Triana Project Members
We are a group of professional flamenco musicians, singers and dancers based in Toronto, Canada. Coming from diverse cultural and artistic backgrounds, we all share a common passion for flamenco and dedicate ourselves to bringing a captivating, authentic and unforgettable experience to our audience. We undertake every artistic venture with a goal of finding and expressing our own personal interpretation of each flamenco style; while at the same time researching and understanding the history of its evolution and the timeless sentiment behind it.
Alison MacDonald
Toronto flamenco dancer Alison MacDonald “La Ali” has background in a variety of dance styles with a concentration on percussive dance forms such as tap and Irish dance. Alison studied flamenco in Spain where she spent 3 years between the cities of Malaga, Granada and Sevilla under the tutelage of artists such as Soraya Clavijo, Javier Cruz, La Mora, and Pilar Ortega, to name a few.
Alison has performed in numerous venues and events as a soloist and has been a member of Compañía Carmen Romero. In 2018, she joined the Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company and was nominated for a Dora Mavor award for best dance ensemble in the same year. Alison is co-founder of Triana Project and contemporary flamenco dance collective, ViDanza.
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Alison enjoys teaching flamenco to students of all levels and is available to teach private or group classes.
Photo by Levent Erutku
Iryna Gordon
Drawn to dance, music and rhythm since early childhood in her native Ukraine, Iryna Gordon started dancing flamenco in 2001 in Vancouver, where she joined Rosario Ancer’s Centro Flamenco professional training program. Her passion for the art of flamenco has been growing ever since.
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Iryna continues to pursue her flamenco studies in Toronto, where she has been training under Carmen Romero, both as a dance company member and a solo artist. Iryna has performed on numerous occasions with Compañía Carmen Romero as well as other local artists in venues ranging from intimate restaurant settings to theatrical productions. She has studied with flamenco masters such as Sara de Luis, Carmen de Torres, Alicia Marquez, Rafael Campallo, Joaquin Grilo, Maribel Ramos “La Zambra”, Concha Jareño, Juana Amaya, Domingo Ortega, Olga Pericet and Javier Latorre.
Photo by Levent Erutku
Photo by Hervé Leblay
Benjamin Barrile
Rooted in the traditions of flamenco, guitarist Benjamin Barrile prefers to speak through his instrument, expressing emotion without words. A remarkable soloist, Benjamin also excels as both accompanist and composer. His compositions are rich, complex and progressive without straying too far from Spanish gypsy tradition that stretches back hundreds of years.
In 2000, Benjamin set off to Spain for the first time, in search of flamenco and what would be the most self-defining journey of his life so far. He traveled to what is known as one of the major centres of flamenco in Spain today, Jerez de la Frontera, a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, where he studied primarily under maestros Manuel Lozano “El Carbonero”, and Gerardo Nuñez. Upon his return home, Benjamin would then seek out more formal training in the art of flamenco through Miguel de la Bastide.
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In recent years, Benjamin has performed recorded with many artists including The Café Olé, a multi-award winning group that incorporates a unique mix of traditional flamenco and jazz, internationally renowned Rumba Flamenco group Gustavo Scolieri & Puente del Diablo, and vocalist/composer Amanda Martinez just to name a few. In addition to leading his own group, El Mosaico, Benjamin is also a resident guitarist at Carmen Romero's School of Flamenco Dance Arts, and The Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Company based in Toronto. Benjamin has also appeared on numerous television and radio broadcasts.