Lourdes Elias 

Lourdes (“Lou”) P. Elias has been the Artistic Director of the Spanish Dance 
Theatre/Society since 1993 as appointed by Dame Marina Keet upon her retirement. 
Ms. Elias was the Executive Director of the Oxford Academy of the Arts, a 
non-profit arts education organization located in Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, 
since 1997. She has performed in London, Mexico City, New York, Philadelphia, 
Louisiana, Miami, throughout the eastern coast of the United States and Washington 
Metropolitan area. Ms. Elias began her ballet and Spanish dance training, at the 
age of 6, in Miami with Sylvia Medina Goudi. Her teachers have included Dame Marina 
Keet, Spanish neoclassical with Paco Romero, Alberto Lorca and Lupe Gomez of the 
National Ballet of Spain, Flamenco with Tomas de Madrid and La Tati, and Jotas with 
Pedro Azorin. Ms. Elias began studying modern dance (with an emphasis on Martha 
Graham technique) and jazz at age 13 at Fusion Dance Company in Miami, Florida. Ms. 
Elias holds an Instructora de Baile (IdB) degree from the Spanish Dance Society 
International and a BA degree in International Relations / Economics from The 
American University.

Ms. Elias has taught Spanish Dance at the International Spanish Dance Society 
Summer School in London, England, and has performed at Covent Garden as a Guest 
Artist. In July 2003, Ms. Elias performed at the Orpheum Theatre in New Orleans for 
a UNESCO sponsored GALA Dance Performance celebrating the 200th Anniversary of the 
Louisiana Purchase. Ms. Elias has taught at Vassar College for the Royal Academy of 
Dancing; at Maryland University for the Royal Academy of Dancing US Mid-Atlantic 
Region, the Maryland Youth Ballet, the Kirov Academy, the Washington Ballet, the 
Arlington Center for Dance, the Oxford Academy, New Hope Academy in Maryland and 
most recently at Joy of Motion Dance Center -- Atlas Performing Arts Center. She 
has also traveled to Havana, Cuba and trained and mentored several teachers in the 
Spanish Dance Society syllabus/method. She regularly conducts masterclasses and 
organizes performances for public and private schools in the Metropolitan 
Washington, DC area. Ms. Elias was formerly a member of the Georgetown Dance 
Theatre, a Modern Dance Company emphasizing the techniques/styles of Merce 
Cunningham, Erik Hawkins and Jose Limon. Ms. Elias also performs locally with the 
Washington National Opera (acting as Dance Captain), Gala Hispanic Theatre and the 
Mount Vernon In-Series.

Ms. Elias with SDS Co-Artistic Director Jaime Coronado, has choreographed and 
performed pieces from Bizet’s Carmen presented at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall 
and accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Elias was commissioned to 
choreograph a production of Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Blood Wedding/Bodas de Sangre” 
for a joint Smithsonian Institution/Gala Hispanic Theatre production and regularly 
choreographs for local theatre production companies.