AWARDS
NOMINATED IN 2006 FOR
"MOST OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL DANCER" BY THE ISADORA DUNCAN DANCE AWARDS
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FINALIST PRIZE IN 2012 FOR "CREATIVE PROMISE IN DANCE "
BY THE VILCEK FOUNDATION
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NOMINATED 3 TIMES IN 2012 WITH HER PRODUCTION "JUNCAL STREET"
BY THE ISADORA DUNCAN DANCE AWARDS FOR
"MOST OUTSTANDING MUSIC / EMSEMBLE / INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE
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NOMINATED IN 2015 FOR "BEST ENSEMBLE" IN"LA TRAVIATA" WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA BY THE ISADORA DUNCAN DANCE AWARDS
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REVIEWS
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"Ara’s eyes are penetrating, gaging our worthiness. Flirting with abandon, she demands our focus, earning it with her regal demeanor, syncopated stomping feet and gorgeous movement, as carriage, arms, and fingers articulate the finer points of each dynamic pose.
For the entire hour Ara is fully-present, fiery, sultry, and defiant. She never speaks, yet her expressive face speaks volumes. [...] Her Lilith is a triumph of artistry and self-actualization."
Review of Lilith , Jen Norris 2024
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'I was mesmerized, not only with Ara’s performance, but also with the totality of the production [...] I was staggered at the intricacy with which Lilith wove its ambiance, to say nothing of the costumer’s skill in supporting a flamenco artist whose stature is major, and whose sparing appearances makes her presence and the productions she conceives so memorable."
Review of Lilith, Renee Renouf 2024
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"Fanny Ara stepped onto the stage, shawl wrapped around her shoulders, with a torso that seemed to have a mind of its own. She was absolutely captivating. She brought a unique intensity to her dancing that was mixed with intricate rhythms being made by her feet and the sultry and sinewy movements of her hands and arms. The shawl, with long fringes, added another dimension to her seductive torso and beautiful pictures she created throughout the dance."
Leah Bass-Baylis, LA Dance Chronicle 2024
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"For “Bolero”, When Ara made her calm, regal entrance in a white bata de cola (skirts with long trains) the audience gasped."
REVIEW: HOLLYWOOD BOWL – SYMPHONIC TANGO & FLAMENCO By Deirdre Towers | Aug 16, 2024
"The Spirit of Spain featured six string players and harpsichordist Dongsok Shin, playing alongside Huizinga and Coulter, who perform internationally as the duo Fire and Grace. Fanny Ara, a small but mighty Basque goddess of dance, mesmerized with her fiery and supple grace , her flamenco intensity, and the ineffable magic of her presence"
Barbara Rose Shuler, Monterey Herald, 2021
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"Then, as if rising from the near-dead, Ara found and turned up the voltage, her long hair whipping as she stormed the stage in a fury. Her feet hit the stage in a cascade of flamenco steps that spoke their own articulate language of rage and pleading, now defiantly emphatic, now whisperingly soft. Even the heavy breathing the audience could hear when she paused seemed summoned up from some deep inner space. Pride and fear, memory and determination poured forth in the dramatic highlight of the evening."
Steven Winn, SF Chronicle, 2019
"Tattooed", by Sintonia Dance Company.
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"Ara is a fine-boned, delicate looking dancer but through the manner in which she interpreted Newman's "God Song", surely one of the most sardonically dark pop tunes, she became a huge Wigmanesque figure of despair. Abruptly dropping into a crouch, she looked like Sisyphus' rock had squashed her. Grabbing her belly, she tried to hold in spilling despair. Dressed in black velvet, Ara made particularly imaginative use of her expressive arms. Windmilling they became the insistent engine that kept her going, in angular trajectories they seemed to reach for whatever was out there."
Rita Feliciano's review of "Canciones"
November 04, 2008
Flamenco—Looking for a New Road

"Fanny Ara is only 25 according to her MySpace page, which should disqualify her from dancing the kind of flamenco that makes you sit up and take notice, but that doesn't stop her. I have watched many people do flamenco, but Ara is one of the few who *is* what she's dancing. There's absolutely no separation between her movement and her fierce soul, which is exactly the way things should be. You can (and should) see her with Yaelisa's excellent Caminos Flamencos. You should also take advantage of the one night that Ara will bring her own company to S.F. She is joined by dancer Melissa Cruz, Spanish musicians Jesus Montoya and Vicente Griego, the Bay Area's Jason McGuire "El Rubio" and New York pianist Gonzalo Grau. It may be hot or freezing outside, but it will definitely be scorching in the theater. "
Kitty Luce, special to SFGate,2008

"always elegant, the reach of her arms generous, frequently evoking unseen forces, body occasionally concave , legs striding in earthy response yet with vulgarity absent, fingers spread in exclamation to the rhythms, leaving the stage abruptly, provoking a gasp of delight."
Renee Renouf, 2008
"The ridiculously sexy and sensuous Fanny Ara (think Salma Hayek) offered us a dance which was defiant, seductive, searching and scorching hot – and WAY too short."
Tony Frankel , Stage and Cinema, 2013
"Any day that we fall in love is a good day; it doesn't matter whether the object of our adoration is a boy from far away whose face we saw on a website or a dancer or singer who moves and touches us with their beauty and talent. My newest love is Fanny Ara, a gorgeous Flamenco artist who opened the evening with a pair of resplendant solos that literally made my heart race. Her first soloRomance was a slow and very personal contemporary 'echo' of the Flamenco style: I immediately fell under her spell - so alluring, so poised and self-confident, even in the dance's most reflective nuances. Then a vivid pure Flamenco solo, Soler, in which the captivating expressive qualities of Fanny's upper body, arms and hands - even her neck - mesmerized us while her footwork dazzled both the eye and the ear. Guitarist Jason MacGuire provided fabulously colorful playing in both works, joined in Soler by the vocalist Jose Cortes, whose slightly raspy quality had its own sexual edge. In the course of her 15-minute performance, Fanny Ara soared into the upper-most echelon of dance artists I have witnessed over the years."
Philip Gardner
Pivotal Works, Joyce Theater, NYC 2012
"I have to go back to the flamenco dancing and especially Ara and Nuñez. The two lead dancers start the show, dancing to the third theme of the overture in gorgeous evocations of passion. They return integrated into the tavern scene but also at the top of the second act. Their style of flamenco is rife with modern dance to beautiful effect. For this show they wisely have chosen to accentuate the arms and upper body choreography not to step too heavily on the toes of Bizet. It is as if they have channeled all the sensual longing of Carmen, and even the gypsy’s powers of sorcery. Like Circe, Ara’s drops low in her legs and completes full Martha Grahamesque contractions, as if pulling Nuñez into her, then later rising into high-centered gravitational turns, arms encircle arms as they twirl close in synchronicity. Kudos not only to these exceptional dancers but to the choreographic work of Sara Erde in the opera."
Susan Galbraith,DC Theatre Scene, 2015
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"Ara alternated spotlight time with Gutierrez -- she the writhing anaconda, he the rampaging bull. In a tight, unruffled black dress, she undulated with wonderful fluidity rather than the usual lusty heat, magnetic in her own contrasting style."
​Greg Burk, Metal Jazz