Read my new interview at the Dance Complex blog.
Yosi Karahashi
Dancer. Teacher. Choreographer. Dress designer.
Yosi left Japan to fulfill her dream of studying flamenco and ended up staying in Spain for 17 years, studying at the legendary flamenco school Amor de Dios in Madrid, with renowned artists like Merche Esmeralda, Manuel Reyes, Immaculada Ortega, Truco, Maria Juncal, Adrian Sanchez, la Lupi, Farruquito and Antonio Canales.
She started her professional career performing in many tablaos around Spain and other countries such as Japan, Morocco, Portugal, France, Cyprus and Canada.
Yosi moved to Boston in 2012, and since then has been a very active teacher and performer, collaborating with many participants of the Greater Boston dance scene, such as The Dance Complex, Green Street Studios, The Boston Foundation, The New England Conservatory, Deborah Mason School of Dance, Jose Mateo Dance Theatre, Peter Dimuro's company, Celebrity Series of Boston and Boston Landmarks Orchestra among many others. She also acted as an artistic adviser and choreographer for skater on the Theater on Ice in Boston especially for an international contest in France 2019 (in which they got silver).
Besides her work as a solo artist, she is performing with Boston based flamenco companies such as Flamenco Boston and Flamenco Dance Project.
As well as being trained in pure flamenco, Yosi has developed a very personal dance style around fusion of flamenco with other types of dance, including pop and Japanese traditional music, which was showcased when she was invited to perform as a Catalyst artist by the Dance Complex on the year of its 25th anniversary.
Yosi firmly believes that Flamenco is not just a dance, but a way of life, there should be no limits for expression and that it should be shared with everybody. With this in mind, she started to use sign language in her Flamenco performances. For Yosi the art of flamenco is a way to communicate.
Yosi founded Flamenco Therapy, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing flamenco to those who need it the most: the elderly, the sick, and children who cannot access music and dance themselves. Also collaborated with Kara Fili at the Dance Complex and Citywide Cambridge Senior Center bringing flamenco to dancers over 60 or with limited mobility at the Age-friendly dance class which provides "senior citizens" (as a person over the age of 60 with a wide range of emotional, physical and learning disabilities) a specialized, fun and engaging flamenco experience.