Award winning flamenco artist Katerina Tomás (aka Cypress HIgh School Graduate, class of 1970, Katherine/Kathy Thomas) has studied and performed flamenco dance for 25 years, and is a professional flamenco dancer, singer, choreographer, teacher, and lecturer. She has choreographed and performed Spanish classical and flamenco dances for her own companies, L.A. Olé Flamenco Dance and Mojácar Flamenco, and for dance soloists throughout the United States. She has taught flamenco, Spanish regional, and classical Spanish dance and music in California at UC Irvine, UCLA, Orange Coast College, Cypress College, Woodbury University and Los Angeles City College, and was in residence at Brigham Young University as guest choreographer and lecturer.

She has studied and performed flamenco dance with giants in the field, including the legendary Gypsy dancer Rosa Montoya, the nuevo flamenco artists Antonio Canales, Roberto Amaral, Alejandro Granados, Eva “La Yerbabuena” Garrido and Joaquin Grilo, and with the Spanish Gypsies of Granada and Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain. With her partner, internationally recognized flamenco guitarist Stephen Dick, she has toured the United States and Canada, performed in Mojácar and Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, and was featured on Spanish television during the Sur Jerez Flamenco Competition in 2001 where Mojácar Flamenco received 2nd prize and international recognition for their recording, “Naranjas Amargas.”

The recipient of numerous awards, she received five grants from the Spanish Ministry of Culture for her choreography and performances. She received the L.A. Treasures Award from the City of Los Angeles in 2004 for the flamenco music and dance concert “Cantan los Fuegos – the fires sing – an evening celebrating the music and poetry of Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca.” She holds the Master of Arts Degree in Dance from UCLA and has written scholarly and popular articles on flamenco and classical Spanish dance, and is a writer and critic for the Dance Research Journal. She has lectured on flamenco music and dance, modern dance, Spanish Gypsy culture and Federico García Lorca at UCLA, UC Irvine, University of Texas at Arlington, University of New Mexico, Columbia University/The New School of New York, and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.