.
Ela moved to the U.S. in 2003 and has since studied and performed with the companies of Natalia Monteleon and Edwin Aparicio. She has also been a regular performer in the weekly tablao circuit across the DC–Maryland–Virginia region for over 15 years, experimenting with new ideas and honing her improvisational instincts in the tablao’s unpredictable live environment.
She trains for extended periods in Seville, Spain, to stay close to flamenco’s living pulse. She has taught at Arte Flamenco Studio, American Dance Institute, and The Washington Ballet’s summer intensive, and collaborates with Ziva’s Spanish Dance Ensemble and Washington Performing Arts to bring flamenco to schools and youth audiences.
Ela produced her first work, Dos Almas, in 2019 in collaboration with Anna Menendez, Ricardo Marlow, and Yiyi Orozco at the Atlas Performing Arts Center. What began as an impulse to express revealed the possibility of building entire worlds, and led to her co-founding the flamenco company, SonDeBaril, in 2022 with musician Yiyi Orozco. As a dancer and choreographer, Ela has co-created three original works that give form and voice to lived realities through the powerful language of flamenco.
